The Shop Local Fast Buy Experiment
Even though our company has been in Oakland for nearly 15 years, we've never really opened our doors to the local community, instead we have been "online". Lack of room and lack of English language skills amongst our staff were two big reasons for this, but there was also the comfort of the "we are an online business" cocoon. It's a warm, easy place to hide where your best foot forward can be shod in a fuzzy bedroom slipper because no one is looking. Living in that cocoon has two major unintended pitfalls: When you sell online, you tend to source your inventory and supplies online, which means you tend to not support your local economy ; Those online transactions you send out and bring in are all shipped, which impacts the environment both in terms of packaging and freight costs. (In fact, last year my freight and shipping costs were double what I paid to all my employees combined). Early this year, I made a commitment to change. My first pass was to hire a