The project:
Choose locally owned businesses over massive chains for today's business.
Time:
Same as if I'd ventured into the mega brands.
Why bother?
Mega stores, chains, they come and go. When they come, the kill off local shops that, in so many cases, have been here for decades, even generations. When they go, they leave us nothing. Plus, have you ever thought about just how ridiculous it might be to be purchasing produce shipped by planes, trains and automobiles from half way around the globe when we're growing them RIGHT HERE? HOW can it be less expensive?! (I know - cheap labor. But still...)
I do believe in the free market society, but little shops that offer customer service and quality goods just don't seem to be able to survive quite as well in a world that values rock-bottom prices over any sort of quality, let alone customer service. By supporting our locals, perhaps they'll survive long enough to see the chains give way to locals who value service and quality over saving a dime.
Worth it?
Yes.
Photo courtesy Dave Olson under Creative Commons License.
Posts
We try to aviod the 'Big Box' stores for our shopping, too. Although, I do have to admit, our favorite membership-warehouse has some things that are just too good to pass up. The local business owners do deserve first dibs on our business, and it's a worthy cause for sure.
ReplyDeleteI must confess we also shop at the big boxes when we need to, and more and more often they are the only option. A couple of weeks ago the garbage disposal finally died. (It was the original from 1980-something, so no big surprise I suppose.) Come payday I looked around for a new one. There are no purely local hardware stores anymore, but we did go to the franchise down the street (the owners of the franchise at least live around these parts) before heading out to the bigger stores. All the garbage disposals I found were in the $125-$175 range, and they were all hard-wired versions. OUR disposal was originally a switched plug setup, so that's what I was looking for (plus similar power and right size). I finally found it at the biggest members-only store in the county - at $75, double the power of our old one, and with the requisite plug. Chalk one up for the big boys.
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