Delocate The Best Books And Coffee Houses

Of course we're all conscious of the ongoing economic crisis, and of course we want to spend our money in a responsible and productive manner. I've written before about the importance of supporting local bookstores (just made a run to one of San Diego's best, Wahrenbrock's, over the weekend and found a volume of Whitman's Civil War poetry, Ambrose Bierce short stories, and Arthur Fremantle's memoir of travelling through the Confederacy in 1862-63) as well as the brilliance of local coffeeshops like Caffe Calabria. Putting your money into these locally-owned venues will not only get you a premier product, but you'll be keeping your money in your community, instead of having it vanish into the corporate ether.

A major obstacle to doing this was knowing where these places are. Rarely does an independent bookstore or coffeehouse have a substantial marketing budget, and certainly they lack name recognition, thus its difficult to compete against ubiquitous juggernauts like Borders or Starbucks when you want a quick coffee or something to read.

Now there is a solution to this problem: delocator.net

This website allows you to plug in your zipcode and immediately get a list of locally-owned coffeeshops, bookstores (and movie theatres, for that matter) straight to your computer or hand-held device. You'll be given the address, phone number, all the vital statistics you need. It's incredibly easy to use and will allow both you and your local businesses to reap immediate benefit.

Give it a try and tell me about the great finds you come up with. I'll be hitting up Elixir Espresso Bar to see what they do with the beans they get from Caffe Calabria.