I drove past a corner today where a young boy and his mother had set up a cinder block stand, with a sign, a few stuffed animals and a pitcher of ice cold lemonade. They were selling a large cup for .75 cents.  A bargain I thought, and stopped to buy two cups.  One for a colleague I was on my way to see. 

The lemonade was surprisingly good.  They had made it from fresh lemons - a backyard tree - and honey from the farmers market.  It was so good it made me think - this boy should start to package and sell his lemonade to the households around him.  He can sell it for cheaper because his distribution costs are inexpensive (bicycle?) and his customers won't bear the burden of a mark-up to cover those costs.

This led me to thinking: why don't we buy all or at least more of our consumables from local providers?  Why aren't there more local providers or why aren't they as heavily marketed to us? We all know it's better for the planet to eat kiwis from our own shores and yet millions come in from New Zealand every year.  We all know that lemonade made in the hood has to be cheaper, fresher and potentially better than the boxed stuff shipped from New Jersey to California and back.  Why don't we subsidize local providers - give them a louder voice and more incentive to sell locally?

Of course there are economies of scale which allow large corporations to sell and distribute many widgets across the globe at surprisingly low incremental costs.  And yet those are real costs!  They don't just go away because you are producing 10,000 instead of 1,000 things.

I'm not even sure my idea is an idea, so feel free to put me in my place.  But I think government(s), local governments should do more to support local entrepreneurs.  My idea then is to tax all sales within a 50 mile radius of their production, at a 10% lower rate than they would otherwise be taxed.  Both at the federal and state level, this would be a significant incentive to focus on local sales.

But there's probably room for more.  Businesses that plan to sell locally should receive marketing support.  They should have access to media, marketing and sales resources provided by their state and municipality, to level the playing field a bit and help them get in the game.