One of the things I’ve noticed about opening a business in the country is how often the word “support” crops up. “I hope people support you!” locals say effusively. And recently, when I dropped in on an acquaintance who’d opened a beauty salon/boutique she said, “I just hope people support me. I’ve supported enough of them over the years.” And it occurred to me that the idea of support is very valid. I don’t think we should live in a dog-eat-dog world. I don’t think we should always be chasing cheapness. Frugality may seem like a virtue, but in the end it leads to dead streets, dead towns, and a loss of power and choice for us all  So with this in mind, I’ve decided to stop shopping at Coles and Safeway/Woolworths, and to switch to Jonesy’s milk. I don’t want to be party to the creation of a world in which everything is controlled by some faraway corporate superpower; and quite frankly I’m tired of pouring so much brain power into comparing the prices of packets of biscuits.