Shops and consumerism are not intrinsically tied together. Buying and selling has significance to our culture beyond creating profit for shareholders. A business can have benefits for the community it serves that are about more than wealth generation. They can be the catalyst for participation, acceptance, identity and above all community. Small businesses like those celebrated in this blog have a relationship with their customers. They operate much more like the clubs and families that Holland talks about in essay below than corporate brands. At your local Tesco Superstore, you can pick up some tea and pay for it at the self service check-out without even having to make eye contact with another human being. To make a purchase from the sort of local business we are celebrating in this blog, you have to have a conversation and in Spain this conversation often becomes more important than the purchase.
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