A three ring circus...

When I was a kid, I used to get so excited when the carnival rolled into town.  Usually these transient, mysterious, fun filled businesses would show up sometime in mid March.

Growing up in New Hampshire made for some very cold afternoons and evenings on the "Tilt-a-Whirl"!!

But I didn't care...  

As an adult, concerned about the economy, my job security, and my taxes going up.... I look at these itinerant "fun for the whole family" set ups quite differently today.

A traveling group of carnies who takes money away from tax paying local businesses, then skips away to do the same thing in the next town is not far from a "strip miner".  If you don't remember the term from grammar school, strip mining is pulling all the coal out that is not very deep in the ground.  It is easy to come in and skim off a few layers of topsoil, pull out all the coal, and leave a devastated landscape behind.  Much cheaper than digging a deep mine, which comparability speaking, costs a lot more with less of an impact on the environment.  The corporations that used to do this (I believe it has been outlawed but if I'm wrong please enlighten me!)  would leave a blight on the landscape and are nothing short of  total enemies of the environment and the ecosystem.

So now I see carnivals in March as economic strip miners.  I won't go to them any more, and I think I am doing my kids a great service explaining to them why I won't participate, (hopefully as we drive to a permanent local place of amusement, because I still like to have fun).    Sorry Mr. Carnival owner but in this economy, I need to protect whats mine, and my community and the businesses in it are "mine".

Now I realize, there is a new kind of  Carny in my town.  No, I'm not talking about the big box stores today.

In the article I renamed below, you can read all about them - though when you read it, you will likely say, "oh yeah, I have seen those guys in my town from time to time".  The next time you see one of those highly marketed campaigns advertising a blow out 2 day sale with truckloads of low priced tools, sneakers, whatever... I ask you to think about that fried dough you ate from the last Carnival that made you throw up.  What these guys are selling is a false "feel good" you get for a minute because you "saved" some money.  This imposer is not a far cry from the "feel good" you get from a hunk of fried dough. In the long term, they are both really really bad.

The local shoppers referred to in this article who did their shopping with the itinerant retailer to save a few bucks probably don't realize they were eating some greasy fried dough that was cooked in really old, burned oil, because like the carnival, it tasted good.  But I submit the following, better information coupled with a conscious choice to invest in the local retailers; the fixtures in their town (probably their friends and neighbors) would be better for everyone in the long run.  Please spread the word...

When The Carnival Comes to Town...