MOUNT GILEAD – Mansfield native and Clear Fork High School graduate Nicole White has always liked the concept of shopping local but actually buying from locally owned and operated places was a challenge for her family.
“I tried to shop locally when I first got married. I started purchasing for the house, and I wanted to save money on the budget, but at the same time, I wanted to shop local,” said White, who now lives in Mount Gilead with her husband Andrew and 3-year-old daughter Lydia.
The Whites experimented with local shopping since October 2013, but when Nicole’s best friend opened Whitaker’s Farm Market near Bellville in 2015, she was more determined than ever to shop small.
After further trial and error, Nicole decided the best approach was to spend a year where she will only buy from locally owned stores.
What the Whites are calling “Project Unboxed” kicked off on Jan. 1, 2018. Nicole’s is documenting the experience in a video series on her YouTube Channel.
“Basically, for an entire year, I do not shop or purchase goods or services from big box chain stores, so only local ones,” Nicole White said. “No Walmart, Meijer, Kroger’s, Best Buy, etc.”
To make the project more realistic, she and her husband made a set of rules.
Rule 1: Project Unboxed runs from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018.
Rule 2: No purchases from big box stores.
The Whites will not buy anything from big box stores in 2018. They must instead rely on locally owned businesses. Locally owned franchises are also allowed.
Rule 3: Purchases must be made within a 50-mile radius.
For the first six months, the Whites can only buy from businesses within 50-mile radius from their home. This includes the portions of Morrow, Richland, Ashland, Knox, Marion and Delaware Counties, plus the northern part of Columbus.
For the final six-months, they can only shop within a 25-mile radius.
“It’ll just to up the challenge a bit. That radius doesn’t include Columbus. The biggest towns it includes are Mansfield and Mount Vernon, so it’s going to be a drastic change,” Nicole said.
When the family is traveling, the radius will follow them.
Rule 4: In emergencies, use common sense.
In emergency situations, the Whites may purchase what they need wherever it’s most convenient.
“Say we’re driving down the road, and someone cuts themselves, so we need a first-aid kit. If there’s only a Walmart, we’re going to use our common sense,” she said.
Rule 5: If the product can’t be found locally, it goes through “the process.”
1. Is it a want or need?
2. Can we buy it used or second hand?
3. Can we borrow it?
4. Can we rent it?
5. Can we make it?
6. Is there an alternative?
7. Can we do without it?
If the Whites have looked locally and can’t find what they need, they must decide what to do next by asking a series of questions, designed to come up with a solution.
If a solution can’t be found, the Whites will first expand their radius, then look online for options sold by independently owned businesses in other cities.
In only the first month, the Whites have thrown a birthday party, replaced a ripped shower curtain and dealt with sickness, but only one thing’s gone through the process – dog food.
“We have a dog on a special diet, and I can purchase it through my vet, but they gave me a website to order it from – it’s very expensive food – and it’s local to that area,” Nicole said.
The dog food will be shipped to a gas station near their house.
But other challenges have already come up. One of first was to throw a birthday party for now 3-year-old Lydia.
“It’s so easy to go to Walmart, buy the decorations, get all the food, get a gift and you’re done,” Nicole said.
But she was pleasantly surprised when she began planning the arts and crafts themed party.
To decorate, she reused banners and other items from previous years. And for the food, White bought deli trays from Whitaker’s Farm Market, Jones Potato Chips and other finger foods.
“She was happy, and everyone who came liked it,” Nicole said. “And I liked it. I was not stressed out at all – easiest party I ever threw.”
A less-anticipated challenge also came early into the project. The family’s shower curtain liner tore during the first week of January.
Typically, Nicole would have ordered one on Amazon, but since the project was already underway, she had to find something locally.
“I thought, this is so silly. I’m driving around all over town trying to find a shower curtain liner,” she said. “I think, that’s where I’m going to see there should a little balance with it, but for the sake of the project, I did find one.”
It was at Smith’s Hardware in Bellville.
Otherwise, the project’s been going well. The Whites made one last Amazon order and went on one last Kroger shopping trip to stock up on their favorites before 2018, but as those supplies run out, they are finding local options to replace them.
Another concern has been expense.
For this reason and others, the Whites included an opt-out option after three months. If the project is not working, causing too much stress or costing too much money, the Whites will be able to discontinue Project Unbox.
“My husband was more worried about it than I was, but I thought, if I try to do it 100 percent, I’ll see if it is more expense,” Nicole said. “His idea was if it wasn’t working or if it was too expensive, we could opt out. I asked him to give me about three months.”
Nicole will make a video for her YouTube series that overviews the budget at the three-month mark, but after only a month, she’s seen some savings. They spent $150 less on groceries in January than they usually do.
“We didn’t order anything from Amazon, so I think, that really helped our budget,” Nicole said.
Instead, they found what they needed at places like Whitaker’s Farm Market, Wayne’s Country Market and a Bent & Dent.
Lydia, who always enjoyed pushing the mini shopping carts around at Kroger, has also adjusted to the new shopping trips. On one visit to the Bent & Dent, she sat at a window where she saw a pony.
“She spent the whole time talking to the pony,” Nicole said.
Also, in the smaller stores, Nicole allows Lydia to walk around a little more and pick out the groceries, something that wasn’t possible amid the chaos in larger stores.
“I’m also really enjoying it. I’ve been finding so many places I didn’t even know existed,” Nicole said.
In 2019, at the end of Project Unboxed, the Nicole expects to go back to buying some items at Big Box Stores but hopes she’ll have developed local shopping “habits that stick.”
