Community‑First Commerce

Anarchist (Gnome) Marketing

Build the community first; let commerce follow. A practical approach to mutual aid, local ownership, and resilient, circular economies.

What Is Anarchist Marketing?

It reverses the normal flow of commerce. Instead of profit driving people, people drive purpose. We organize around shared needs and invite businesses and services that align with those needs. Each dollar spent locally keeps circulating locally, strengthening the same networks that make us resilient.

“When disasters hit, it’s not corporations who show up. It’s our neighbors.”

Circular local spend vs. one‑way extraction.

Use cases: neighborhood grocers, repair co‑ops, tool libraries, worker‑owned cafés, backyard growers, artists, childcare circles, and mutual aid nodes. Systems that keep value accessible, accountable, and nearby.

Mutual Aid Local Ownership Resilience Sustainability Non‑extractive

The Principles

Local First: Build the network before the storefront. Organize people, spaces, and shared needs.
Mutual Benefit: Circulation over extraction. Profit returns as wages, repairs, care, and continuity.
Sustainability: Durable systems beat disposable trends; repair is a growth metric.
Self‑Reliance: Reduce dependence on corporate and state structures that fail in crisis.

Where Your Dollar Lives

A dollar at your local shop tends to be re‑spent locally multiple times. By contrast, only about 1 in 6 dollars spent at a big‑box store remains in the local economy.

Local spending recirculates; extractive channels leak value.

“A dollar at your local shop keeps giving. A dollar to Amazon is gone.”

(You can replace these example percentages with your preferred citations or local study figures.)

Gnome Marketing: From Community to Product

It’s a playful name for a practical method: start with people and shared purpose, then fit commerce to those needs.

Traditional: Product → Consumer
Gnome Marketing: Community → Need → Product

Organize people and spaces; let value flow between them.

Map existing assets: people, skills, spaces, gardens, tools.
Invite aligned providers: services, retail, producers, co‑ops.
Measure success by resilience: repair rates, reuse, accessibility.
Grow slow, root deep.

How to Start

Map your community. Who’s here? What’s missing? What can we share?
Build a network. Neighbors, artists, growers, repairers, teachers.
Redirect spending. Prioritize local independents, co‑ops, and worker‑owned shops.
Create solutions. If it doesn’t exist yet, build it together.

Start a Local Spend Map

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