Merith Weisman is the new head of Sonoma County GO LOCAL. She is as yet untried and untested. Yet she is poised—poised to make a big play. And she is going to stake GO LOCAL’s most valuable asset—trust—on its success. The very trust placed in GO LOCAL, as the standard bearer of this region’s “Local First” movement. And my heart skips a beat.
Let me say, it’s time for local to make a big play—it’s time to be bold and unafraid. That is not the question, and I’m not here to cheerlead. The question is whether GO LOCAL’s new partnership with New York-based Trellus is the right move for our stalled Local First movement, and whether we should follow Weisman into Trellus and build an “Amazon for our local businesses.”
The Cracked State of the Union
Let us be frank, and let us be factual—the local economy is in trouble. We’ve heard it before—GO LOCAL has been saying it loud for 15 years. They’re grave words, as the economic order is the political order is the social order. They mean we are all in deep trouble. And the very concept of “we” may degrade to dust.
In the common account, as re-told by Trellus CEO Adam Haber, “Local economies have been hit hard, twice.” “We” have been hit by national chain stores—“The chaining of America,” which culminated in Walmart, the biggest big box of them all, which reproduces and steals the commerce of an entire downtown’s worth of small businesses. “We” have been hit again, says Haber, by national and global e-commerce, culminating in Amazon, “the everything store,” which reproduces and steals the commerce of an entire nation of small businesses.
The local economy is reeling; prices are slashed. The hits keep coming. And beloved local businesses are dropping. Have a look at the high turnover and entrenched vacancies downtown. Look at the empty businesses. Look at the quality of local job openings. Look at household debt; look at the bankruptcies and foreclosures… Our American dream is in receivership. And community goods like social trust, mental health, democracy and local pride drip, bleeding away with each sale local loses into a pool of red ink. Bang a drum. It is time for something bold.
Say ‘Local’ Do-Nothings
Frankly, the Local First movement is stalled out.
To their great and everlasting credit, Sonoma County GO LOCAL has taught us to say “local.” Saying it has a warm and responsible feeling when telling a friend where we got that cheese or that pot.
In rarer cases, the great champion of local has even taught us some of the reasons for going local (over transnational). There are the ways local businesses contribute to our sense of place and local pride. There are the ways local businesses, bulwark of the middle class, contribute more to local volunteering, local charity, local campaigns and causes, and participate in local government. They are invested in here because they live here.
Local businesses pay local sales tax, which funds local government services.
Then there is the multiplier effect—local businesses keep local money here, through multiple cycles of local purchases—until, by an unlocal purchase, that money leaves the region and slips into a billionaire’s pocket.
Then there is the ecological effect, where (vastly) shorter shipment routes reduce greenhouse gases and global warming, and greater efficiencies of space reduce sprawl into the fast fragmenting wilds.
In short, as much as they make fresh bread and beauty products, the true product of local business is the local community. National chains and global e-commerce contribute little or nothing to these community goods. With them we purchase, sale by sale, isolation, despotism and fear.
And yet, but still—after 15 years of shouting this through a rolled up copy of Made Local Magazine (which is presently edited by Weeklys contributor Kary Hess, whose husband, Daedalus Howell, is the editor of the Bohemian), GO LOCAL finds itself at an impasse. Simply put—their long and tireless campaign has taught us to say “local,” but not to actually go local—not enough anyway.
A rising 55% of Sonoma County residents polled state that they would prefer local to a national product (according to a 2019 GO LOCAL Poll). But sales figures don’t back that up. “The behavior just isn’t there,” says Weisman.
She is politely saying that we are hypocrites. And that hypocrisy covers up a betrayal of “we.” As of this year, 25% of our sales will be on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. And that percentage is projected to rise. And, correspondingly, our community is projected to further degrade.
Clearly, something is needed to bridge the gap between our avowed preference for local and our tending propensity toward one click e-commerce.
If You Can’t Beat ’em, Copy ’em
Perhaps GO LOCAL, our great educator, has been mistaken in their approach and the medium of their message.
Take their free “Pocket Guide,” for example—take it from outside a local supermarket. What I can say in favor of it is that it’s a beautiful piece of passionate work. It contains product and service listings for the 400 local businesses in its cooperative. It also contains an epiphany that we don’t just make cheese and grow pot in Sonoma County.
We make books and movies, and vinyl signs, herbal medicines, software, board games, tamales, yerba mates, instant organic macaroni, stained glass, ceramic pots, electric bikes, etc., etc. And what we don’t produce locally, we inventory locally at our independent stores. Our local economy is diversified.
What I can say against the GO LOCAL guide is—who has the time to leaf through its pages? The booklet is old media—a piece of slow culture long ago and left behind in the culture’s maddening rush towards… ah… what?—consumerist-driven billionaire oligarchy, and a boy kinged amid planetary meltdown…
Still, the open guide does inspire an idea—it sparkles out like a diamond in the rough. And compellingly, several people have independently had this same idea—including Janeen Murray, the former head of GO LOCAL, who pursued it for a time. The idea runs along these lines…
What if the contents of the GO LOCAL Pocket Guide were digitized on a snazzy website and pocket app … with a search function that lets one comb the combined inventories of all these 400 local stores and home businesses … and shop with one digital cart… and purchase with one digital click… If we had this, we would have collectively, almost nearly, an everything store.
One that combines the ease and convenience of Amazon and Walmart.com with all of the community benefits of supporting local businesses and neighbors. The gap between what we say and what we do would be bridged with an “Amazon for local businesses.” It would be a genius play. And it might just save “us.”
Readers, I rush to desk to write and report that Trellus of Nassau County, New York has just produced such a platform. And the kicker is, they have organized to give that platform for locals same day delivery to outstrip Amazon Prime for speed. And what’s more—to my everlasting amazement, Weisman’s old media GO LOCAL has already signed on the dotted line. Bang a drum; they have a deal.
As a journalist and writer, I am tempted to call this a “turn around story.” But as of now, today, it’s a “hail Mary play” story for Local First. To become an Amazon for our local businesses, GO LOCAL and Trellus must persuade Sonoma County’s businesses and customers to join it…
If You Build It, They Will Come?
In the first week of August, Trellus co-founder and CEO Adam Haber left his home in Nassau County and flew across America to Sonoma. He visited garages and brick and mortars to press palms and persuade, in a goodwill tour and recruitment drive. Forty local businesses with a range of offerings will need to sign to launch the platform in Sonoma County—40 to threshold, 40 to ignition.
As a member of the press, I was invited to a catered kick-off party co-hosted by Trellus and GO LOCAL at Sally Tomatoes in Rohnert Park. I had come to hear Haber pitch and to size the man up. But I chose to sit apart, against a wall, at a right angle to the audience, because I had also come to read the faces of struggling business owners as they listened to him pitch. Would those faces open in agreement or close in distrust?
Here I will restate my digest of Trellus’ sales points.
The Trellus marketplace app has a pleasing and uncluttered aesthetic. That is a contrast to Amazon’s brute utilitarianism. The business back end seems simple.
For both businesses and shoppers, the Trellus interface is fast and functional, being the product of a two year and $7 million development process.
Local businesses that come up on a product search are ordered by proximity to one’s location, and shipping costs further reinforce that hyper-localism.
There are no ads flanking the search or distorting the search inquiry.
And of course, no chains or big brands. Just us.
Those are the basics.
Now, six things give Amazon its hook for consumers. Addiction is not too strong a word. Science has established that the cheaper and faster the dopamine hit, the stronger the addict-ability. Consumerism is a drug.
The first of the six is variety: Amazon is the one-stop, everything store. Trellus can match this only if there is a mass buy-in by businesses—think 1,000, not 40. For what’s missing, Trellus might even create economic conditions for greater local diversification of businesses and products, reversing a slow decline.
The second addictive barb is “one cart shopping,” the ability to add items from multiple businesses into one cart and one transaction if they were one store. Trellus can’t do this yet—one has to go store by store—but they are working on “one cart.”
The third hook is “one click shopping” for return shoppers. The Trellus experience is three clicks.
The fourth thing is Amazon Prime’s one-day delivery—even to and from remote places. Because these are local businesses, Trellus drivers can deliver in between one and four hours, a significant advantage over Amazon Prime.
The fifth is product reviews. As yet, Trellus has none.
The last and the first hook is low prices. It’s difficult to make a direct, apples to apples, price comparison because local products tend to be one of a kind. But, given their fee structure, in a direct comparison of identical products, Trellus would be cheaper than Amazon. A profit-minimizing ethos, and the elimination of vast everything warehouses, allows Trellus to reduce its add-on fee to 10% of a sales price or half that of Amazon.
That 10% of the full purchase price will leave Sonoma County. That is a consideration. This is not a pure local play. But that compares to 90% leaving with Amazon or other e-commerce sites. And of the 10%, .5% will be repatriated as a fee to Sonoma County GO LOCAL. It would be something to see GO LOCAL with money. They have accomplished all they have with a just staff of three standing employees and a bevy of contractors and volunteers.
The shipping fee is $6.99 for five miles and $1.50 added for each additional mile, which is at-cost for super-rush deliveries. Moreover, their local freelance drivers (operating like door dashers) keep an impressive 80% of the delivery fee.
So, what does that all amount to? The bottom line is that Trellus, our would-be “Amazon for local businesses,” competes with Amazon on price and outcompetes with Amazon on speed. On paper, Trellus wins. Local wins. “We” win. And, what’s more, it wins in a straight speed and price competition without accounting for all the priceless benefits the Trellus marketplace would bring to the local community (pride, place, local tax, government services, volunteerism, civic engagement, good jobs, less inequality, safer streets).
Competing just on cost and ease and speed, Trellus could actually draw in the 20,000 + local businesses that have not joined GO LOCAL, and the hundred of thousands of local consumers unreached or unchanged by GO LOCAL’s urgent messaging.
But only if Trellus and GO LOCAL can attract a sufficient range and diversity of businesses within a critical period to compete with Amazon’s product diversity.
Which brings us back to my seat at Sally Tomatoes. Throughout Haber’s presentation, I watched faces of the patent inventors, bakers and candlestick makers in the audience. The expressions ranged from open appreciation to guarded interest. At the end of the presentation, there was hearty clapping. But also the sort of animal wariness of wanting something but not quite trusting it. Not wanting to be the first to step out of the pack and expose themselves.
Should they trust Adam Haber from New York? Should they trust Merith Weisman, for that matter—who has been the figurehead of our Local First movement for less than a year?
At last, the tension was broken. R.M. Horrel, the chief operating officer of Copperfield’s Books, stood up and stepped out of the audience to join Haber and Weisman out in front. First stating emphatically that they had no investment in Trellus and had taken no fee, they declared that Copperfield’s Books would migrate their top 1,000 best-selling book titles onto the platform. Beyond the dollar inducements of the deal and the community social goods.
Horrel added that they had had “nothing but green flags” working with Adam Haber and their Trellus team of 20, and that random calls to Trellus platform businesses in Nassau County had turned up nothing but happy and excited small business owners. Copperfield’s will trust Trellus.
As of the next day, 20 of our local businesses were on the bandwagon. Half the number needed to launch.
Jeff Bezos’ Long Shadow
So, if and when our own “Amazon” launches, it will launch in large part as an online bookstore. That makes a direct parallel to the beginning of Amazon.com. While Weisman takes that as a sign that her great gamble will yield a jackpot, it makes me slightly uneasy. After all, Jeff Bezos was once an idealistic young bookseller.
My concern is that, if the “Amazon for local businesses” is successful, that success will be a direct challenge to Amazon.com. How would this small start-up withstand such pressure that the $2 trillion Goliath brings to bear against a scrawny challenger and its wildfire rebellion? How would Haber, his co-founders and investors resist the pressure to betray this revolution to sell out for a massive pay-day?
Can we trust Adam Haber and Trellus? For now, we must take him at his word, and the letter of the contract that he offers. These are wary times. The sharp irony is that trust is exactly the good that has been degraded in our place and in our nation as the chains of corporate giants have throttled our communities and trapped our governments.
Perhaps my concern is a concern for tomorrow, whereas now, today, thousands of local Sonoma County businesses are trying to make it to the end of the day. Trellus could be their lifeline. And Merith Weisman says she has contingency plans.
Personally, I choose to trust the people of Sonoma County to take their community back out of pawn.
Learn more: Follow linktr.ee/golocaltrellusLINKS to learn more about GO LOCAL and Trellus. Once launched, Trellus will provide free same day shipping for customers of participating GO LOCAL member businesses through Black Friday, Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
