Saving money vs supporting local economy

[NMBurb02]

About three months ago I moved to Kanab, a small town in southern Utah with a population of 4,500. Much of the town's economy is supported by tourism as the town is a jumping off point for several national and state parks. As a result, we have 18 hotels/motels, a few B&B's, a surprising amount of vacation rentals, and a decent selection of restaurants. Nearly all of the shops in town are mom and pop outfits or locally owned franchises (Napa, True Value Hardware, etc.). Regularly ordering from Amazon, RockAuto, or other online retailers or driving to my local Costco didn't cause me any heartburn when I lived in densely populated southern California since most of the retailers there were large chains and had sizable customer bases. However, now that I am in a small town, I do feel a bit guilty when ordering things online or buying from the Costco 90 minutes away when I could get a similar thing locally but for a few dollars more. Not only do I want to support the local economy but I selfishly also want to contribute to these stores being able to keep their doors open so I can run down the street to buy something I need quickly, when the item is too inexpensive to deal with buying online, or when buying online or in bulk is not possible/feasible. I have been buying many more things locally but there are times when it is hard to overcome the differences in the online/Costco and local prices. Case in point: I can buy a high quality splitting maul on Amazon for $49 with free shipping and no sales tax or buy it locally for $63 plus 7.95% sales tax, making the difference $19 or nearly 40%. Another example is windshield wipers: the prices at Napa (before the current sale) were about double those of similar wipers online.

A few things complicate matters a bit:

• Many of the establishments have no local competition so it's not like I can buy at store B because store A's prices were too high, thereby encouraging store A to lower its prices. Napa is the only auto parts store in town, True Value is the only hardware store, there is only one pet supply retailers, etc. So buying online or out of the area is my only recourse when I feel something is priced too high.
• There likely are some restrictions on the pricing of some of the franchise stores' items because they are franchises but I'm sure they also have a good bit of leeway and they do not always advertise some of the franchise sales so you can't really tell what might be on sale at the moment.
• The local economy was doing fine before I moved here. Unemployment is around 4.5% and the city has amenities and levels of local service that are surprisingly high given the town's size due to tax revenues resulting from the tourism.
• I did not displace someone in the workforce when I took my current job and moved here. My predecessor retired locally and the position was either going to be dissolved (with the duties broken up and spread among multiple people already employed there with no resulting increase in pay) or someone with similar levels of experience and training as I was going to be hired from outside the community, so I am not contracting the size of the local economy when spending elsewhere.
• Related to the previous point, I work for a large non-profit and 99.99% of our revenue comes from donations made by those outside the community so any time I buy locally I am bringing money into the local economy rather than "recycling" local money.

For those of you living in small towns or rural areas, how do you balance saving money by shopping online with supporting your local economy? Is paying 10% more to buy local acceptable? 15%?

By the way, I think I am going to purchase the maul online, especially since I recently got an Amazon gift card for my birthday.

 

[John_K]

I buy what is best for me. I am not here to support anyone, I am here to take care of myself and my wife and that's what I do.

John

 

[Vern_in_IL]

It really depends how much disposable income you have.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Here's my two cents. Recommend you continue to evaluate your purchases, and where possible give the local business some benefit of the doubt. Realize this is not very specific, but I don't hesitate to purchase on line when the amount saved is substantial. There is also a convenience factor of items being delivered to my door, since I am more than ten miles away from most services (gasoline and a farm store are the exceptions).

On the other side of the equation, my wife's uncle was a tax lawyer in a medium-sized town in Kansas for his whole career, and he made a point to purchase from local businesses, because many of them were the source of his income. Your situation may resemble his approach and consequent attitude. My income was never dependent on anyone's local business, so I naturally had a different viewpoint.

Locally, I use the local drugstore, and tried to use a local grocery store (which later failed) when it was in business. I also try to use local tradesmen when I can. My town has so few businesses that I have to go nearly 10 miles to find the next set of retail shops.

I am close to the Kansas City area, so my shopping opportunities aren't all that limited, like yours may be in Kanab. It has never bothered me too much to make these decisions.

 

[sciphi]

What's your time worth driving to/from the cheaper places 90 minutes away or waiting for Amazon? If you needed that maul right then, buying it for the extra $20 is well worth the time saved.

If it's an extra 10-15%, not a big deal to buy it locally. Or when there is an item that's really necessary and the time saved outweighs the additional cost.

 

[edwardh1]

Id mix it up based on when you need it and all the other factors.

 

[Lyman]

Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
It really depends how much disposable income you have.

THIS! If I were rich I would not be shopping price near as much as I do now.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: JayhawkRoy
Here's my two cents. Recommend you continue to evaluate your purchases, and where possible give the local business some benefit of the doubt. Realize this is not very specific, but I don't hesitate to purchase on line when the amount saved is substantial. There is also a convenience factor of items being delivered to my door, since I am more than ten miles away from most services (gasoline and a farm store are the exceptions).

That is the way I was leaning.

Quote:
On the other side of the equation, my wife's uncle was a tax lawyer in a medium-sized town in Kansas for his whole career, and he made a point to purchase from local businesses, because many of them were the source of his income. Your situation may resemble his approach and consequent attitude. My income was never dependent on anyone's local business, so I naturally had a different viewpoint.

No, this isn't my case. My employer does not depend on the local economy beyond the town's ability to provide our visitors and volunteers with places to stay and eat while visiting our location. But even then, most of our revenue is not generated by onsite visitors.

Quote:
Locally, I use the local drugstore, and tried to use a local grocery store (which later failed) when it was in business. I also try to use local tradesmen when I can. My town has so few businesses that I have to go nearly 10 miles to find the next set of retail shops.

I am close to the Kansas City area, so my shopping opportunities aren't all that limited, like yours may be in Kanab. It has never bothered me too much to make these decisions.

My shopping options are somewhat limited and anything better is at least 50 miles away. Any closer town have even smaller stores or no stores at all.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
What's your time worth driving to/from the cheaper places 90 minutes away or waiting for Amazon? If you needed that maul right then, buying it for the extra $20 is well worth the time saved.

If it's an extra 10-15%, not a big deal to buy it locally. Or when there is an item that's really necessary and the time saved outweighs the additional cost.

The 90 minute one-way drive to Costco is used to stock up on bulk items and particularly items that we cannot reliably or cheaply get locally, such as clothing or shoes that we want to try on before buying and organic meat, eggs and produce. There are very few organic options here and Costco's organic products are oftentimes cheaper and fresher than the non-organic options here. We haven't made many such trips thus far but our plan is to make such trips only once every three weeks or so. We bought a 120 quart cooler and have a second refrigerator/freezer in the garage so we can stock up on perishables.

I do not often need things right away and we have Amazon Prime so it is only a 2 day wait for shipments.

 

[itguy08]

I try to support local if the prices are in line (20%). Why? Cause it supports my neighbors. If they are out of a job the place will go to poop soon enough.

Even if your company is not reliant on the local businesses, they are. When they need something NOW you can't wait for Amazon but can go to the local Ace. Or if you need a new appliance NOW you can go to Bob's Appliance Co vs waiting for Amazon to deliver.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: John_K
I buy what is best for me. I am not here to support anyone, I am here to take care of myself and my wife and that's what I do.

John

I completely agree with that sentiment but also take a long term view. Part of my dilemma is that these businesses do not have large customer bases (particularly those that do not cater to tourists) so each person that buys online instead of locally is putting them one step closer to having to close their doors. I am a firm believer that I should act the way I want other people to act, regardless of whether or not they act that way. But I am not being altruistic as much as I am concerned that if these businesses close up shop then I will not have a local place to buy something when I can't really wait 2 or more days for Amazon or make a 3 hour round trip. But if I (and everyone else in town) only buy in those situations, then the business likely won't be around for long. I don't want to get to the point of saying "If only more people, including me, had patronized this local business, it would still be here to serve us."

 

[sxg6]

I would like to support local businesses, but it's so hard sometimes when they charge twice as much as other places. I'm not rich, and I also agree with what John_K said.

 

[Mr Nice]

You can still save money shopping locally, but you and your wive have to cut coupons and look for sales and deals in your area.

 

[AZjeff]

Sounds like Angel Canyon. If it isn't important to stretch your buying power then buying locally at a higher price is the responsible thing to do. And good PR for your non-profit, new SoCal guy supporting the locals.

PS, the McDonalds in Kanab is hands down the worst one we've ever been in anywhere.

 

[double vanos]

Here in Bisbee we have one grocery store, a Safeway, and I use it for small stuff I gotta have for the moment. However their prices are atrocious- 79 cents for a can of tomato sauce vs driving 25 miles to the Fry's in Sierra Vista and paying 35 cents. The Safeway is the only game in town and they price their stuff accordingly.

The Frys store offers coupons, fuel points, lower prices and much more variety. The first Wednesday of every month is seniors discount day where your total bill is discounted 10%. The savings are significant. I don't feel I have to support a only game in town store when I can take a beautiful 25 drive on sparsely populated roads through the desert to buy what I need at a reasonable price.

Same thing with auto parts, one in Bisbee vs 3 in Sierra Vista.

 

[cashmoney]

The concept of small local brick and mortar retail establishments making money by buying wholesale and selling to locals at jacked up retail prices is a business model from 100 years ago. It no longer makes sense in the internet economy so very few traditional brick and mortar only businesses with survive over the next 25 years especially in small towns.

This change in how people shop for and buy non perishables and household items will be very disruptive to local economies but shop keeper people will need to find another way to make a living than sitting in a shop 8 hours a day 6 days a week hoping for local customers to come in and buy their pricey inventory.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Your still buying food and toiletry items local right? I wouldn't worry too much about it. As for your hardware/autoparts store,try and get to know the manager. See if you cant get a acct set up like lots of shops do.Try for a List price minus 20-25 percent and inform them how much annually business you would be willing to do. I always created cash accts for walk in and told them that they will get 5-10 off list if they shop here.AAA Discount is 5-10 percent a lot of places so I let everyone have it. Profit margins arent worth anything if its not priced to sell. I'll take 5 percent of something vs 30 percent off nothing just sitting on shelf going outta date.

 

[ajchien]

I keep things simple. Go shopping. Make relationships. You'll know who you'll want to go to after a while.

My area, local Mexican meat market... they know me well enough, they see my car pull up, they start packaging together my order before I walk in - sometimes it's like skipping a line of 5 people at the counter which saves me lots of time....... Local Chinese Restaurant, I know their ingredients, I can go in a customize virtually any dish I want, and they'll cook it up how I like it. No need for a menu - say I want fish, non breaded, mixed with eggplant, and put some udon noodles in it, and make it with in a specific sauce. It's not on the menu, but it's no problem. They make up a one time price which is reasonable, and I have no problems paying it........ local mechanic friend knows me and knows in a diy guy. He knows I take stuff only to him when I know I can't handle it, and I usually make things as easy as possible for him by doing a decent diagnostic job before hand. In turn, he's sometimes driven over to my place after work or on his lunch hour and dropped off parts to me at his cost so that I can get stuff done.

Small stores are worth the extra price when they build relationships with repeat customers. They'll learn what you need and how you want it.

 

[linkbelt]

Paying more to support a Local establishment would be nice, but since we are retired, our welfare comes first, not a business owner. If we ran low on funds, I wonder if a business would help us, I think not!

 

[Merkava_4]

It's real simple: if the item is available locally, I buy locally. Most of my internet purchases involve the item not being available locally.