PORT TOWNSEND — As Michael Shuman sees it, there’s a reason why the Green Bay Packers are a success story — a small-town Wisconsin professional football team that has long resisted a move to Florida.
Rather than having one “obnoxious owner,” the team is a community stock-held team owned by Green Bay residents.
Shuman, an economist and business entrepreneur who is in Port Townsend for a two-day “Going Local” program at Fort Worden State Park, says there is no reason why the Green Bay approach can’t be done with any business in Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
Why can’t banks and other small enterprises develop under the Packers principle of mobilizing local investors?
Indeed, Shuman recognized that The Food Co-op in Port Townsend falls in this category on a smaller scale.
“The Green Bay Packers have produced hundreds of millions of dollars for that community,” Shuman told about 200 attending his presentation, which today will be followed up with a daylong set of seminars, beginning at 9 a.m. in the Fort Worden Commons.
‘Small-Mart’ revolution
Shuman outlined the points in his latest book, The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating Global Competition.
His talk focused on “Jefferson County First: How to Rev Up Your Local Economy.”
Shuman said he, like others, was doing a poor job of fighting globalization.
Drawing hisses, he admitted he, too, has been sucked into buying too many inferior “knock off” products at Wal-Mart, to the tune of $275.
He said he was realized he was overcharged on two items, and then he found that much of what he bought fell apart.
“Many of the things you assume are equal aren’t so equal,” he said.
Such are the choices he says consumers are confronted with when buying from such chain stores, he said, and then those stores are paying below-scale wages and not returning money to the local economy.
