I could readily find fiction at the local bookstore, but nonfiction of the particular topics I am interested in–gotta go to Amazon!

I did happily shop at the more conveniently located and recently opened Ace Hardware store, and was pleased with the service. My local clothing resale shop is a delight. The local restaurants are often excellent.

On the other hand, I have been sold a lot of stuff I didn’t want in local shops because I have poor sales resistance and find it hard to say “no” to sales people. I actually prefer to shop for clothing and accessories unaccosted.

When you give your business to a local shop, restaurant, or business, you’re voting with your money. You’re saying that you prefer family-run, one-of-a-kind, and locally-owned. That means something, even if you think it doesn’t.

Some local businesses, too, don’t run their shops well, either. One local bookstore I wanted to go into because it may have carried books of poems I might not see at the chain bookstores? It opened one day a week for several hours. Its storefront was in a residential neighborhood, facing the trench of a lowered freeway. In other words, bad location. The last time I went, and decided not to go back, the shabbily dressed employee had locked herself out.

I scrimp in certain areas so I can spend with ease in others.

That said, if all goes well, the in-state farmer will become “my farmer” next year.

Books – I use paperbackswap.com for most of my book purchases, and then support inde book publishers where possible (primarily Catholic ones). And they can be several dollars more expensive per book.

I tried shopping at Aldi’s, but the environment and poor quality of their produce turned me off to them. Of course, if I was very short on funds, I would probably shop there. Otherwise, I stick with 2 chains.

I look at it as a balancing act.

Wrt/sales tax… that amount is charged by the state –in theory– to generate money to maintain the public areas where the stores are causing traffic and use. I don’t see any virtue in spending to support my incredibly overtaxed and corrupt state.

FWIW, I do fill out the use tax form with an approx amount. Last year my accountant didn’t round properly and I rec’d a bill this year for 22 cents. Wonderful. I do it only because I prefer to be law abiding even when I don’t really agree with the law.

I think some among us readers are confusing the quality of the *goods* with the quality of the *store* itself – and thereby missing Trent’s point as well.

“Mom-and-pop retailers” are still retailers. Middle men. Like Wal-Mart, in most cases they add no value to the process of getting goods from the manufacturer to the consumer, other than to provide a convenient location for a store front. And they exact a surcharge for that convenience.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart employees have much better benefits and pay than their mom-and-pop counterpart employees typically did. I would rather work for Wal-Mart than for Mom and Pop any day.

Last but not least, let me bust the myth about the benefits of local ownership on the economy: When you buy from a mom-and-pop store, some local owner is getting rich, but when you buy from Wal-Mart, some corporate executive is getting rich. Right? Wrong. The owners get rich.

So who owns Wal-Mart? Anyone! If you, dear reader, want to buy shares in Wal-Mart, you can. Try buying shares in a local mom-and-pop store. You can’t! Mom and Pop don’t want to give you a cut of their profits. So while only Mom and Pop benefit if their store does well, every Wal-Mart stockholder has a piece of the windfall if Wal-Mart does well. And that’s not an exclusive club; anybody can buy Wal-Mart stock, and employees are encouraged to do so.

Acknowledging all these points, can ask yourself this: Why is a locally-owned retail middle man somehow better than a large, corporate retail middle man? How does the small, local guy provide better value?

If you can answer that question, shop at the mom and pop. If you can’t, then in my estimation, your conscience is clean. Don’t fall for the stigma bandwagon. Mom and pop aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.

However, sometimes they are. Trent’s whole point in writing this was to get us to review that dynamic with fresh eyes. Thereby we can appreciate those locally owned gems that DO provide the extra measure of value and enrich our lives and our communities simply by existing. I agree that this is a personal value judgement that not a lot of us take the time to really think about. Thanks for writing this.

Tried not to ramble but there’s so much we need to think about, this post to me, leads to an need to explore these other ideas.

We’ve had artist signings this year and will have a couple of local bands play on Halloween. All of these events are free.

Give us little guys a chance! I’ll remember you next time you come in and can “talk shop” with you like the people at the big stores can’t.

I think one thing that can be inferred from the overall discussion, is that this is not a cut/dry issue. I’ve been in horrible chain stores, and wonderful ones. Ditto for small/independent stores. I own a service company w/ my husband and we see it in our competition. Undercutting, pricing issues – just look at those jerks that come out of the woodwork when there’s a natural disaster. The truth is, even big corporations are run by *people*. We Humans are a funny bunch. :-) This is truly a global economy and there is no way to stop that – why would we want to when we know what’s out there? Even really, *really* back in the day, like pre-North American settlement, we had to sail on ships to get things like silk and spices! It’s always *been* a global economy. So instead of being concerned about what we keep in business, I think the overall endgame we need to be concerned about is *who* we keep in business. Big businesses can be run well with good intentions just as easily as they can be run badly with ill intentions (at least for the majority of us). Just my 2cents.

However, I recently decided I won’t shop for shoes locally anymore because the store I wanted to patronize had disappointed me several times with their lack of inventory (shoes that were on display that they didn’t have fully stocked), and the final straw had to do with hours of operation. We went there at 4 pm on Sunday to buy shoes for my son (whose feet had grown so much that the tennis shoes we bought 3 weeks prior no longer fit, I kid you not). As we walked up to the door, the employee was locking it. I looked at her and she shrugged and walked away. We ended up going to Target and buying sub-par, Target brand shoes because we needed them, and now we’ll get his real tennis shoes online. Not our ideal situation – we’ll end up paying more for the two pairs than we would have for the one (even at the local store premium). What she didn’t know was that the 15 minutes it would have taken for us to find him a pair of shoes would have meant continued business from all 5 of us for life.

I understand this from the other side – I do. My husband works for a small family-owned business, and as a result, he works more than the usual guy. They’re open from 7:30 – 5:30, but if a customer shows up at 5:30, he’ll call and come home late rather than lose a customer. Do I ever get crabby if he’s late for dinner? I plead the 5th… but I understand the reason and I know it’s the right thing to do for the long term health of the business.

When we needed a freezer I looked at the local store. It was going to cost $775 for what would cost me $400 from a large store in a nearby city. Before placing my order for the cheaper freezer I called the local store and told them that I’m willing to pay a premium to shop local, but not that much of a premium. I told them I’d be happy to pay 25% more (for a total of $500) in order to buy from them. They weren’t interested.

The sad thing is that when it comes to service, I think I get just as good if not better service from the Home Depot in a nearby town than from the local appliance or hardware store.

So much for crossing state borders to take advantage of lower sales tax on one thing or another – it’s a form of tax evasion. This is particularly clear in Tennessee, where there’s no income tax on salaries. The sales tax means a lot here.

There’s a back-to-school tax holiday each fall on computers, clothes, etc. – and the tax holiday also means that these items bought online are also not subject to sales tax.

I’ve also checked out all the shops in my town — there are not many. But I know what I can purchase there, so that if a need arises, going local can be my first thought.

Food is probably the exception. Our budget is tight so I use a price book. I’ve found that on basics (flour, sugar, chicken breasts, bananas, etc.) big box stores are generally not the cheapest; but they are cheapest in the more processed foods (boxed mac-n-cheese, cereals, etc.). However, since we just moved here, we are discovering how cheaply we can buy local produce and meat and we are making it a point to incorporate those local vendors more and more.

I do buy locally a lot, but if I am near a Walmart or Lowe’s, I will shop there. My husband was better at this. He bought his medicines at a local pharmacy, instead of taking advantage of the mail pharmacy benefits of my insurance. I got 3 months supply of my meds for 2 monthly payments.

Apparently my brother from Chicago area was right. I live in NE MO and we still have a work ethic. I shop in a minimum of 6 Walmarts and I have not met a disgruntled, unkind employee. They will walk me across the store to find what I need and so kind. I have never been in a dirty Walmart in this area. Friends have worked there for 25+ years and love it. They wouldn’t work anywhere else. So – I consider them local stores and shop accordingly. If I’m there, I buy groceries. If not, I buy a lot from our local grocer. I am retired and it is the bottom dollar for me. What little I have has to last as long as I do, and I expect that to be a long time.