Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Baritune Day Thurston, and this is how to
Speaker 1: citizen with Baritune Day in season two, we're talking about
Speaker 1: the money, because, to be real, it's hard to citizen
Speaker 1: when we can barely pay the bills. All right, this
Speaker 1: is the moment we've been waiting for. Approaching Uh York
Speaker 1: Boulevard and then the section with North Avenue fifty. I'm
Speaker 1: looking across the cafe the lecture. You haven't been there
Speaker 1: in a minute. I remember back when the pandemic was
Speaker 1: getting started and I was taking my regular freedom walks,
Speaker 1: these walks that got me out of my house, winding
Speaker 1: through my neighborhood. Johnny's became my favorite, like neighborhood dive bar.
Speaker 1: I'm at mad locals there but a shot. I could
Speaker 1: feel that like cheers vibe in there where you could
Speaker 1: become a regular, everybody can know your name, and that
Speaker 1: just don't exist. And I was struck by a big
Speaker 1: chain in the landscape that friends they're back. When you
Speaker 1: could to that. Businesses were closed the east along absolutely
Speaker 1: shuttered and abandoned storefronts. Here on the north Side, it
Speaker 1: felt like a ghost town. And I lived near enough
Speaker 1: to a major thoroughfare York Boulevard, which I am used
Speaker 1: to having this hustle, this bustle of this color in
Speaker 1: this life, and that was gone. My favorite bar, Johnny's, closed,
Speaker 1: and I understood why so many of them had to be.
Speaker 1: It was a public health safety measure. But over a
Speaker 1: year later, a lot of those businesses they couldn't hold
Speaker 1: out any longer. In fact, I just learned that somewhere
Speaker 1: around fifteen thousand businesses in l A County alone have
Speaker 1: permanently shut since the beginning of the pandemic, well the
Speaker 1: fallout tonight, a new study finds at seven million small
Speaker 1: businesses across the country may not survive the economic crunch
Speaker 1: caused by the pandemic. People are afraid to come, Some
Speaker 1: people don't care about cutting their hair anymore. Sales are
Speaker 1: down or wapping. The worst part is not knowing what
Speaker 1: to expect tomorrow. How much worse is it gonna get?
Speaker 1: And we all know the other side of that story.
Speaker 1: We were ordering so much stuff online. I'm talking toilet paper, sweatpants,
Speaker 1: weighted blankets, and ring lights. Oh my goodness, if you
Speaker 1: were able to successfully order a ring light off the
Speaker 1: internet in the first few months of the pandemic. You
Speaker 1: were super blessed. And while we were doing all that ordering,
Speaker 1: we were patting the pockets of rich corporations and leaving
Speaker 1: behind small local businesses to fend for themselves. Last week
Speaker 1: we learned how a giant company like Amazon gathers up
Speaker 1: all this power and the effect that that has in
Speaker 1: our democracy. But Amazon is not the entire story. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's true businesses couldn't hold on and they're gone, But
Speaker 1: others they're still kicking. They're fighting to stay alive. Because
Speaker 1: when COVID hit communities showed up, they citizens, they participated,
Speaker 1: they supported those local businesses. Here we go calls what's up? Man?
Speaker 1: So why is this blue? Then? Is this a blue pat? Oh?
Speaker 1: And how loving doing that? You should call this the
Speaker 1: smurf larte? Have you got silver like Ramen a k
Speaker 1: a Ramen of York. They're still hanging in there. And
Speaker 1: then Rosy Bunny Bean, which is such an attractive looking
Speaker 1: pet food shop. I thought it was a people food shopped.
Speaker 1: And then we've got just the saving grace as Teca
Speaker 1: and they look like they've adapted so well. Forgot Mario's Liquor.
Speaker 1: Mario did a major upgrade and he's looking like he's
Speaker 1: doing great, so I hope that's true. But very new
Speaker 1: signed Pristine Mario, trying to keep up with the time.
Speaker 1: How are you doing there? In fact, what inspired this
Speaker 1: episode was my wife reading an email, an email that
Speaker 1: featured Maya Komarov, who started this business called shop in
Speaker 1: n y C now during the height of COVID in
Speaker 1: New York City. Shopping NYC created this online network of
Speaker 1: local businesses offering same day delivery, competing directly with Amazon.
Speaker 1: They even had this super catchy campaign, get this Brooklyn
Speaker 1: not Bezos. Oh I love that. And Shopping NYC is
Speaker 1: actually how I met my guests today because while people
Speaker 1: like Maya were showing up for her local community, those
Speaker 1: local businesses, well, they showed up right back, helping their
Speaker 1: neighbors survive these unprecedented times. Marie Estrada is the co
Speaker 1: founder and co owner of Moto Spirits Rice Whiskey Distillery
Speaker 1: in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, beyond making
Speaker 1: delicious libations in the spring of twent each want to
Speaker 1: get the height of COVID. Marie was there for New
Speaker 1: York when New York needed her most. M m HM
Speaker 1: so him, Marie, nice to meet you. Hi. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: nice to meet you too. Well, thank you for taking
Speaker 1: some time to speak with us. Can you, just, for
Speaker 1: our purposes introduce yourself and your business. My name's Marie.
Speaker 1: Actually my full name is Marie eleanor Augustine Estrata. Thank
Speaker 1: my parents for that. Um. I was actually born in
Speaker 1: the Philippines. So I'm an immigrant naturalized and uh came
Speaker 1: here to New York, went to Columbia University, studied English
Speaker 1: and anthropology. Then then now I'm making whiskey at Moto
Speaker 1: Spirits right across the street from a police precinct. Actually,
Speaker 1: and are they frequent visitors? They are in a nice way,
Speaker 1: you know. They come by once in a while and
Speaker 1: they're just like, oh, you know, I think we need
Speaker 1: your air compressor, help us with your tires, that are
Speaker 1: you know, And I'm like, yeah, yeah, come on in,
Speaker 1: you know. And so yeah, okay, So it sounds like
Speaker 1: you should be on the payroll of NYP, But that's
Speaker 1: like a different conversation. You're the auto body shop and distillery. Um.
Speaker 1: And then what's what's your role in Moto I'm co
Speaker 1: founder and so my my business partner, he guy um
Speaker 1: Yar Denny. He and I run Moto Spirits together, and
Speaker 1: a actually called Moto Spirits because we ride motorcycles. Don't
Speaker 1: listen to that mom, and everything we make is inspired
Speaker 1: by motorcycle trips through different countries. Well, okay, tell me
Speaker 1: something about yourself that that might surprise people that's not
Speaker 1: in your official bio. Well, I have my pilot's license.
Speaker 1: I've been flying since I was fourteen, and I flew
Speaker 1: sailplanes with my stepfather and then I got my regular
Speaker 1: pilot's license back in two thousand seven. So I think
Speaker 1: some people are surprised that I do that. Um, they
Speaker 1: don't often see someone who looks like me flying cessna's,
Speaker 1: owning a distillery, flying planes, breaking all kinds of moles. Marie,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of that. Actually, you know you should be.
Speaker 1: You should be. Do you remember the moment you decided
Speaker 1: to open a distillery? So I have to bring in
Speaker 1: my my business partner, and he and I live in
Speaker 1: the same apartment building in Williamsburg. We would have these
Speaker 1: amazing rooftop party barbecues and all kinds of things, and
Speaker 1: whenever there came a project, he would come to me.
Speaker 1: Because I have certain skill sets that I wouldn't say, Well, no,
Speaker 1: they are on the other end of the spectrum as
Speaker 1: a guy. And so you sound like Liam Neeson. You
Speaker 1: have a particular set of skills. What kind of skills
Speaker 1: are talking? Well, I actually, you know, I don't smoke
Speaker 1: like a chimney. I know all this stuff. So I
Speaker 1: have a palette. He likes to kind of bust doors down.
Speaker 1: I like to still bust doors down, but you know,
Speaker 1: then clean them up and make them organized and actually
Speaker 1: execute things that are ideas that that's how we operate together.
Speaker 1: And so when he first went on the first motorcycle
Speaker 1: trip to Vietnam, he came back and he said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Marie or he calls me, we we I
Speaker 1: have this thing. It's amazing. And so he had me
Speaker 1: taste these plastic bottles filled with clear things. My first
Speaker 1: reaction was, oh my god, this is terrible. It was
Speaker 1: just does not taste good at all. And I have
Speaker 1: no reservations about saying my opinion about the way things taste.
Speaker 1: And he said okay. And I said, I think you're
Speaker 1: colored by your experience there in Vietnam, because he had
Speaker 1: described falling in love with the people just discovering these
Speaker 1: people making moonshine basically even though it was called rice wine,
Speaker 1: and he said, I want to find this, and his
Speaker 1: impatience was like, I can't find it. And so this
Speaker 1: was the two of us then realizing that, you know,
Speaker 1: we we can find it, but not really um. And
Speaker 1: so that's kind of how it started. Some explosions a
Speaker 1: little bit and home experimenting. I'm sorry, explosions tell me
Speaker 1: from so inside. Uh, what happened was we were trying
Speaker 1: to experiment with how to actually make this drink ourselves
Speaker 1: so that it was palatable. And all of this is
Speaker 1: I guess the history of what happens. You know with
Speaker 1: legitimate distillers, they tend to do things under the radar first,
Speaker 1: and then they do things legitimately and avoid those kinds
Speaker 1: of pressure cooker explosions things like that and the ruining
Speaker 1: of someone's girlfriends, you know, Jimmy Choose and sneakers and
Speaker 1: things like that. When that happens. This is a very
Speaker 1: adventurous start. What are you making in your distillery? What
Speaker 1: are you distilling? We're making two things, but the whiskey
Speaker 1: we're making made from one rice. And it turns out
Speaker 1: that officially, the designation is a whiskey if you're using
Speaker 1: a hundred percent grain and then aging them in barrel,
Speaker 1: and then we produced also what's called jabuka, and jabuka
Speaker 1: means apple in Croatian. The wet year, did you found
Speaker 1: motor spirits? So whenever someone asks me the question, I
Speaker 1: have to answer legally. We started in two thousand sixteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but you destroyed Jimmy choose and a pressure cooker
Speaker 1: well before. Yes. Um. One of the things about what
Speaker 1: we were doing, and we went into this very practically,
Speaker 1: was that we don't know what we're doing. The thing
Speaker 1: I think with both a guy and me is that
Speaker 1: we're not We're not the most normal of distillers. My
Speaker 1: stereotypical view as a you know, bearded white man with
Speaker 1: sometimes glasses or not. But I am not that, and
Speaker 1: a guy is not. At What does it mean for
Speaker 1: for you to not be seen as normal? I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say I'm proud of it. It's not like I walk
Speaker 1: around saying I'm you know what, I have said this before.
Speaker 1: I'm a little brown person who's from the Philippines and
Speaker 1: I make whiskey, you know, um, But I am without
Speaker 1: actually saying it, and I don't mind representing something that's
Speaker 1: um limited. I'm limited in this world. After the break,
Speaker 1: COVID hits New York City and Marie has to figure
Speaker 1: out how to keep her business, her community, and herself alive. Yea,
Speaker 1: can you tell me, um what was it like when
Speaker 1: COVID for came to your community? You know, as a
Speaker 1: business owner, when COVID first hit, I think it was
Speaker 1: even March twelve, you know, I put it on my
Speaker 1: calendar or something like that. When it became officially a pandemic.
Speaker 1: It took a little while for it to register that
Speaker 1: it was an actual pandemic. Today, Governor Cuomo announcing starting
Speaker 1: tomorrow at five pm, a ban on any gatherings of
Speaker 1: five people or more tonight in a studying policy reversal,
Speaker 1: New York City, joining California and urging the general public
Speaker 1: to where non medical face coverings to stop the virus.
Speaker 1: The Trump administration has declared New York a major disaster.
Speaker 1: The state accounts for nearly half of the nation's reported
Speaker 1: cases of COVID nineteen. We are literally scouring the globe
Speaker 1: looking for medical supplies. We're becoming crushed under a tidal
Speaker 1: wave of unfathomable numbers. I even got covid um and
Speaker 1: I lost all sense of smell and taste for a month.
Speaker 1: And I was telling my business partner too at the time.
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I just I don't know what's
Speaker 1: wrong with me. And this was before we recognize that
Speaker 1: one of the main symptoms of getting COVID was losing
Speaker 1: your sense of smell and taste. And I said this,
Speaker 1: sim I said, I don't know what's wrong with me.
Speaker 1: And then when all of this information started coming, he said, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, you had COVID, and so it wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: So we did coronavirus, driving a consumer scramble for hand sanitizers.
Speaker 1: This is Attorney's General in several states cracking down on
Speaker 1: price gougers. Last week, a twelve ounce bottle of hand
Speaker 1: sanitizer was selling on Amazon for fifty dollars. Comparing ounce
Speaker 1: for ounce, that's about two times more than the price
Speaker 1: of gasoline. When COVID hit, what we started researching and
Speaker 1: hearing about was that you could make sanitizer. Right, we
Speaker 1: have the equipment and the ability to produce alcohol in
Speaker 1: the same way that's produced in sanitizer. And then what
Speaker 1: happened was one of my workers. She had a friend
Speaker 1: who was working alongside New York City makes Ppe, and
Speaker 1: so they said, can you make sanitizer and we will
Speaker 1: help deliver the bottles of sanitizer if you just keep
Speaker 1: producing it. So we actually pivoted our business. We started
Speaker 1: using our mixtures of experimental concord grapes and rice and
Speaker 1: jabuka tails and redistilling them and produced our first sanitizer.
Speaker 1: So the large part of our business and my day
Speaker 1: to day was literally, Okay, I have to batch cocktails,
Speaker 1: put them in containers, how do I put a label
Speaker 1: on sanitizer? And is this legal? Okay, We're We're just
Speaker 1: going to do it because no one has sanitizer right
Speaker 1: now and we can make it. And it wasn't a
Speaker 1: money making strategy or anything. It was all of these
Speaker 1: hospitals and we were just seeing this lack of anything
Speaker 1: and that that's what our two thousand twenty was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what we're doing, bottled cocktails and sanitizer
Speaker 1: and making sure not to swap those labels right exactly
Speaker 1: exactly What was it like to change your production so quickly?
Speaker 1: It wasn't too too much of a change. Actually, because
Speaker 1: I think that's how we're lucky. We're not a huge
Speaker 1: production and so any changes we make tend to start
Speaker 1: with experiments. It was ideal, in fact, because we could
Speaker 1: just produce it in a way that no one else could,
Speaker 1: and we we made videos actually, so we even taught
Speaker 1: people how to make their own sanitizer. We told people
Speaker 1: that they could even go to their liquor store as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible and get some you know, X y Z,
Speaker 1: some ever clear whatever it was that they could get
Speaker 1: their hands on and use that, and then we showed
Speaker 1: them how using certain ingredients based on whose recommendations. And
Speaker 1: some people were like, oh my god, I did it.
Speaker 1: You know, I said, don't drink it. So as a
Speaker 1: business owner yourself, how do you justify all of these
Speaker 1: activities which we're not prioritizing any kind of bottom line?
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was a human reaction. I think
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, Wow, I'm in a rarefied position
Speaker 1: right now. I never thought I never woke up in
Speaker 1: the morning thinking, oh mom, I'm making hand sanitizer. You know,
Speaker 1: it was never a cool thing. But you think about
Speaker 1: all these people who potentially are dying, and you don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on. You just you sit there and
Speaker 1: you say to yourself, Okay, the world is in a pandemic.
Speaker 1: Everything that's happening now has no code written or or
Speaker 1: anything like that, and so anything that we do now
Speaker 1: to even make a small difference will be a big
Speaker 1: difference probably. But at the same time, there is a
Speaker 1: practical side. I don't want to paint us as you know,
Speaker 1: oh there are you know, these ridiculously generous people. I
Speaker 1: think we are. But at the same time, we were
Speaker 1: thinking practically and we said, well, if we can't sell
Speaker 1: our booze right now, at some point we'll be able
Speaker 1: to somehow balance out the fact that we can't sell
Speaker 1: anything else by somehow maybe just keeping ourselves afloat, and
Speaker 1: maybe this will happen. We were giving away sanitizer and
Speaker 1: we were also getting donations from people, so we said, okay,
Speaker 1: if you guys donate to us and we can keep producing,
Speaker 1: and then we can keep giving our sanitizer to folks.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened. A lot of people were incredibly
Speaker 1: generous and they said, wow, we love what you're doing.
Speaker 1: And here, you know, and if if we couldn't fulfill
Speaker 1: a particular order. Then we were passing it on to
Speaker 1: someone else, and so there's a sense of it just
Speaker 1: has to happen and someone would take it on. What
Speaker 1: did you call your hand sanitizer? We call it don't
Speaker 1: be an Asshole, And it's because that's actually written on
Speaker 1: our label and it's always used protection. So we thought
Speaker 1: it was kind of a joke, you know that people
Speaker 1: once they could always use protection don't be an asshole.
Speaker 1: So that's our sanitizer. Did it change or highlight your
Speaker 1: own connection and your business is connection to your actual
Speaker 1: local community? Quite a few people who I think it.
Speaker 1: I started realizing that people did love us in a way,
Speaker 1: which is something I didn't really recognize. Everyone was reaching
Speaker 1: back out to us the relationships that we had initially
Speaker 1: fostered with random things like motorcycles and dogs, and they
Speaker 1: just came, you know, everyone just said, Okay, well we're
Speaker 1: gonna do this. Or bartenders came and we did this
Speaker 1: bartending event once, this competition, and they reached out and
Speaker 1: they said, hey, how about if we do um, you know,
Speaker 1: a special cocktail thing for you online and then we
Speaker 1: can you know, give that money to a certain organization.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's how we've been doing things. Now,
Speaker 1: how how would you define community? I think for me,
Speaker 1: community is a healthy dependence on each other. I'm really
Speaker 1: lucky because I have a strong sense of family and
Speaker 1: I'm my sisters are my best friends, and my family
Speaker 1: has always been very close. But beyond that, I start
Speaker 1: thinking about all the things that I have to do
Speaker 1: or want to do, and I start reaching out to
Speaker 1: the people who are not necessarily always aligned with who
Speaker 1: I am, but who can we can help each other,
Speaker 1: and it's that sort of bond that means you're part
Speaker 1: of a community. I don't when I think of community,
Speaker 1: I never think negatively, which is maybe um naive of me.
Speaker 1: But I don't see it as a crowd, right, that's
Speaker 1: the opposite for me. It's like there's power in crowds,
Speaker 1: but it's a louder thing, whereas a community is you're
Speaker 1: in it. The businesses who I support, they often are
Speaker 1: my friends. One of my friends owns this really amazing
Speaker 1: spot and he's Pakistani and it's called b K Johnny.
Speaker 1: But what happened with him after COVID was and he
Speaker 1: went he was hospitalized. He brought in program of feeding
Speaker 1: under served people and so now since June, he's I think,
Speaker 1: going to hit ten thou free meals. So this to me,
Speaker 1: I started thinking about this and every time I ordered food,
Speaker 1: it's often there because I know exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 1: So that that's what the community is. I think for me, Well,
Speaker 1: we come back how Marie balances values with necessity when
Speaker 1: it comes to that company that shall not be named. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna name it is Amazon. That's that's the company.
Speaker 1: H When I think of Amazon, I don't think of community.
Speaker 1: I think of it definitely is a huge conglomerate as
Speaker 1: a business, and that's the difference. I think. But when
Speaker 1: I'm in this business and I have to get something
Speaker 1: delivered in a certain amount of time, unfortunately for me,
Speaker 1: I end up often having to get something from Amazon
Speaker 1: because I need it in a certain amount of time
Speaker 1: with as little hassle as possible. Why do you why
Speaker 1: do you say, unfortunately you have to order from Amazon.
Speaker 1: You're trying to avoid ordering through Amazon? What is what
Speaker 1: is that about? I wish it were a different world
Speaker 1: where Amazon wasn't almost overtaking so much. There's an intention
Speaker 1: with small businesses, that's why they're called mom and pop shops.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, oh, there's a sense of community,
Speaker 1: whereas I don't think Amazon has a sense of community
Speaker 1: except for a bottom line. Like, Okay, we will attach
Speaker 1: ourselves to an initiative. We will start promoting certain businesses
Speaker 1: like black owned businesses, Asian businesses, all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: But it's not the intention is not because they necessarily care,
Speaker 1: but they want to profit off of these communities. It
Speaker 1: gives me a terrible taste in my mouth. And I
Speaker 1: know they employ a lot of people, and look, I
Speaker 1: I know this, and even some of the people I
Speaker 1: had brought in for certain events and things had on
Speaker 1: the side been working at Amazon because they needed to
Speaker 1: make money. But goodness, couldn't we have alternatives? Yeah? From
Speaker 1: a from a customer perspective, When I'm a customer of
Speaker 1: so many businesses and I have felt that hesitation, that
Speaker 1: distaste in my mom, I guess I'll go to Amazon.
Speaker 1: What do you think a small business can offer a
Speaker 1: customer that a larger resource business like Amazon can't. This
Speaker 1: is something if you do want someone to do something
Speaker 1: for you that you want to help them with, or
Speaker 1: you bounce ideas off of and that's what happens often
Speaker 1: when I am working with motorcycle businesses, other food businesses
Speaker 1: in the area who are in Brooklyn, any chefs or
Speaker 1: you know, any anyone like that. Then we create events,
Speaker 1: we do things together. Even a hairstylist, we this event
Speaker 1: called moto Oasis because you know, we wanted to serve
Speaker 1: our community and have people outside safely, get back massages
Speaker 1: and haircuts, you know, and eat really yummy Filipino food.
Speaker 1: I mean, who was so you can't do that with Amazon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a word that's occurring to me, which is relationships.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know that I feel like I
Speaker 1: have a relationship with Amazon. I have a have a
Speaker 1: series of transactions exactly very efficient transactions, but I don't
Speaker 1: know them right. So, in the context of everything we've
Speaker 1: talked about, in particular the community connection that a business
Speaker 1: can have with other businesses and with the public, is
Speaker 1: there anything you encourage a listener to do. I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that I always remind myself to
Speaker 1: do to kind of slow things down, um, not rush entirely,
Speaker 1: and to be okay with making those mistakes. I don't
Speaker 1: think I would have my business if we didn't have
Speaker 1: all those problems and those mistakes, and if we slow
Speaker 1: things down, um, forgive ourselves a little bit for these mistakes,
Speaker 1: and think about also doing things outside of our comfort
Speaker 1: zone so that we can actually allow ourselves to make
Speaker 1: those mistakes. I think all of those come together for me,
Speaker 1: and that's what I would recommend, slowing things down, making
Speaker 1: some mistakes, for giving yourself. Wow, that was now what
Speaker 1: I expected at Although it can be like shop small
Speaker 1: business Saturdays, But no, you went to the deep end
Speaker 1: of the pool. No. I mean I wouldn't have my
Speaker 1: business if it wasn't for all the mistakes we made,
Speaker 1: you know, And I just I think people are so
Speaker 1: scared to fail, and you're not learning if you don't
Speaker 1: fail honestly and in the context of the value you've
Speaker 1: been a part of, contributed to, and benefited from in
Speaker 1: your community as a business. Is there any advice you
Speaker 1: have to us citizen consumers out here ways you'd like
Speaker 1: to see us showing up more or better? Oh for sure.
Speaker 1: So I think something that would be really amazing to
Speaker 1: take a look at it what you're actually purchasing and
Speaker 1: how much time and money you're spending on your online purchases,
Speaker 1: Whether it's Amazon or not. Your online purchases and the
Speaker 1: purchases and the things you're doing with your money that
Speaker 1: are local and or brick and mortar, and if you
Speaker 1: actually did you know, an Excel shoot or whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you want to do and said to yourself, Okay, wow,
Speaker 1: I think I could spend significantly more on the local
Speaker 1: business and also the physical business. Maybe once you know,
Speaker 1: things open up a little bit more. If I can
Speaker 1: do that, then I think it would make a difference. Actually,
Speaker 1: So that's what I would would recommend. I love that
Speaker 1: that's a good it's a good home work assignment. And
Speaker 1: it makes me wish that a platform like Mint or
Speaker 1: quick Books or you know, one of these online finance
Speaker 1: things could let you like you could probably flag it
Speaker 1: in there and see it over time. But it plants
Speaker 1: a good question in my head. Marie, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the time you can I order your stuff
Speaker 1: to be shipped? Is that possible? Is they way to
Speaker 1: get it to California? Unfortunately, so when I'm when I'm
Speaker 1: able to travel back to New York, I'm coming to
Speaker 1: Bushwick and I'm coming to try your products, rice whiskey
Speaker 1: in particular. All Right, thank you again so much, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. Marie just gave an excellent call to action,
Speaker 1: which is to really track how much of your spending
Speaker 1: is happening in your local community and then try to
Speaker 1: increase that percentage. In that spirit, we're just gonna pass
Speaker 1: the mike to Marie to shout out some of her
Speaker 1: local businesses that you should absolutely support. Brooklyn, this is
Speaker 1: for you. There's b K Johnny means sweetheart in Pakistani
Speaker 1: love Nelly also known as the Drunk Bakers, and they
Speaker 1: make the most delicious and panadas bolero elevated street food Vietnamese.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could go on. There's Engines for Change,
Speaker 1: and then there's Motor Velly, and then there's motor Girl,
Speaker 1: and then there's I got it. It takes a village,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna member of the village. I would, I would,
Speaker 1: and my mom I have to thank her. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be here. Next week we speak with Bruce Patterson, technology
Speaker 1: director of Amman Idaho. Don't let the small town a
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand fool you. They've managed to invest in a
Speaker 1: model of municipal broadband that any city would dream of.
Speaker 1: For you know what time it is? Time for actions.
Speaker 1: Here to guide you through them is our producer Ali.
Speaker 1: We want to know how you relate to local business.
Speaker 1: What locally owned businesses do you rely on? Do you
Speaker 1: know the owners, what do you most appreciate about it?
Speaker 1: What would you miss if it was gone? Try following
Speaker 1: some of your favorite local businesses on social media, many
Speaker 1: of Instagram accounts where you can reach out directly. We
Speaker 1: often hear that it's good to support local independent businesses,
Speaker 1: but why exactly. The Institute for Local Self Reliance actually
Speaker 1: answers that question in the article why care about independent
Speaker 1: locally owned businesses? It's in the title. If you want
Speaker 1: to do a deeper dive, go to bookshop dot org,
Speaker 1: Backslash Shop backslash, how to Citizen to check out more
Speaker 1: titles on this topic. Lastly, we want you to shop local,
Speaker 1: and we want you to buy direct. If you live
Speaker 1: in New York City, check out shop in dot NYC,
Speaker 1: a new online service for residents to shop from small
Speaker 1: businesses in their area, not Amazon. Shopping NYC has plans
Speaker 1: to expand, so keep an eye out for one near you,
Speaker 1: or reach out to them if you want to start
Speaker 1: a marketplace in your region. Meanwhile, the shop app by
Speaker 1: Shopify can help you spot local businesses selling directly online.
Speaker 1: As always, when in doubt, order directly from the business
Speaker 1: that is providing the good or service you're buying. You
Speaker 1: get the same great product and they get more of
Speaker 1: the revenue. If you're tak any of these actions, please
Speaker 1: brag about yourself online using the hashtag how to Citizen
Speaker 1: and send us general feedback or ideas for the show
Speaker 1: to comments at how to citizen dot com. Speaking of
Speaker 1: that domain name, we have one and we're using it.
Speaker 1: Visit how to citizen dot com to sign up for
Speaker 1: our newsletter or learn about upcoming events or even more
Speaker 1: stuff than that. And if you like the show, spread
Speaker 1: the word, tell somebody. If you don't, definitely just keep
Speaker 1: it to yourself. Appreciate you. How does Citizen with barrettune
Speaker 1: Day is a production of I Heart Radio Podcasts and
Speaker 1: dust Light Productions. Our executive producers are Me barrattun Day, Thurston,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stewart, and Misha Yuson. Our producers are Stephanie Cone
Speaker 1: and Ali Kilts. Kelly Prime is our editor, Valentino Rivera
Speaker 1: is our engineer, and Sam Paulson is our apprentice. Original
Speaker 1: music by Andrew Eaping. This episode was produced and sound
Speaker 1: designed by Ali Kilts. Special thanks to Joel Smith from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio.