Walter's Work Day

Over the past couple of months, I have taken a bit of time from my schedule to act as a 'volunteer' at local restaurants, retail and services. That's the plan anyway. In fact, due to a family bout of seasonal illness, I have only been to three so far - Take A Bite, Studio 11, and Sweet Mosaic at Lucky's Cafe.

The idea is to spend some time with our merchants, elbow to elbow so to speak - and literally. Washing dishes, mixing ingredients, and serving custormers, all part of the daily work of Tremont.

It's been fun. The merchants are proud of what they do, and are pleased to share it with me, an outsider of sorts. Although I have organized merchant meetings, assisted with events like Taste of Tremont, and gone to bat for merchants when it comes to a zoning or design review, I am still on the other side of the counter. Like walking out of the audience and onto the stage mid-performance, it's a bit of a weird experience. By exchanging my typical role of either consumer or quasi-bureaucrat for that of merchant, I gain an entirely new understanding of their process and experience.

By and large, they have fun. These are entrepreneurial folk who are not afraid of hard work, but after all, they are in it because it's not like working for a large corporation. Clothing, attitudes and humor may be casual, but there is a strict sense of professionalism and a pride in doing things right.

What worries me is that the experience of being a small-scale entrepreneur is challenged in our country - due to big forces like globalism, corporate consolidation and the rise of the automobile as the almost exclusive mode of travel for shopping, local retail has lost pharmacy, hardware and even bookstores. So what remains is specialty retail in Tremont, like boutique shopping, unique dining, and art galleries.

These are all high-risk enterprises. Only recently have banks, lenders and the government come to understand their value.

We'd better hope they do, otherwise, 'Welcome to Walmart' may be the only chance we have to express our individuality - not.

Big box retail has it's place, I suppose, although I still believe we have lost more than we have gained. But that's debatable. Even Andrew Young, champion of the poor, has come to sing the praises of big box. I can't dismiss his claims.

In the meanwhile, you can read about my experiences with local retailers here, in 'Take a Bite of Tremont,' 'Yoga Happy Hour,' and 'Sweet & Lucky.'