criteria for "local"

[Amy Hamilton]

Hello all,

Hope everyone's respective projects are going well. In Asheville, Smokey Mountain Hollers Cooperative is moving right along; we should be launching in early 2011.

My question today is: our project needs to develop criteria for defining exactly what we mean by "local". The Hollers Exchange will be a trade network that will promote relocalization and encourage import substitution, so being clear about the delineations vis a vis who can participate is important.  Considering that there is a spectrum of ownership all the way from "big box stores owned by multinationals" to "small mom and pop businesses selling locally produced products", and everything in between, what are some concrete ways that we can define local/regional in order to make our policies clear to the business community?

Is anyone aware of a set of existing criteria that is fairly specific? We'd be interested to see what others have come up with, and some examples of businesses that fall within a gray area.

I think SMHC agrees that locally-owned franchises will not fall under our umbrella, but what about mostly-local franchises? For example there is a store called Octopus Garden in our town that must have about 8 stores. I'm not aware if they are actually locally owned or even limited to Asheville, but if they are, should there be a limit on how many franchises one can have? Is this the business model we are trying to encourage? It seems that there are multiple lines to be drawn. Another example in our town is Greenlife Grocery. They have recently sold to Whole Foods, but have continued operations under the already established name. This is not local, obviously. But prior to their sale, the owner, who is a local resident, also owned another store in Chattanooga. So, at that point, you had an owner (sole proprietor, I believe) of two stores, one local, and one about 2 hours away in another state. Would the Asheville store have been local?

These are some of the questions that have come up for us. Maybe others have ideas or directions for further research?

Thanks,

Amy