Plaid, chartreuse or aquamarine Friday, just not black, because economic oppression isn't entitled to its own language.

“Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation”
-- Angela Carter, novelist

Plaid Friday still exists.

The name Plaid Friday was conceived from the idea of weaving the individual threads of small businesses together to create a strong fabric that celebrates the diversity and creativity of independent businesses. Plaid Friday is the relaxing and enjoyable alternative to the big box store “Black Friday,” and is designed to promote both local and independently owned businesses during the holidays.

Plaid Friday was conceptualized in Oakland, CA, a city known for strong shop local campaigns. Plaid Friday strives to bring back the days when shopping for friends and family during the holidays was a pleasurable and leisurely activity.

There are many more small independent businesses in New Albany than in 2012, when I wrote the words that follow, way down below on this page.

At the time, some of us were laboring mightily to create an independent business alliance based on principle set forth by organizations like the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and the best local example right across the river: Louisville Independent Business Alliance.

Why? LIBA's mission statement explains.

The mission of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) is to preserve the unique community character of the Metro Louisville area by promoting locally-owned, independent businesses and to educate citizens on the value of purchasing locally. In order to pursue LIBA's mission, the organization will focus on:

• Informing citizens of the value provided by locally owned businesses, including their importance to the local economy, culture, and social fabric. The goal is to encourage area residents to view themselves as citizens -- as members of a community rather than merely as consumers.
• Offering group branding, promotion and advertising to LIBA members to elevate the individual and collective profiles of locally owned businesses in order to provide marketing and exposure advantages chains routinely enjoy.
• Creating strong relationships with local government and media in order to inform local decision-making and give voice to the locally owned independent business community, and to promote policies that support community-rooted enterprises.

Can locally-owned, independent, small and family-owned businesses compete and remain viable in an economy increasingly rigged to favor corporate players?

It's a good question, and there are a thousand potential answers, but there is a necessary condition to be fulfilled.

THESE BUSINESSES MUST BE UNIFIED AND THEY MUST ACT IN CONCERT.

We've never achieved this in New Albany. We've never come close. Independent operators seem to believe that someone else will represent their interests; perhaps local government, or Develop New Albany; maybe the Horseshoe Foundation, or the man in the moon.

Independent local businesses have invested hugely in the city. The scale of their investment dwarfs that of any of the preceding entities, but indies simply do not have clout commensurate with the sheer volume of their investments.

No one else is going to do it for indies. Indies have to do it themselves. Being informed is an absolute prerequisite. Here is what I wrote in 2012.

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It's all about educating consumers, but this year more than ever before, it occurred to me that independent small business owners themselves also are prime beneficiaries of an ongoing educational component of any Buy Local campaign.

We can begin by rejecting alien terminology. Words actually matter. If you are a small indie business owner, or if you support the panoply of indie business concepts, you must recognize that "Black Friday" is adverse terminology. It is degrading materialist Big Box Speak, intended to inculcate a sense of mega-chain empowerment. Consider refraining from its usage next year, and train your employees to think and speak in like fashion.

Eventually, we'll retrain the nation, but we have to start somewhere: With ourselves. Language is a good start for revolution, don't you think?

"Signature" taco walks are nice and all, but here area few random ideas among many that orgs like DNA might embrace to grow downtown every day, not every now and then.

The Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) has drawn up a strategic plan. LIBA stages the occasional event, but also pursues programs to enhance indie business prospects on a daily basis.

How LIBA plans to broaden the ‘buy local’ message, by Caitlin Bowling (Insider Louisville)

 ... “The ‘buy local’ message isn’t just about buying local, but it’s also about how buying local affects our community overall,” (Jennifer) Rubenstein said.

The key words in the following passage are "community leaders." Who are they, and are they really?

How Cities Can Save Small Shops, by Karen Loew (CityLab)

 ... Meanwhile, cities around the U.S. and the world are recognizing the value of homegrown retail and are enacting policies to enrich the frequently poor soil where small businesses attempt to grow. That’s because municipal leaders are realizing that the basis of any community is its sense of place—its singular look and feel, roots and aspirations—and local retail is essential to expressing that. Shops are part of culture—in addition, of course, to being the places where you can fix a shoe, find a dress, buy a coffee, and chit-chat ...

... This is the moment for mom-and-pop shops to assert their value proposition, says Olivia LaVecchia, a research associate at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C. “There’s really a failure to recognize what a powerhouse small businesses are,” says LaVecchia, citing their interdependency with other desirable local outcomes, such as maintenance of affordable housing and jobs.

A recent report from ILSR advocates six policy approaches that any locality can apply. These ideas lend themselves to being customized ...

The six points are summarized below, and it can be readily seen how an activist City Hall working with local independent businesses might devise and implement a customized program of work.

Of course, such a program by necessity would have to be designed to assist businesses first, and City Hall's re-election prospects later -- and both City Hall and an organization like DNA would have to be committed to daily results and not periodic event planning.

Affordable Space: How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)

1. Broaden Ownership
2. Reduce the Power Imbalance in Landlord-Tenant Negotiations
3. Zone for a Local Business Environment
4. Set Aside Space for Local Businesses in New Development
5. Create a Preference for Local Businesses in Publicly Owned Buildings
6. Recognize Businesses as Cultural Landmarks

When it comes to owning an independent local business in an economy designed and subsidized to exalt big business over small, it simply has to be about every day, not every now and then.

LIBA's annual Buy Local Fair is this Sunday at the Water Tower.

It's time again for Louisville's Buy Local Fair, as assembled annually by the Louisville Independent Business Alliance.

LIBA will host our 7th annual Buy Local Fair on Sunday, May 17. The fair will host a variety of local businesses, musicians, artists and craftspeople, chefs, community organizers and farmers. All locally-owned independent businesses and individuals are encouraged to participate as vendors. Check out all the fun!

Here's an overview at Insider Louisville: More than 180 booths will populate Sunday’s Buy Local Fair at the Water Tower, by Sara Havens.

LIBA's Buy Local Fair is at Water Tower Park today, and NABC beers will be there.

Coming on the heels of NABC's dominating 11-keg performance at RiverRoots on Friday and Saturday, we're equally delighted to be a part of today's 6th annual Buy Local Fair.

Louisville Independent Business Alliance’s annual Buy Local Fair helps Keep Louisville Weird. It is held from noon to 6:00 p.m. at Louisville Water Tower Park, and NABC will be on hand along with other Louisville-area breweries.

Interestingly, some news portals have identified the Buy Local Fair's beer pouring component as being that of the Kentucky Guild of Brewers, while LIBA's own event page omits mention of craft beer entirely.

That's strange, but rest assured that as dues-paying members of long standing in LIBA, and consistent daily supporters of the independent business ideal for more than a quarter century, our Black & Blue Grass and Beak's Best Bitter will be there to represent our metro neighborhood.

NABC supports Plaid Friday, and here's why.

NABC is a founding member of New Albany First, which is our city’s independent business association (IBA). It is the New Albany version of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA), which encourages you to Keep Louisville Weird, and is dedicated to encouraging the public to support independently owned, small local businesses.

IBAs accomplish this through three primary focus areas:

1. Public education about the greater overall value local independents often can provide (even when they are not the cheapest) as well as the vital economic, social and cultural role independent businesses play in the community.

2. Facilitating cooperative promotion, advertising, purchasing, sharing of skills and resources and other activities to help local businesses gain economies of scale and compete more effectively.

3. Creating a strong and uncompromised voice to speak for local independents in the local government and media while engaging citizens in guiding the future of their community through democratic action.

NABC and our brethren sink or swim as locally oriented independents, and many of us have pledged support via New Albany First. Happily, the approaching holiday season provides a perfect opportunity to put principles into action.

We all know that “Black Friday” (November 29) is the biggest sales day of the year for big boxes and multinational chain stores -- the ones where the money promptly flees town for corporate headquarters worldwide. In response to media hype and saturation advertising, which steer so much trade to the country's biggest, richest and largest companies on “Black Friday,” the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), of which New Albany First is a member, promotes Shift Your Shopping, of which Plaid (as opposed to Black) Friday is a component.

Instead of Black Friday it’s PLAID FRIDAY! Shift Your Shopping and wear plaid as you shop on Friday to remind yourself and others to make the 10% Shift. The 10% Shift encourages you to shift 10% of your holiday purchases from non-local businesses to Local Independents (also called indies or locally owned and independent businesses). Making the shift to local independents is one way we can build sustainable economies and create jobs in our local community.

It’s simple. You're not being asked to go cold turkey -- just allocate a percentage to independent local businesses, and learn what they can do for you. New Albany First and LIBA can help locate indies. Local independent business thank you for your support.

Reposted from the NABC web site. I'm doing DNA's job for them v.v. two-way streets; might as well serve as the mouthpiece of the IBA while I'm at it. Just joking. I think.

LIBA's Buy Local Fair is Saturday, May 11 (tomorrow).

I'm working the Trash Force's Honor Mother Earth festival in New Albany tomorrow. Meanwhile, David will monitor NABC's presence at the Buy Local Fair, and later in the evening, Tony Beard leads the NABC team at the Derby City Roller Girls bout. It makes me tired just writing it ... and next weekend is Louisville Loves Mountains and RiverRoots music event in Madison, Indiana.

Damn. Event season finally is upon us. Time to get to work.

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BUY LOCAL FAIR THIS SATURDAY!

Sat. May 11, 2pm-8pm
Louisville Water Tower, 3005 River Road
Free admission (parking $5/vehicle, free bicycle valet)
www.keeplouisvilleweird.com/buylocalfair 

Celebrate local merchants and farmers at the Buy Local Fair!

* Over 150 vendors, farmers & food providers
* H2O Kids Zone (2pm-6pm)
* Craft Beer and Bourbon tent
* Performances from Nerves Junior (6:30pm), 30 Spokes (4pm) and Gideon's Rifle (2:30pm)
* Cooking Competition between Edward Lee's new restaurant Milkwood and RYE on Market
* Guided tours of Water Tower (3pm & 4pm)
* After party at Milkwood (9pm-10:30pm, tickets are free but must be picked up at the Fair, includes a complimentary drink and food)

Thanks to event partner Grasshopppers Distribution and ...

LIBA video: "Keg Liquors Reason 2 and 3."

Todd Antz of Keg Liquors is a video star, sharing some of his reasons for being a member of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance. NABC is, too. Maybe some day we ... nah, that's not possible. It would offend DNA.

Why buy local? LIBA provides a helpful and timely answer.

(From LIBA)

Why Buy Local?

TO KEEP IT WEIRD: Locally-owned businesses are one-of-a-kind enterprises that are vital to the unique character of the Louisville Metro community.

TO KEEP YOUR $ LOCAL:

Read the rest of the story here.

LIBA's annual Brewfest shines a spotlight on independent local businesses.

Louisville Independent Business Alliance's 3rd annual Louisville Brewfest was held on Friday, July 1, at Mellwood Arts Center. NABC and the other Louisville-area breweries participated, as did Kentucky Ale (Lexington) and Upland (Bloomington). I've posted photos here.

It's a good thing so many breweries were there, and that LIBA purchased so much beer. NABC alone depleted eight full kegs in roughly five hours of serving, in pour sizes ranging from 3-oz to 12-oz to 16-oz. It was very, very crowded, but folks were patient and fun-loving throughout, and LIBA now has a very good problem: How to grow the Brewfest in coming years, and where to do it.

The exciting part to me is not so much the beer we poured. It's who the festival is designed to benefit: Independent small businesses who belong to LIBA. The energy at such an event derives more from an appreciation and understanding of buying and thinking locally than whatever beers happen to be pouring. It's a gratifyingly futurist vibe that simultaneously connects all of us, consumer or purveyor, with our collective pasts.

In an elemental way that McDonald's and Wal-Mart can never, ever achieve, it promotes individuality and possibility, and it makes us real. If I did not embrace this ethos, I wouldn't bother being in business.

NABC is happy to belong to both LIBA and NA First (see subsequent article), and the NA Confidential blog is equally delighted to espouse these genuine principles of sustainability and local action whenever it can.

New Albany's local and independent business sector: Is it awake?

The Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) moved its second annual brewfest fundraiser to a July slot last night in order to coincide with Independents Week, which is a nationwide effort to raise consciousness about the undisputed merits of buying and sourcing from local, independent businesses.

Earlier this week, Jeff celebrated the occasion by providing these two posts:

Independently speaking...

Learning about economic localization.

You’ll note that the second of these posts features a video link to the National Main Street Program.

It’s hard to be much clearer than this link. Main Street organizations and “buy local/independent” movements are intended to be natural pairings and fundamental pillars of the Main Street approach. Jeffersonville's Main Street program has been doing it for years.

As such, am I the only person in town wondering why this isn’t happening in New Albany?

And, furthermore: Are local independent businesses every going to get the big picture, stop waiting for leadership from entities who have no intention of providing it, and get the ball rolling?

Not trying to bug you. They're just a few thoughts on a weekend supposedly having to do with independence. Will we ever put these principles into action at the grassroots, the only place where individuals really can control matters?

Local independence in and around New Albany on Independence Day weekend.

At least the weather looks to be marginally more tolerable as we embark upon another frantic national holiday kind of weekend, hereabouts.

Bank Street Brewhouse will open an hour early today (at 10:00 a.m.) if you have wriggled out of work and wish to view Netherlands vs. Brazil in the Wold Cup. NAC's Bluegill is pulling for the Dutch. Note that neither Heineken nor Brahma will be available for consumption -- real beer or no beer, just the way daddy likes it.

In New Albany later tonight, holiday weekend festivities at the Riverfront Amphitheater get underway at 7:30 p.m. with Persuasion, part of the concert series. As was the case last weekend, craft beer drinkers should be aware that NABC and Studio's are collaborating to bring Progressive Pints to the amphitheater for this weekend's performance, including the Riverfront Independence Festival tomorrow starting at 3:00 p.m. with Flathead Screws, Wulfe Brothers, 100% Poly and pre-4th fireworks.

Louisville Independent Business Association's Louisville Brewfest tonight at the Mellwood Arts Center (4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.) kicks off Independents Week. There'll be local breweries, local food, local music, and also a weekly newspaper owned by a company in Nashville. I'll be helping to man the NABC booth from 4 until around 7, so say hello if you're coming that way.

On Saturday morning, New Albany's Farmers Market is in full session, with produce starting to appear. Also, the friends of the NA-FC Public Library are holding their twice monthly sale in the usual place across the street from the main building. Tomorrow the friends celebrate Franz Kafka's birthday with 50% off classics. But, further up Spring Street, Destinations Booksellers is holding its own sale on new books: 50% off all in-stock merchandise. Randy's recent lessons in business elocution from Councilman Cappuccino must really be paying dividends for the entire city!

Finally, July 4 (Sunday) is Growler Independence Day, the very first day for craft beer carry-out sales from Indiana breweries. Bank Street Brewhouse will be open for special holiday hours of 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for Progressive Pints, carry-out growlers (two regular-strength growlers for $17.76), the metro area's original Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar, and both Scotch Eggs and our famous Burnt Weenie Sandwiches. Tell 'em Zappa sent you, and listen for the newly unearthed, rare recording of Three Dog Night's "Coffey Told Me Not to Come."

And: When stopping in for growlers, be sure to bring your identification: The do-gooders extracted their pound of flesh by inserting a new law that requires you to show ID each time you buy carry-out alcoholic beverages, irrespective of age. It makes them feel good, even when it does not attack the fundamental problem of underaged drinking.

Too early for the beer biz.

John Campbell and I were up bright and early today to promote local beer and LIBA's Louisville Brewfest at the Clifton Center on Friday, March 27. My appearance was on WHAS-11's morning news, and lasted approximately a minute.

If you're in the New Albany neighborhood, don't forget that the Bank Street Brewhouse is open today until 8:00 p.m. Food service is limited today because we gave the kitchen crew time off; yesterday's mention in the C-J was good for business yesterday, and they need time to prepare the first stages of the evening menu that should hit tables on Thursday night, March 26.

"A greater sense of community and more civic involvement" are two prominent reasons.

It would appear that the Louisville Independent Business Alliance’s “Why Buy Local?” forum Sunday was a success. The senior editor was too ill to attend, but here’s the link to Courier-Journal coverage, with a selected excerpt.

'Buy local' wins backers; Louisville alliance launches campaign, by Laura Ungar.

Speaker Stacy Mitchell of Portland, Maine, senior researcher at the Institute for Self Reliance and author of "Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses," put the issue into a national context.

She said America has lost 400,000 independent retailers in the past 10 years. In the grocery sector, for example, the top five companies received $1 of every $4 Americans spent on groceries in 1998, compared with $1 of every $2 today. Wal-Mart stores alone, Mitchell said, capture $1 of every $10 Americans spend on goods.

"Every category is dominated by a couple of chains," she said. "We've gone too far in one direction. We need to think about rebuilding our communities and rebuilding local businesses."

Earlier in the article, Ear X-Tacy’s John Timmons makes an absolutely essential observation about the task for small businesses:

"I can't compete on price. I can't even try to do that anymore," he said. Instead, he said, he fights back with service, expertise and selection.

Yes. Yes. And, yes.

Meanwhile, at-large councilman John Gonder takes a circuitous route to the same general vicinity in his most recent blog posting, We Should Be So Lucky.

We can't shop our way out of a jam. We won't move civilization closer to perfection by leaving our problems to the ingenuity of future generations to solve, as many are trying to do now with property taxes, climate change and the growing subservience of individuals to corporate interests.

Literacy and thoughtfulness in an elected official? Unfortunately, John may come to regret attribution here in Anonymous Rights Land.

By the way, a belated happy birthday to John’s mom!

"Why Buy Local?" LIBA will elaborate on January 27.

From the Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA), an invitation to Keep Louisville Weird by shopping locally ... and attending a January 27 presentation by Stacy Mitchell, author of "Big Box Swindle."