Shop locally ?

[Shannow]

There's about 25,000 people live in a 15 mile radius of the hub in which I live.

FIL was a newsagent in one of the towns, with around 2,000 people, and was constantly explaining to the local businesses (in his town) that if they gave people an excuse to go to the hub, then they'd do all their shopping there...he would order specialty magazines, like Circle Track etc. to keep the handfull of speedway guys entertained, and ultimately turned out to be right...if they have to come to the big smoke for a mag (he retired, and the replacement likes magazines that sell, not getting people who otherwise wouldn't be in the door through the door).

Anyway, we are trying to do Christmas shopping...in the hub

And the local business owners, 5-6 weeks out, have been saying that they don't stock stuff, and "you can get it online, or in town X if you really want it"...one shop now has only a try on range of clothes, and computers in store to order the stuff home deliver.

Guess that they are all trying to train us to look online first....while whining that people aren't spending in town.

 

[Silk]

I don't know how the few businesses in our town keep going....not that there are many of them left. Not much we buy in town - food shopping fornightly in the city, and a top up inbetween.

The motorcycle shop where I used to work has new owners this week - reckons he's gunna turn it around, and has 5 times as much stock in already. The reason the previous owner kept only one of each model and ordered fresh when he got a sale was because he couldn't turn over that fast for a reason. Maybe the market has changed, but I doubt it.

 

[The_Jeff]

Yeah this low inventory thing bugs me. A business can be sitting on half a million dollars in real estate but apparantly can't keep stuff in stock.

I needed a rocker arm pivot for a chevy 2.2 when I dropped one I had "down to eternity". Advance could get me one in a day for $3.50. Chevy dealer could get me one in a day for $22. They'd have had the sale that day even at that markup, but chose not to keep little things like that around.

And don't get me started on Sears having a TV I wanted to buy in their showroom in their expensive mall real estate, but couldn't sell it to me as the warehouse/ pickup three blocks over closed early.

 

[Rick in PA]

An old saying, from an old sales guy (I respected him, he was OK):
"You can't sell from an empty cart."

 

[itguy08]

I like to support local businesses when possible - they are your neighbors. But sometimes it's hard and the stock situation can be frustrating.

Just th eother day I was looking for a carb gasket for our Tecumseh snowblower engine. Mind you this is the standard carb to engine gasket. Called one place that did sales and service near my wife's work. They said they had it in stock. So I sent her over there for the part. When she got there - "Nope, we don't have that part and it will take a week to get in". Really? For a simple gasket? So she ordered it and we're going to wait. But I can't believe it's that hard to get a gasket. For laughs I checked the out of the way Sears parts depot - they had plenty!

 

[Kruse]

I live in the country, but my mailing address town has a population of about 650. The owner of an local plumbing and electrical shop talks about how people of the town should shop local and do their business local. (And I quite often do)
We also have a farming implement dealer near by. The owners of the implement store talk about how you should buy local to help out the area economy, instead of ordering parts online.
I guess their motto should also be "Do as I say, not as I do".
About a year ago, I went to a city that's about an hour away to do some shopping at a Menards store. (To you who don't know what a Menards store is, it's similar to a Lowe's or a Home Depot) Much to my surprise, I met the owner's wife of our local electrical/plumbing shop coming out of the Menards store with a huge shopping cart of items that she had just purchased. I stopped and talked to her for a few minutes and while I was talking, glanced down to look in her cart. All of the items in her cart were hardware items and could have been purchased in her store. It turns out she was doing some remodeling in her own house and I guess she could buy the items cheaper than she could order them in.
The implement owner's wives also go to the larger city and do their grocery shopping there. The cars and pickups that they buy are not purchased locally, but at a larger dealer to get a better price.
Now can anybody tell me why I should buy locally? I guess the idea that it helps out the local economy only applies to a few people.

 

[daves87rs]

I try when I can, but amny times it depnds what it is...

 

[callbay]

Sometimes there are reasons besides price and closeness to shop locally. We have an auto parts in our town of 2,500 that has prices that are a little higher than when I go to the city auto parts that is about 45 minutes away which I do as I am over there twice a week anyway. The reason I buy at the local parts store is that the owner is a wealth of info. on auto mechanics. He always has a bit of helpful advise and it is well worth it to shop there.

Same thing for our plumbing and elctric store. Lots of help.

 

[Gabe]

I hate my local grocery store. The owner treats the employees and customers really bad.

Last time I was in there, the cashier accidentally rang up my milk twice. She then had to get a manager to take it off the additional charge and get our forms - yes, our forms. I was expected to fill out my information and check a few questions about the transaction.

Long store short, I left empty handed and have no plans of returning.

 

[cmorr]

For small retail stores when it comes to expensive items it is "one to show and one to go". They replenish when sold. It hurts buyer and seller but but sometimes they dont have an option other the flooring credit, basically a floating line of credit with high interest rates.

I once worked for a ComputerLand, back in the days where PC retail stores were few and far between. Our "showroom" had a dozen or so desks with a few systems, the rest only had brochures. We actually had to sell computers which at the time were at least $1500 (IBM AT, XT, Mac Plus etc) from brochures
Would have sold many more had the owner decided to cool his lifestyle a bit for the sake of his own business

 

[crinkles]

I try to support the local dairy co-op, Norco, who have recently purchased back their brand from Fonterra and are all local again.

 

[PandaBear]

It is really difficult to be a local small business these days. You have limited floor space to stock the common stuff, and you have to turn them around fast so you are not sitting on a pile of inventory at your own dime and the risk of damage, theft, accidents, etc.

The big box stores have enough volume that they can negotiate large discount from manufacturers, and enough real estate to stock not only the common items you stock but a whole bunch of low volume items at higher profit margin than you can ever think of. Not only that, on items that they do not want to stock they can charge manufacturers for shelf space rather than / in addition to a profit margin so they will make money either way.

Online small businesses can focus on a narrow selection of specialty low volume items while broaden the customer base across the entire nation to compensate for the volume. They can also reduce idle labor and eliminate retail floor space by working and shipping from home. They still face competition from big box stores online arm but at least they can pick up the crumbs that the big box stores won't want to deal with.

The local small retailers can only survive on the crumbs even these online small businesses wouldn't want. This usually means cooked food related items where freshness and quality is key to eliminate big box stores and online competitors. Otherwise, forget about it.

 

[javacontour]

So in other words, services. Not just cooking food, but fixing it right here and right now.

Installation services. I'm thinking in the IT world. The stuff is built all over, but when you need someone to set it up and/or fix it, you want that person to be reasonably local.

Ditto for cars repairs, trades-persons, etc.

We stock the most common show stoppers locally. Other parts I can usually get overnight. So the FedEx guy and the courier at the warehouse are employed in assisting with my logistics pipeline.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
So in other words, services. Not just cooking food, but fixing it right here and right now.

Installation services. I'm thinking in the IT world. The stuff is built all over, but when you need someone to set it up and/or fix it, you want that person to be reasonably local.

Ditto for cars repairs, trades-persons, etc.

We stock the most common show stoppers locally. Other parts I can usually get overnight. So the FedEx guy and the courier at the warehouse are employed in assisting with my logistics pipeline.


I'd say it is a Physical Service, as communication can now be done cheaply to India, Philippine, Mexico, etc. You can have a phone line from McDonald's drive through routed to India but you need a guy to microwave the burger before handing to you locally.