Create Community, Shop Local and Keep it Querque!

It’s been a week to reflect on community, beginning with the AIBA “Keep it Querque” gala at Los Pablonos Inn on Monday evening. Read more at Mary Schmidt’s blog or in Megan Kamrick’s article. (Disclosure. If you’ve read ProfitMeister you might know that Mary mentored me in the blog world; we serve together on the AIBA board.)

Independent business owner Dale Dekker of Dekker, Parish, Sabatini Architects named names and showed buildings during the program; a who’s who of sorts emerged and the audience felt a sense of pride in belonging to this metro called Albuquerque. A general laugh rippled through the audience when Dale suggested that Albuquerque offered a landscape quite different from Scottsdale, for example. Dale mentioned audience members like Steve Wedeen of Vaughn Wedeen or Linda Wedeen of First Community Bank. Both are AIBA sponsors.

Not everyone can offer perspective of this nature, yet this very friendliness provides a foundational experience to Shop Local. A slide show featuring photos of AIBA members played in the background, further contributing to the sense of fellowship. (See it on the front page of www.KeepItQuerque.org.)

As Dale continued to mention people in the audience, I thought about the opportunity to connect with our community. Consider the variety of Holiday invitations at Pennysmiths Paper for example, or, the ArtBras Exhibition ,at Martha’s Body Bueno, or a cup of chai at Annapurna Ayurvedic Cuisine. Shop Local extends your neighborhood, providing a sense of identity, comparability and even unity. No, I’m not suggesting that Shop Local is the only way. It’s an option, an enjoyable option. At a time of year when our culture emphasizes shopping, Shop Local offers a way to distinguish both the gift and the experience of getting it.