Location, Location, Location — Does it Matter beyond Real Estate?
This morning I was reading an article from a summer issue of Bottom Line/Health (yes, I’m behind — and out of sync — a bit!) about the USDA’s recently revised food pyramid(s) versus Harvard’s pyramid (a good read, I might add, though it’s only available in print, I believe!).
The article was written by someone at Harvard and clearly represented their spin on it, one which contained many concepts that resonated within me, too. Though I already agreed with the article, as I put it down I thought, “and plus, it’s from Harvard, and they’re local boys.” Being in New Hampshire, Harvard is just a hop, skip, and… not even a jump away.
And then it hit me — how much does location factor into our decisions in today’s world? With this new-fangled Internet thingy, not to mention cable and satellite television, we can get our news, entertainment, and heck, even tangible goods from just about anywhere on the planet. Unless you’re going to leave the confines of your comfy chair and go to the *store* to buy something, it doesn’t really matter where it comes from, yet I still certainly find myself preferring to get all this stuff as local as possible. Some of this may have to do with the fact that we recently moved to New Hampshire, though I think I’ve always felt this way. Some of it has to do with time, of course… if I buy something online from a Vermont-based vendor, it gets here a lot faster than something from Nevada would. But I think it goes beyond that… I think it has to do with mindset and trust. Being that I live here, I can relate better to the people here — we have that additional “something in common”. I also understand the people from other areas of this country in which I’ve lived for significant chunks of time, and I believe that truly does factor into my decision-making process. I can only assume that I’m not the only one who — on some level — reacts this way. Do you?
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