My 365 day journey starts tomorrow, July 1, 2012.

What journey?  Well, I am going to  attempt to make as many of my daily purchases, entertainment, food, groceries, etc for my family of four from independent, local businesses in New Albany, IN as I can for 365 days, and anyone that would like to follow along and encourage, comment, jeer, vex, pontificate, advise, admonish, make suggestions, or tease is welcome to share their thoughts.

I live in a city that has a population of about 36,000, and in the past five years, we've come a long way in our journey to become the city we want to be...and we've got a ways to go. Part of the efforts to help our city grow and become a vibrant, thriving environment for its independent and local businesses has to come from education of both our business owners and our community.   There are thousands of reasons why it's important to buy from your independent and local businesses- and if you've never really thought about it, I'm going to link you right here , for starters.

But we have a year to educate, and I don't want to overwhelm you on the first day- heck, the day before- the journey even starts.

So let me start out by saying this from the beginning:  I will fail, and I will probably fail hard and often.

Perhaps that shouldn't be the beginning, but I do want to that to be very, very clear.

One of the challenges to start with is that there is no agreed upon definition for 'buying local'.  Even 'buying independent' is somewhat fuzzy and slippery.  Starting out, our definition of independent business is going to be one that is built from the ground up by someone in our community. They receive no outside funding for advertising and marketing, and a large portion of their business if they do have multiple locations is still done in our defined area.   A local business is similar; but, we would also include some franchises that are also owned and operated by people in our community.

Even with those, there's still the regional challenge.  I can buy from an independent business in Jeffersonville, IN, or Louisville, KY, but still not be buying local.(Or hell, am I?)  Which becomes more important?  Do you simply buy from independent sources, or also local sources that may or may not be independent?  If there's nowhere to buy what you're looking for, then what?

I've been thinking about all of this for many months.  Starting out, I think the process will go something like this:

Can I get it at an independent business in New Albany?
Can I get it at a local business in New Albany?
Can I get it at an independent or local business in the surrounding communities?
Is there a more 'regional' business where I can get it?
If I can't, can I get it at a box store that at least employs people locally?
If I can't, do I buy it online?

Those may be the questions to ask, but what's the reality of life?  Life may state that we need something, but our independent businesses are not open.  I know myself:  I am very impulsive, and my impulsivity is rarely confined to traditional independent business hours or locations.

At the end of one year, I'd like to know what we CAN get from independent, local, and regional sources.  I'd like to know how much impact one family can have on a local economy.  I'd like to know what percentage of buying can reasonably be expected for others in the community, and how much effort they'd need to dedicate towards making that happen.

So...let the journey begin.