Talking with Scott Burns at the Business and Rigbt Liaelibood Conference in June, Bob Schwartz and Alan Greene came up witb tbe idea of francbising Houseb old E conomy stores-ubere y ou could get the tools, equipment and information for economically and culturally more self-reliant and rewarding liaing. Eacb product would haae an analysis of its economic costs and benefits along witb otber data. Beat tbem to tbe punch, and don't bother witb the francbise trip-do it yourself. More and more s.talk-in and mail-order stores are springing up tbat focus on products for self-reliance. Tbey're often as interesting for tbeir organizational set-up as for tbe amazing, hard-to-get products they carry. Here are some we know of-you cany it from bere. -TB The Whole Earth Access Co. 2466 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 Whole Earth Access is the granddaddy of the self-reliant hardware stores coming out of the Wbole Earth Catalog. An amazing hodge-podge of things crammed into a tiny store jammed with people and clerks walking on top of the counters trying to reach things hung from the ceiling. They used to have a long table in the middle of the store with racks of catalogs from various producers of exotic and useful things and would sit down and help you figure out what to order directly. They now wholesale to other retail stores as well as mail order and walk-in sales. Good catalog filled with hard-to-find things-from portable Japanese wood planers and groovecutters to Alaskan mills to food mills to log splitters and woodstoves. Sometimes short on sound advice and long on counteiculture jive, but lots of good stuff. We've had problems getting paid for stuff they've ordered from us but have been told that things have improved there recently. Tbe Good Neighbor Heritage Catalog, $1 from' Lehman Hardware and Appliances Kidron, OH 44636 A hardware store that grew up a generation ago in the heart of America's largest Amish and Swiss Mennonite communify in eastern Ohio and provides solid products many people can't find or don't know eiist. Oil cookstoves, gasoline-powered clotheswashers, washboards, kerosene freezers and irons, coal-fired hot water heaters, coal/wood/ oil or coal/wood/electric stoves, noodle makers, bottle cappers and much more. Amertcan Village Institute Pro du cts Catalog, $2 from: A.V,I. 440 Meyers Street Kettle Falls, Ul A 99141 1977 RAIN Page 7 presses, corn shellers, foot-powered wood lathes, sashsaws, and treadle powpower units, have been chosen as suitable for production in their apprentice program, and thus make those programs self-supporting. Plans and hardware kits are planned (you do the woodworking). Some products are available only periodically when produced by the apprentice programs. Membership programs and a bi-monthly journal, The Cider Press-are available. Both products and programs look commendabie-hope they do well. A well-thought out operation. Northeast Carry Trading Company 110 Water Street P.O. Box 187 Hallowell, ME 04347 Set up by the Northeast Carry a.t.. group in Maine to provide quality tools, hardware and information for selfreliance. A store, mail-order service and book lending library are operable now, and workshops are planned. In addition to the usual products, they sell a nicelydesigned hot water heating system, water-carrying yokes, one-quart flush toilets, and a variety of wood cooking stoves. $6 membership fee. Pioneer Lamps and Stoaes Company Catalog, $4 from' 71 Yesler Street Seattle, WA 98104 Catalog is expensive for what it has, and the set-up seems aimed to milk the nostalgia boom, but they do have a complete line of oil lighting fixtures, Hillcrest, Ridgetop and Olympic stoves and Alaska commercial wood and coal ranges for feeding a whole herd of hun- -TB AVI surfaced a-year or so ago with a catalog offering long unavailable handand foot-powered equipment and free apprenticeship programs in foundrywork woodworking and metalworking. Sounded suspicious -what was paying for it all? Inquiries went unanswered, and no one seemed to know what happened to this new comet. Well, they've surfaced again, somewhat dazed at the end of an epic five-month move of 30 tons of machinery to a new location in eastern Washington. New staff pe ople have joined them, including Barbara and Larry Geno, and both production and educational programs seem to be getting into full swing. Their products, such as grain mills, fruit and cider press- gry lumberjacks. I t August/September HousercH Economy Stores
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