Better weird locally than the fiscal wagon train to Bentonville.

Longtime readers will recall NAC's "weird" disclaimer: New Albany could not be kept weird until it was first made weird. Many people have been working toward this noble goal, and we're getting there.

The part of this that continues to fascinate me is the "play by the rules" sub-sect of the Little People Church, which seldom sees fit to acknowledge the high cost of low price at Wally World when we take up these discussions. They're generally the ones who can afford to be senisible, but won't for reasons of ear-splitting ideology.

The rule? It is appropriately quoted below:

"Dollars spent with locally-owned businesses go further in the community."

Learn it, wee ones. Here's the article.

Keeping Southern Indiana weird, by Leslea M. Harmon (News and Tribune).

Weird is the new cool. You’ve seen the bumper sticker “Keep Louisville Weird,” but what does it mean, and how can Southern Indiana benefit from the idea? Should local consumers be keeping it weird on this side of the river? ...

... Times are indeed changing, and the current economic climate is perhaps the biggest change of all. Whether or not Southern Indiana adopts a hip slogan summarizing the importance of shopping locally, facts are facts: dollars spent with locally-owned businesses go further in the community.

According to a report from the American Independent Business Alliance, each dollar spent at a local independent merchant goes three or more times further back into the local economy, compared to a dollar spent at chain-owned businesses.