You can support our regional economy by purchasing goods and products that are grown, crafted, and manufactured in our region. When you buy goods made by local workers and craftsmen your money stays in the community. The businesses you support in turn pay local workers, pay local taxes, use local services and contribute to the community in a variety of ways.

Buying locally has become an increasingly popular trend, and evidence of this can be seen in town after town. Just a quick trip into your local downtown will probably reveal restaurants that are buying food from local farms. Artists, potters, furniture makers and even clothing retailers are advertising locally made products. So why is buying locally becoming increasingly popular? How do you define buying locally? And what does buying locally mean for building a home?

The process of buying locally is not necessarily as straight forward as it may seem, and defining it can be difficult. Here are a few simple guidelines. We can divide local products into three major categories: locally sourced, locally produced and locally sold. Sourced means where the materials are found produced is where a product is made, and sold is the location where the product is purchased. Each of these categories, however, depends on defining local. Local is defined as any material extracted, processed and manufactured within a radius of 500 miles.


One company that is making a great movement on the buying locally is Rickshaw Bagworks!


Rickshaw is a new San Francisco-based bag company. Inspired by the creative energy of our city, urban cycling and an intense desire to make great products, we started Rickshaw to satisfy our own personal passion for bags. We know how people love their bags. We think it’s cool–if not kind of weird–the way people grow attached to their favorite bag as though it were a pet or loved–one.

We also love city living–the excitement, diversity, creativity and culture we experience in a fast-paced metropolitan environment. With access to art, theater, music and restaurants, there’s an energy that pulses through the community. We design our bags for people who thrive on the urban experience and celebrate the creative spirit.



We’re a new company, but we have many years of experience designing and manufacturing great bags and providing unique customer experiences. In addition to our passion for bags, we share a strong set of humanistic, environmental and social values that guide the way we conduct every aspect of our business. The name of our company derives from three Japanese characters meaning “human powered vehicle”–delightfully apropos for a company making bags for bicycle enthusiasts, and our metaphor for the strength of the human spirit.

We’re excited to embark on our new entrepreneurial adventure, and we look forward to seeing people carrying our bags on the city streets soon. According to RickShaw SEO:
"We embrace what I call the "three f's" of sustainable design: form, function, and footprint. We pride ourselves on making high-quality products for long-term, everyday use. Some sustainable fabrics wear out too quickly to meet our standards. For instance, we tried making bags with beautiful (and expensive) Italian wool herringbone tweed, only to have the prototypes wear out in weeks. So we partnered with one of the few remaining upholstery mills in North Carolina to develop a proprietary collection of Rickshaw Performance Tweed: a gorgeous, rugged fabric made from recycled beverage bottles and finished with an eco-friendly, stain-resistant coating. With a little extra effort, we developed a fabric that met our goals for sustainability, style, durability, and affordability."

It stimulates the local economy. A  2002 study done in Texas showed that for every $100 that was spent in a chain bookstore, only $13 of it was put back into the local economy. But that same $100 spent at a local, independently owned bookstore put $45 back into the local economy. Think of that next time you're deciding to get your coffee from a large chain or the local corner coffee house.