The Trouble with Local

I try to support my local businesses as much as I possibly can, both to support my community’s economy and because I believe that in many cases shopping locally has less of an environmental impact. That idea might be pie-in-sky but when I’m paying more for something I could get cheaper at Wal-Mart I need to tell myself something to justify it.
Our favourite pizza in these parts happens to be a little local pizza shop out of Parksville that recently opened a second location in my community. This is pretty awesome for us considering we live in Errington which isn’t exactly a booming metropolis. There are other pizza options in Parksville (Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza, Dominos, Panagos) and the local shop is BY FAR the best. There really isn’t any comparison, especially considering out of the other options the only one I can actually eat is Pizza Hut, and while I can stomach Pizza Hut’s pizza it will undoubtedly haunt me later so I?d really rather not.
Ordering from our local pizza place is entertaining too. Once I phoned for delivery and was told that the delivery driver, who was referred to by name like we might be friends, was playing volleyball that night and I’d have to pick up my order. Another time I was regaled with a story about how the guy taking my order went to a party the night before and was making out with some chick whose name he couldn’t recall until the moment I said my own name was Amber. He was so delighted that I jogged his memory because he really wanted to speak with her again, and had her number but couldn?t remember her name. I did make sure he knew that it wasn’t ME kissing him at the party.
These are both situations that I find charming about my local pizza place but would be thoroughly annoyed by if I was ordering from, say, Pizza Hut. I have no idea why that is, but I am willing to give the local guys a lot of slack.
The biggest issue I have is that the place isn’t open on Sundays. Sunday is consistently the day I’d most like to order a pizza and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called all ready to order before I remembered that there will be no pizza to be had on Sunday.
But this weekend I was really annoyed. I called on Saturday night to order a pizza and didn’t get an answer at the Errington location. I phoned a few times thinking they were just busy and couldn’t get to the phone, then finally got fed up and phoned the Parksville location where I was greeted with a message informing me that they were closed for the entirety of the long weekend.
~sigh~
Why, local businesses, do you make it SO HARD? I can forgive being closed on Sunday even though I would prefer you were closed on Monday instead. But I can understand that many people might like to go to church or hang out with their families on Sundays and that could be deemed more important then me getting a pizza. I can even understand why you open late and close early even if I personally don’t think that makes the best business sense. But why-oh-why wouldn’t you be open on the SATURDAY of the LONG WEEKEND? WHY?
We went to White Spot instead, and my meal was horrible making me even more bitter I didn’t get to enjoy a piece of really good, cheesy pizza.

5 Responses to “The Trouble with Local”

1. Angela says:

   September 6, 2009 at 9:37 pm

   There is a take and bake pizza place by J&B that is amazing. It is a local place with one or two locations in the area and it’s so good I couldn’t believe it was take and bake. In fact we got it more than once when we were there. I think you could get it freeze it and then when you wanted it, even if it were a Sunday it would be available to you. And it would be worth that bit of an extra dive,especially if you got a few and then froze them. They also will cook them for you if you want. B can tell you the exact name of it but it was some of the best pizza I have ever had.
   On another note it is frustrating when you are trying to support a local business and they are not open convenient hours. Because I will eventually stop trying to use their services when they are no longer easy and convenient.
   However I too would like the local stories and all of that stuff that goes along with a local business. I’m sorry you had to eat at Whitespot, I don’t think that it’s ever a good meal unless you are getting breakfast. Hopefully next time you want pizza it will be on a Wed or something like that.
2. Grandma says:

   September 7, 2009 at 12:07 am

   I am surprised that you don’tjust make your own pizza –it’s not all that difficult .–except for the rather sticky dough!!!Then you can put on whatever you like the best.
3. LisaB says:

   September 7, 2009 at 9:31 am

   I sometimes get annoyed by weird hours too, especially because I’m not usually organized enough to check in advance and often just show up to find things closed.
   I do tend to cut local places more slack and try to look at things from an employee perspective. Like, if the pizza place hadn’t closed on Saturday, their employees wouldn’t have gotten a long weekend which would suck for them.
   My dance studio is the same way, they closed this Saturday (the busiest day) because they’re normally closed on Sundays and Mondays anyway, so to give their employees a 3 day weekend, they had to shut down Saturday. I like our instructors, so I support their desire to have a 3 day weekend, even if it means my chacha will suffer.
   This is the same reason I support stores being closed on Sundays (I think NS just gave up the ghost on that policy, being the last hold out in Canada). As much as I love shopping on Sundays, I know how much it sucks for retail employees to never have any guaranteed days off, so I’m willing to take one for the team there.
4. Candi says:

   September 7, 2009 at 9:18 pm

   I have exactly the same problem! I try to support local and let’s face it, where I live, it’s either local or a good 30 minute jaunt into Lawrence, but still… everything here seems to have the “close early and often” motto. Everything is closed by 9 pm except Taco Bell and Sonic (both to yuck) and some of the places even close by 7 pm in the winter!!! It’s so annoying. There’s this great BBQ joint that has chicken tenders to die for and they are only open Thurs, Fri and Saturday nights after 4 pm. I kid you not. I, too, always want to order food on Sundays! Gah!
5. Mom says:

   September 8, 2009 at 7:31 pm

   Take and Bake sounds good to me! Kind of like
   the pizza joint on McKnight in Calgary(who’s name also escapes Me!!). Let me know where and I will pick some up for all!