lamiki

When I started working in book publishing, every week we’d hear about a local brick-and-mortar bookstore that was closing it’s doors due to the rise of Internet resellers and big box stores (RIP Borders) that were killing off our local independents. (Watch You’ve Got Mail if you missed this part of recent history.)

We aren’t naive any more. We learned through the grassroots “shop local” campaigns that gained momentum in 2007 and went mainstream when American Express launched Small Business Saturday in 2010. We know that if we want our favorite independent retailers to stick around, we have to put our money where our mouths are or these stores will disappear.

Meet Sheri Hauser, the owner of Tasty, an art and gift shop specializing in homemade, eclectic, and colorful collectibles located between the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods in Seattle.

When you walk into her shop, you’re greeted by bright green and pink walls and artwork from familiar faces like Justin Hillgrove’s Imps & Monsters intermixed with sculptures created from found objects. There are necklaces made with the most divine gemstones and handmade patchwork pillows that you wish your grandma knew how to make. As you move through the store, the walls are adorned from top-to-bottom with a mix of vintage, retro, and rockabilly artwork and style. It’s like you walk into a classic 1950s neighborhood shop but with 1990s edge.

On the last weekend before Christmas, I walked into Tasty for the first time. But before I could peek through the picture windows I saw the sign in big bold letters: CLOSING JANUARY 31, 2014. TASTY LOVES YOU, PHINNEYWOOD.

As I shopped, a regular popped into the store and greeted Sheri with open arms and asked, “Aren’t you sad that you’re closing?”

And Sheri answered with a smile: “What are you talking about? I’ve been living my dream and now I get to start a new career!”

Sheri’s optimism at a time of change confused me. I have so many friends that have poured their hearts and souls into building their own businesses and the collapse of which would not leave them facing their customers with a smile. I needed to know more about this – about Tasty, Sheri, and the arts scene in Seattle. So I sat down to interview Sheri and learn more about the story of Tasty. (more…)

I was born and raised in the Seattle-area (read: suburbs) to parents who migrated West from the great cornfields of Iowa (or something romantic like that). I spent many summers crossing the Western United States on various pilgrimages to-and-from Grandparents houses and I can name all fifty states in alphabetical order and lay them out on a map from memory.

I spent my college years studying hipsterdom first-hand in the great city of Portland, Oregon, but made the journey back “home” to Seattle upon graduation.

I am – and always will be – a native Seattleite.

But as another Seattleite pointed out to me this past weekend – we are “rare.”

So today on Twitter I jokingly asked  –

How long must one be a resident to become a “Seattleite”? – asks the native Seattleite 🙂

— Laura Kimball (@lamiki) March 27, 2012

Because, in all honestly, I don’t know where being a “Seattlelite” starts and ends if you’re (gasp!) imported. And got the following responses –

@lamiki I always say 10 years. #native #seattle #seattleite

— Keridwyn Deller (@keridwyn) March 27, 2012

@lamiki Isn’t it a state of mind more than a length of time?

— kalen (@kalenski) March 27, 2012

@lamiki I considered myself a Seattleite after a year. Something about that city just clicked. Took much longer to call myself a New Yorker!

— kat selvocki (@shinyredtype) March 27, 2012

@lamiki 1 day 😀

— Ken (@kenfucious) March 27, 2012

@lamiki well it takes nearly 20 years to be local in Colorado:) Everyone else is just passing through

— Kendall Ruth (@iamkendal) March 27, 2012

@lamiki When they can walk by the Space Needle without taking a photo of it.

— David Hoang (@davidhoang) March 28, 2012

My question to you  – when do you officially become a local?

Photo Credit: Laura Kimball (me!)