Corner Market

It’s no secret: I love independent retailers. They’re what make a neighborhood a neighborhood — and besides, they’re a gritty and practical-minded bunch with a collective creative streak and an empathetic nose for what makes their customers tick. Their shops and boutiques, sprinkled throughout the city on cheerful, small-time commercial thoroughfares, are literal galleries of the functional and the funny, and I think life would be big drag without them.

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More About

• Mickki Langston
• Industries
• Retail Trade
• Small Business

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That’s why I’m putting out the word about Buy Local Week, a promotional concoction of the Mile High Business Alliance, a coalition of small-business owners out to help one another while putting out the word to the public that they exist. Today through December 5, they’re urging the public to support local businesses, which will back up the invitation with a variety of open houses and holiday events.

“Everyone talks about what’s happening in the economy, but there are not a lot of solutions being offered,” notes MHBA director Mickki Langston. “So in our community, on a person-to-person basis, this is one of the most important things we can do. In Denver, we’re lucky. We do have a high number of neighborhoods with a high density of local businesses, and we can choose to support them.” But don’t think local retailers are looking for handouts: “This is not about a charity case,” Langston adds. “It’s an investment in our community, to help make it the kind of place we’d like it to be.” And besides, it helps reduce carbon footprints, keeps money circulating in Denver and gives the city a unique edge. Win/win, right?

For more information and access to an interactive listing of local retailers, go to www.coloradolocalfirst.com.
Fri., Nov. 28, 2008