I want to settle down on an economic island

As I've been touring, I've had an eye open for places I might want to settle down once the tour ends. My search has been pretty open-ended, I haven't really been looking for anything in particular. I've mostly just been looking for a feeling.

But my visit to Thunder Bay might have helped me narrow it down. I was hosted by Marcelle at Sleepy G Farm, and she told me how she started selling to Safeway in Thunder Bay. The conversation started with a frank question about pricing: What was Safeway paying for wholesale kale from their distributor?

The produce manager at Safeway was forthcoming, and it turned out the wholesale price was roughly what Marcelle needed to charge for her own Kale — but hers was organic! Thus started a profitable business relationship, and Marcelle now supplies all of Safeway's Kale in Thunder Bay.

It's not always that easy. In most places, a small, local grower like Marcelle can't compete with the kale trucked up from California. So what makes Thunder Bay different? Isolation and scale. Thunder Bay is eight hours from the nearest major city, Winnipeg. That makes Thunder Bay harder and more expensive to supply, and the price Safeway has to pay for California kale is significantly higher than it would be in Winnipeg.

Thunder Bay isn't a large city — about 100,000 people. That isn't enough to make it an attractive distribution hub to a company the size of Safeway, which explains why Safeway's internal distribution isn't competitive with Marcelle's local kale. But, it is by far the largest city in the region, which makes it the de facto economic hub for the surrounding area — six hours of Northern Ontario muskeg in every direction.

Because of this, Marcelle told me that Thunder Bay has a large number of locally-owned, regional businesses that only operate in that region. It has the services and business base of a much larger city because it has to provide everything, and competition from national and multi-national chains is weaker because it takes more time, money, and resources to supply Thunder Bay than other cities of similar size.

Basically, Thunder Bay is an economic island. And, I've realized that this is something I'm looking for when I settle down. Most of the places that have felt attractive to me — the ones that have a strong sense of place — are a bit like this. They are all a bit off the beaten track, and they tend to have strong local economies. There are fewer big-box stores, and a lot of smaller businesses where you could bump into the owner if you were to hang around a bit.

Thunder Bay and Nelson are like this. Some of the other places I've found are even more isolated. Cortes Island has a literal island economy, and Clearwater has no branded retail at all.

Island economies have downsides for sure — they tend to be more expensive, and some things may not be readily available at all. So what's the attraction of being part of one? I'm not sure I can put my finger on it. Maybe I'm still just looking for a 'feeling'. But I think a community is healthier when most of its economic needs are met locally.