The 3/50 Project
I have a confession to make. I hate Short Pump. More specifically, I hate Short Pump Town Center.
No offense to West Enders and the people who call Short Pump home, but that area of town (and the mall in particular) makes me a little crazy.
And I’ll tell you why. It’s because it’s so pretty.
Come on, you have to admit it; Short Pump Town Center is like its own little oasis in the middle of the suburbs.
I remember walking through it for the first time and I was completely in awe. The brickwork, the perfectly intact sidewalks, all the little shops and boutiques, the streetlamps, the fountains and the alfresco dining … it was all so perfect.
There wasn’t a piece of errant trash in sight. Shoppers rested on garden benches, kids played openly in the sunshine and look, there in the distance – a train is coming! All aboard kids!
Yes, Short Pump mall is one little slice of picturesque heaven right in our own backyard. And that’s precisely my problem with it.
It looks like heaven, like a quaint little town where kids can run free and the shopkeeper knows your name. But, of course, it’s all just one big façade. Short Pump might be pretty, but to me, it’s the worst of consumerism, all dressed up to look like a pretty little community, paid for and sponsored by Corporate Conglomerate USA.
Short Pump mall gives shoppers the feel of a downtown shopping district, but it doesn’t give us any of the benefits. When we shop at giant retail chains, over half of that money flows right out the store, right out of the mall and straight out of Richmond. When we shop locally, most of it stays here.
This, I learned, thanks to The 3/50 Project.
The 3/50 Project is a grassroots movement only a few months old dedicated to "saving the Brick & Mortars our nation is built on."
The concept is pretty simple. It asks shoppers across the country to pick three independently owned businesses they would miss if they disappeared and to try and spend $50 a month shopping there (collectively).
If half the population of Richmond and its surrounding counties committed to spending $50 a month in locally-owned businesses, it would generate $25 million in revenue, the majority of which would stay right here in town. (According to The 3/50 Project’s Web site, for every $100 spent in an independently-owned place, $68 stays in the community; at a national chain, only $43. Spend online though, and "nothing comes homes.")
Of course The 3/50 Project isn’t asking us to give up chains cold turkey. In this day and age, who could possibly do that? As much as I hate to admit it, I own more than a few things that came from Short Pump retailers and I don’t think I could live without Target.
Instead, what The 3/50 Project is asking is simply that we make a concerted effort to support our local businesses, restaurants included. If that means that maybe, just maybe, one night you skip the Cheesecake Factory in favor of independent restaurant, that’s fine too.
But any way you cut it, if we don’t get out there and support our local shops now, they may not be around to support later. You can click here to see a list of Richmond retailers registered with The 3/50 Project.
Karri Peifer is a Richmond.com staff writer. The opinions she expresses so freely are hers; not those of Richmond.com or anyone affiliated with it. Or, really, of anyone who knows her.
What are your thoughts, Richmond, do you think people should shop locally more often? Tell us in the comments below.
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