Saving money vs supporting local economy

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
You can support the local businesses with your wallet or you can wait days for scamazon or fleabay to come through with a part or piece that you urgently need after they have to fold up their tents.
We all like the convenience of the local B&Ms when we really need something right now.
It isn't really fair to compare their prices to an online drop-shipper who was very little actual inventory and can negotiate low shipping costs based on huge volume.
It's also much easier to get a local business to make things right when faced with a defective or not as advertised product.


Obviously you have no direct experience with Amazon. I've had far less problems making things right with Amazon compared to some local businesses.

Just curious what price differential people find acceptable...10% more? 20%? 50%??


I obviously have had direct experience with Amazon which is the reason that I posted what I did.
Where Amazon itself is the seller, you'll have no problems. The problems arise with the third party sellers Amazon allows to post offers on their site. There are many deceptively worded offers from these vendors.
Thing is, for most items most of the time, Amazon is no less expensive net than local B&M sources and is often actually more costly.
This makes sense in that the cost of shipping pallet loads of any good truck freight is much less than the cost of shipping a couple of items to your doorstep.
Unless you live way out in the sticks, you drive past B&M locations every day where you can purchase everything you need.
In my estimate, anyone who considers Amazon a prime source of low cost goods needs to get out a little more.

 

[funflyer]

Originally Posted By: 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.



Same story where I live. Safeway only and they are out of their tree on prices. We're supposed to get another grocery store in the next year or so and I hope it is a Fry's but haven't heard yet. As for keeping my money local, I don't ever feel obligated to.

 

[4WD]

Gone more local after getting 3 credit cards hacked shopping allot online - we have sales tax and that helps the city.

 

[RazorsEdge]

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

 

[PandaBear]

The real estate price on residential and commercial typically self-adjust to the local economy. If a local mom and pop can't compete with big box they have to figure out a way to do something nationwide from their home, like specialize in a product or service from low cost rural area.

 

[IndyIan]

I do a mix of local small store/big box store/online purchases. But I realize Amazon doesn't pay property taxes in my area, doesn't employ anyone local, and won't sponsor my kids baseball team. So in order for me to come out ahead Amazon probably needs to be %20 cheaper, and quite often they aren't.

 

[Win]

I always find these discussions amusing. The cold, hard, truth of the matter is that most people don't give a rat's rear end about anything other than cost, and their own job, in that order. Plenty of people bought their way into long term unemployment or underemployment, and that will continue.

Commercial / Industrial sales notwithstanding, for the time being, a local retail shop is a place for someone else's customers to inspect the items, then order online avoiding sales tax and all overhead inherenet in having to keep a door open to the public,the cost of which, never decreases, but only increases. Some people are exceptions, but they are increasingly few and far between, and that will continue as the population ages. Convenience items, perishables, and local service will eventually be the only businesses viable to invest money in. Look at how much of the retail dollar c stores suck in now. That number will just get bigger.

 

[bunnspecial]

I've dealt with local shops before where not only did I pay more but got worse in exchange. That's a situation where I'll order or use a large retailer every time.

For a while, I was pretty seriously into Lionel trains and still dabble in them a bit. For those not in the know(which is probably most of you) most of what Lionel makes is not like what you had as a kid, and the prices can raise some eyebrows.

A couple of years back, I wanted a particular locomotive and asked them to order one for me. It was around $400, which is actually on the low end of things, but none the less isn't the type of money I throw around(or at least wasn't until I bought a British sports car

). Since they were placing a special order, they asked for 25% up front-I thought that was perfectly reasonable since they were ordering it for me.

Everything went downhill from there, though. First of all, the locomotive was available in 3 road names-Union Pacific, New York Central, and Monon. I requested Monon, but my exact words were "I will take a New York Central if you can't get Monon, but DO NOT want Union Pacific."

Two days later, I get a call-"Sorry, all we could get was Union Pacific-it's on it's way." My response was "I specifically said that wasn't the one I wanted-I want to cancel the order." They would only do that if I forfeited my deposit(over $100 since it included tax). I grumbled but since I didn't want to give up that much money I went with it and just said "Okay, call me when it comes in". I could have easily saved $50 and been able to get my preferred road name from a mail order retailer.

Two weeks go buy, and I haven't heard a peep from then get an angry phone call telling me I needed to come in and pick up my purchase. I said "I'll be there tomorrow morning"(Saturday), "What time do you all open." I was rather abruptly told that I needed to come and get it that day, but said that it wasn't possible for me to do so as their closing time was before I got off work.

So, I walk in about 15 minutes after they open on Saturday. There's not another customer in the store, but both the workers were too pre-occupied and didn't even respond to me saying "I'm here to pick up my locomotive." Finally, when they came around, I told them my name and said "I'm here to pick up the such-and-such locomotive that you all ordered for me. I received a call yesterday that it had arrived." They acted like they couldn't comprehend what I was saying-first of all saying we don't have those in stock and finally after I'd explained about three times they caught what I was saying and it took another 15 minutes to track the package down.

As if I hadn't already made up my mind about dealing with the shop, after paying they put the final nail in the coffin. I requested to test run before leaving the shop. This is pretty much a universal practice in B&M stores and one of the advantages to buying from them-these things are complicated enough that it's a lot easier for the shop(they were an authorized warranty repair center) to take care of fixing it if there's something wrong plus saves me an extra trip. I deal with a shop now that virtually forces one before leaving unless you tell them that you're not planning on running it(surprisingly common for buyers). In any case, I was rather rudely told that they "don't do test runs on items the customer owns"(since I'd paid for it). On another occasion, they had told me that they don't test runs on new in box items that they own(something not unreasonable). So, I guess the real answer is that they don't do them at all.

Oh, I'll also mention that at some point in all of this, I asked for a catalog. Lionel catalogs are something of a work of art in and of themselves-they are full color on heavy, glossy card stock with a real binding and usually over 100 pages long. There are also two a year. Going back to my days as a kid, catalogs have a special appeal for the amount of time I spent drooling and dreaming over them, but the ones now are nice enough to be a coffee table book and are also a great reference. In any case, I'm told shops pay about $.50 each for them. They have a nominal cover price(maybe $3 or so) but good shops will give you a free one with a major purchase or in many cases just give them to you for the asking. When I asked for one, this shop rang it up and my total went up by $20...I said "no thanks."

The shop closed about 2 months after the above...I guess I wasn't the only one they'd POed over a purchase.