With two exceptions, I'm a mom-and-pop shop kind of guy.

As a resolution I bound myself to this New Year, in the next 12 months I want to work harder to support the local retailer. It feels almost patriotic to know that my dollar stays in my own community, and doubly so when the little guy sells me products that directly support our state, region or country.

Lately I find myself as likely to cringe at the sight of "Made in China" on a product label as I am "contains partially-hydrogenated oils." Neither of which is healthy, for our economy or our bodies. As a consumer, I find it increasingly difficult to locate a product not brandished with one of these messages.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't write this column to gain your affection, nor do I consider my motives completely altruistic. You see, those same local businesses buy ads in our newspaper. Without ads, we'd have no Federal Way News, and without the newspaper, I'd have no job.

But for 2009's resolution, I didn't set out to change the shopping habits of the nation, just mine. Fortunately, I'm not alone in my endeavor.

A growing number of folks, particularly those that frequent our Federal Way Farmer's Market, have seen the benefit of doing business locally.

The group at StayLocal.org have outlined a list of tangible benefits for spending our dollars in our own community. I found them so well written and compelling that I decided to use a little editorial freedom and present them to you here.

Locally owned businesses build strong neighborhoods by sustaining communities, linking neighbors, and by contributing more to local causes.

Local ownership means that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development.

Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

Entrepreneurship fuels America's economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls. (This may be difficult to find in Federal Way, but I included it nonetheless.)

Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walk-able town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

I should clip this article and keep it in my wallet for the next time I'm tempted to pull it out at a national chain with no ties to our community.

Referring back to my opening sentence, there are still two circumstances that I routinely put personal gratification ahead of a responsible consumer decision. One of those is coffee.

At home, my wife and brew our own organic, fairly-traded beans. In Federal Way, I frequent a handful of locally owned shops that roast or brew sustainable coffee.

But when I'm traveling, usually back-and-forth to my wife's hometown in Montana, I rely exclusively on Starbucks and Tully's to help sustain the caffeine buzz throughout the miles.

Why, you ask? It boils down to consistency. I need to know how it's going to taste before I walk inside, and I don't have time on a 900-mile roadtrip to sniff out the best local cup of joe in town. I want "coffee out, coffee in," (see Scott Anthony's column for more information on this) and then back on the Interstate.

It drives my wife crazy, but I've bought enough swill from roadside espresso huts that I don't take chances anymore.

The other, dear reader, is Quizno's.

I don't consider myself quite as hard-lined about toasted sandwiches as I do coffee, but one of my favorite lunch spots in town is the Quizno's at the Federal Way Crossings.

I don't get drawn in by the melted cheese and warm bread-which is nowhere near as good as a sandwich prepared by the deli at Marlene's or Poverty Bay-nor by the customer service (which improves markedly when the woman I believe is the owner comes around), but by the view from the large windows.

Several weeks ago, while enjoying a turkey bacon guacamole sandwich, I caught one of the employees gazing towards the southeast at the sight of Mount Rainier. It was one of those days where the big white volcano seems particularly vivid; an omnipresent figure of life in Puget Sound.

"I really like working here for the view," he said.

"I bet you do," I responded. I had a mouthful of sandwich at the time, but he could decipher what I said.

It was a beautiful, albeit odd, juxtaposition of natural beauty and concrete.

Below the horizon stood one of the city's newest shopping centers, and everything within my 180-degree view, I surmised, was less than five years old. If I don't particularly support this type of development, I thought, I was doing a poor job of showing it by shopping there.

But at least in this town, getting rid of the strip mall might put local businesses in jeopardy, too.

Federal Way, I thought to myself, has to be one of the most unique places in Washington, if not the US; not because it has abandoned its historic downtown, but because it never had one. Here, we don't see businesses fleeing the old brick shops of Main Street for the sprawl of Highway 99, but rather a web of shopping center storefronts occupied by national chains and local businesses alike.

As consumers, it's tough to find a clear delineation-at least by looking at the storefront-between businesses owned by big national chains or those occupied by local entrepreneurs.

With the stalled Symphony project, I began to wonder if Federal Way will turn the corner in the changing the face of city that still has, at least in my opinion, some of the most beautiful views of the mountains and water in all of Puget Sound.

I finished my sandwich and left, topping off my soda on the way out the door. Some questions are just too big to answer in one meal.

What is your vision for the city and what kind of growth would you like to see in Federal Way? Write to us at fwnews@robinsonnews.com and let us know.