To walk into a store in Aspen and be able to look in the eye of the person who owns the business is pretty cool, said Travis McLain, owner of Radio Boardshop.
And these days, it’s also pretty rare — to come by a locally owned, independent business where the owner is on the ground is becoming less and less of a reality in Aspen. McLain, an Aspen native who has been operating Radio Boardshop since he opened it in 2005, can attest.
“I mean, it's hard, just constantly… there's less and less [local businesses] every year, you know?” McLain said. “Because it's a hard place to make a business work.”
McLain is among the handful of local business owners in town who know this to be true.
Troy Selby, chef-owner and operator of Silverpeak Grill, enters his 14th year this spring of running his local restaurant. Selby said that like others, he’s weathered the ups and downs of seasonality and the economic woes that present themselves to small businesses in a resort-mountain town like Aspen — from bad snow years and forest fires to supporting employees and the increased costs of labor, goods and rent. The list goes on.
Selby, who has lived in Aspen for 27 years, said that many of his friends whom he first met here are small business owners who, like himself, “toughed it out.” And without support from the local community, “We wouldn’t have survived.”
“I think that we've all managed to survive as long because we are involved in the daily business,” Selby said. “You know, people come to our stores because they know us and want to see us and want to support us.”
But people forget, continued Selby. They get stuck in their own ways and the thought of buying locally slips people’s minds. Even the most loyal local customers, “like the rest of us,” Selby said, sometimes get sick of eating out or paying the raised prices of today's Aspen.
At a time when the streets have more corporate chain stores and empty buildings and fewer independent, locally owned businesses, reminding the community of the local places left and the people who are running them — still toughing it out and nurturing Aspen’s independent spirit — is warranted.
“I think [locals] could try a little harder at times, for sure. … My thing is, we're losing more and more local places than anything else,” Selby said. “And so anything we can do to keep in people's daily repertoire, or thinking of us on a regular basis, can’t hurt.”
And so when Selby was approached a few months ago to be included in a new directory-map concept that would feature only locally owned, independent businesses in Aspen, he was all in.
“I’ll always say ‘yes’ to this stuff; I’m kind of a yes man when it comes to any good advertising I can get without having to pay a fortune for it,” Selby said. “And I mean, this was free — which is good, because those things don’t happen as much as they used to.”
McLain also was approached to be part of the map project; his reaction was similar to Selby’s. As a local business owner, McLain said he’s always trying to support local initiatives and to him, the map was taking that to a whole other level, he said.
“It's showing people which businesses are actually real and local in Aspen, and not owned by Vail,” McLain said. “I mean, I think anything like this is kind of a step in the right direction in just, you know, creating a community too — like the map is also not just outlining the community, it's actually getting people to buy into it and be part of it as well.”
Walking the walk
Led by a group of community members, the project to put local businesses like McLain’s and Selby’s, back on the Aspen “map” — and quite literally, through the creation of a physical map — has been six months in the making.
The directory-map, which states that it includes “100-plus locally owned and independent businesses,” is finally completed and printed. Copies are soon to be distributed around town.
The map’s rollout marks the first step in a larger movement, called Radically Local — a nonprofit initiative “to support those committed to helping independent and locally owned businesses, and locals, thrive and prosper in [Aspen],” its website states.
Local business owner Candice Olson, of Local Coffee and Here House, is one of the lead voices behind the Radically Local movement and map.
“Right now, I think a lot of people feel unusually powerless in the face of changes over the last few years — I mean, you know, developers coming in, chains coming in — we seem powerless to stop all of that,” Olson said. “And so quite a few people are just kind of getting very cynical or very, like ‘the good old days are over.’”
Olson said they’ve printed 2,000 copies of the map, which they’ll first distribute mid-week this week, to the businesses that are featured in it, and then eventually to the hotels, property management offices and other establishments in Aspen.
“We wanted to do something really tangible, you know, because I know in Aspen sometimes we just talk and talk and talk about things, so we were just like, let's just do it,” Olson said. “Let's just do this and get it out and get it helping our town, and then it will help people understand what Radically Local is and understand that it's not benefiting anybody in particular.”
The Radically Local map and movement at-large is not so much about promoting local businesses as it is about “nourishing this independent spirit of Aspen,” Olson said. The map is the first step in a long-term initiative, which Olson said will unfold over the course of three to four years and include programs, like awards ceremonies honoring community members.
Radically Local is aiming toward greater projects, too, such as an app that works as a token system and will reward patronage of local businesses and volunteer work to which users can gain points and get access to grants. The nonprofit also has future plans to establish some sort of aid system for young people to get housing in town.
“My goal is to make locals and longtime visitors, at all ends of the economic spectrum, feel that they have the power to shape Aspen,” Olson said. “There are so many things we can do and all can be done in a way that's not just a big giant set of donations, it's actually us using the free market.”
No one paid to be on the Radically Local map, Olson said, it was a gift. They’re asking for small donations via the nonprofit’s website, which will contribute to the printing costs of the map.
Olson emphasized that the initiative and the map distribution is not to debunk or say anything against chains and other businesses in town that aren’t local. It’s to create an ecosystem that's supporting the things “we all say we want more of,” she said, and then actually carry those things out.
“It’s making a whole ecosystem that isn't dependent so much on the government; it's just us, as people in town, making a network,” Olson said. “This is an initiative for the citizens of Aspen, and all of the really regular visitors, to be able to kind of love Aspen into staying amazing by being thoughtful about their choices of spending.”
Mapping it out
The front of the map reads: “Your spending power is your superpower, spend thoughtfully.” The back has a QR code linked to the Radically Local website — which includes background stories on some of the businesses that are included in the map.
Olson’s daughter and co-owner of their local business, Michaela Carpenter, produced the map’s layout and design. And Olson and Carpenter are among a group of Aspenites who put their heads together in research and outreach efforts to bring the Radically Local map to fruition, Olson explained.
Community member and writer Mitzi Rapkin, for instance, played a big part in helping Carpenter with the interviews and write-ups for the origin stories that are online detailing the local businesses.
A five-person committee of local citizens met to discuss which businesses should be included on the map, Olson said, and the selection was based on a few distinct criteria. They were able to come up with 121 businesses to be featured in this first iteration of the map.
“Our criteria were very straightforward, very basic, and we tried really hard to be true to those,” Olson said. “We all of course have favorite businesses that we wanted to wiggle in, but there was a group of people keeping everyone true to the criteria.”
Among the criteria, the business must be independent and not part of a larger chain, unless it was started here and the owner still lives here, Olson said (she mentioned Paradise Bakery as an example). The business is independently operated — it doesn't have an HR department somewhere else and money doesn't flow somewhere else to a corporate headquarters, Olson explained — and the business owner lives here; the valley is their main residence.
“We probably made some mistakes, but that's why it's a first version,” Olson said. “And we've given a feedback vehicle on the website so that business owners who are on it can send us their origin stories to add to the ones that are there, and anyone who feels like they got left out in error can write us and tell us why they think we made a mistake, so this is not meant to be the final word.”
Lisa LeMay, regional manager for Aspen T-Shirt Company and who also represents local retailers on the board of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, was not aware of the map; her stores in town are not included.
The three stores — Aspen T-Shirt Co., Art Tee Gallery and Generation Aspen — are owned by O’Bos Enterprises LLC, which is currently headquartered in Edwards and operates apparel shops in Aspen, Snowmass, Vail and Beaver Creek.
LeMay said that even though their offices are based in Edwards, Aspen T-Shirt Co. was originally a local start-up and has been in the same location for over 35 years — which she said is the longest business in Aspen to never move.
After getting a quick rundown on the Radically Local map, LeMay praised the initiative, noting that many locally owned places don’t have a ton of money budgeted for advertising and they could use the free press.
LeMay went on to say, though, that to do something like this, “You gotta make sure you’ve got the right stipulations” and not leave anybody behind, she said.
“We're all — especially as locally owned, small businesses — we all love free press, that's great, but you gotta make sure you don't overlook people,” LeMay said. “I mean, it's a great concept and I appreciate that they're trying, that's awesome, but I'd love to be included, as would all locally owned businesses.”
There is a place on the Radically Local website for business owners who are not included in this first iteration of the map to speak up.
Buying into community
A map such as this can have an impact on local businesses in Aspen, as a little press goes a long way here — LeMay, Selby and McLain all spoke to that notion.
Amy Groom is the editor of The Scout Guide Aspen — an annual print guide and online platform that advertises and advocates for small and local businesses. There are now different volumes of TSG in over 74 cities.
When Groom caught wind of the Radically Local map concept, the editor decided to feature it in the next issue of TSG Aspen, which will come out in June and live a year-long shelf life on stands and in hotels and other establishments around town.
While TSG’s concept is paid advertisements, with a focus on local businesses and community members, it includes a select nonprofit each year for a free spread, Groom said. The Radically Local map has been selected to fill that nonprofit spread for this next issue.
“It seemed like a seamless thing to put in the guide and we're very excited because it just has, you know, the quote-unquote mom and pop stores and restaurants,” Groom said. “And I do think it's really beneficial because we want the locals to know about the local stores, but then we really want to drive those tourists and second homeowners to more of those smaller businesses.”
Groom, who has lived in the valley for 17 years, explained that TSG Aspen readership has hit that 50-50 mark in terms of reaching both locals and visitors.
Going off of her recent networking experiences, she said she feels that locals are pretty good about supporting local businesses because they want the dollars to stay in the community. However, there’s still some work to do when it comes to educating visitors on what’s truly local, she said.
“Which, here comes this map that will land, you know, at their hotel room or from the concierge that will help guide them to that,” Groom said.
Pointing to the map, Olson said: “It's so helpful to really know, I mean, it's not that I would never go to a chain, but I will try to start at these places — that I think to me is the best way I can kind of love this town into staying wonderful.”
For more information on the Radically Local movement, visit radicallylocal.com.