Do you try to support local businesses?

[Miss Chicken]

I needed a new battery charger for one of my cameras because I thought I had lost my old one. I went into the city to buy one. I needed a Fujifilm NP-45 Battery Charger.

The first store said they didn't stock them but tried to talk me into buying a multi-battery charger for $89.95 saying I could charge my camera batteries, phone batteries and regular batteries in it. I already have a battery charger for regular batteries and I don't own a mobile (cell phone) so I didn't want to pay $89.95.

The second store said they didn't sell them but offered to order one in for $60 and that it would take two to three weeks for them to get it in. I had only budgeted $40 so I said I would think about it.

I went to a third store. They said they didn't stock them and it would be almost as cheap to buy a new camera.

So I came back home and got online. I found a Mainland store that sold the charger I needed for $13.65 with $10.00 postage. I put an order in and I included a spare Rechargeable Lithium li-ion Digital Camera Battery for $8.25. Total cost for the order $30.80. It was delivered 6 days after I put the order in.

My sister says that I should be supporting local business but why should I when I feel those shops are ripping me off. There is no excuse for trying to get $60 out of me for this battery charger.

Are you like me - feed up with trying to support businesses in your city or region?

 

[Davros]

I support local businesses whenever I can.

 

[clint g]

I do but it's not really a conscious effort thing. Local businesses are unavoidable where I live. I figure I do more shopping at local businesses than anywhere else

 

[Holdfast]

I support high quality businesses for markets/products where I value quality, and low-cost businesses for markets/products where quality is either uniform or irrelevant.

Locality or nationality are an irrelevance to me either way, but it so happens that a couple of the high quality businesses I support are fairly local.

 

[SchwEnt]

I want to. And I try. And living in a city, I have many to choose from within easy access.

But man, I'll tell ya some stories...

I went out downtown to do some Christmas shopping.
A local camera shop in my neighborhood. Thought I'd stop by, give them some of my business.
The place was closed.
The last weekend before Christmas, a Major Shopping time.
A Saturday afternoon, around 4pm. The guy was closed.
Guess he didn't need the holiday sales.

Another time I went back to the same shop looking for a lens cap. I was the only customer in the store. The guy was on the telephone, couldn't be bothered to help me.
And I needed the help, I didn't know which lens cap to select for my camera model. The guy laughed at me, literally. Couldn't help me.

The punchline: camera shop now out of business.

Other local businesses... heh. It's tough.
I still like to buy music CDs. But I really can't afford the local record shop. I know Big Buy and Mall-Wart and Amazon can sell CDs for $9.99. And the local guys can't compete, so okay I'll pay $12 for the same CD, support the local business. But when the same CD is $16.99, I can't be paying that.

And there was some box set of DVDs I wanted to buy. Big Buy sold the box for $49. The local guy? $99. Oh come on!
I'll pay more, but FULLY DOUBLE retail price? I can't withstand that pummeling.

Other places, not much better. Food stores and restaurants, yeah I'll pay a higher price to support locally. But when they can't match the quality of cheaper alternatives, I can't win. I'll pay more, but at LEAST give me equal quality.

I don't wanna just look for the best deal I can get.
I wanna support the local guys. But it ain't easy.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I support my local town very heavily, as in I choose to buy just about everything here as opposed to going to a mall. Geographically the town is separated from the suburban sprawl in such a way that I know I am supporting one particular place. If I want my town to stay nice and not be full of empty shops as it was 15 years ago I better be ready to buy stuff.

That said, no one here sells battery chargers and I have long purchased most digital, electronic stuff from overseas without any qualms. I remember when mr. teacake bought some electronic item from the US on ebay for 99 cents buy it now that was being sold by Dick Smith for 80.00. That is just bullshit, and I don't support that. I support the small mom and pop stores of my town of whom I know just about every owner and am happy to pay a dollar markup from what the mall charges.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I live in a large city (Omaha) so it's not hard for me to shop local - except when buying DVDs. Most of the stores here don't have the DVDs I want, so I have to buy online. Same goes for when I want baseball gear.

 

[Captain_Nick]

You dont live out Pakenham way do you?

 

[Captain_Nick]

Miss Chicken - rent, shipping costs, wages. Someone has to pay these things. Small business are not out to 'rip you off' but compared to the internet they are an inefficient and expensive business model.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

No, and haven't been there in years. I assume that is similar, separated geographically.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Yes. It makes the commute into town rather enjoyable, cows and farmlands and stuff very nice.

It is full of bogans though.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Miss Chicken - rent, shipping costs, wages. Someone has to pay these things. Small business are not out to 'rip you off' but compared to the internet they are an inefficient and expensive business model.

They also buy through suppliers at much higher prices than buying the same items from Kmart. Reading ShwEnt's post about the dvd sets I have to ask why that seller didn't just go to the big store and buy up those sets and put a 12 dollar mark up on them. There's some lame business "ideas" out there.. I have seem many small shops fail in my area because of this.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Yes. It makes the commute into town rather enjoyable, cows and farmlands and stuff very nice.

It is full of bogans though.

With tatts.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Miss Chicken - rent, shipping costs, wages. Someone has to pay these things. Small business are not out to 'rip you off' but compared to the internet they are an inefficient and expensive business model.

I could accept that if there was a 20-25% difference but in this case it was much higher. If the local store had ordered from the same online store I found it at, paid the postage and put a 50% markup on that price it still would have only cost $35 (a price I was willing to pay). In fact the price they quoted was 150% dearer than the cost online with postage added. Is they any good reason for that?

 

[Sector 7]

In another thread, I mentioned that I prefer to buy American products. The result was very harsh criticism, but when a thread says we should support local businesses: that is OK. I don't get it.

I try to support local businesses when it is cost effective. Like other posters have said, if it is a matter of a dollar or two it is not a problem. When the local merchant wants 2 or 3 times the price of a major competitor, that is too much.

 

[Captain_Nick]

If I had to guess - they have lost a lot of business to the internet and are trying to find a way to increase turnover

Or, they are supremely ignorant of what their competitors are doing and really think that the prices they charge are competitive.

Could be a myriad other reasons

The question that needs to be examined is - just why are the prices on the internet so low?

Are people being paid properly to assemble the items you buy?

 

[Miss Chicken]

I assume that many stores are hoping that most of their customers are not computer-savvy and therefore they can get away with putting a bigger mark-up on an item because their customers wouldn't really know how much some items should cost.

The battery charger I bought was the brand-name one for the camera. It was the same battery charger as the camera shop offered to get in for me.

Another example - my son managed to break one of the pins on my camera (the pins that you place the cord into to transfer pictures onto your computer). I went into a camera shop and asked their advice. the salesman said I had two choices 1) to send it away and have it fixed. It wouldn't be covered by the warranty and would cost me about $200 b) to buy a bigger SD card (cost about $80 back then) and then bring the SD card in and have it transfers to CD-Rom.

I went away disappointed but decided to try a computer shop. There the guy suggested that I buy a card reader for about $25 which is what I did. Why the camera shop didn't suggest this I do not know. Possibly the salesman is on commission rather than salary and therefore tries to sell the dearer products.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Australia is still in transition as far as the internet and business goes. A lot of these shop keepers have no idea that their supplier is charging them far more for the item wholesale than they could get it at Kmart. They have no idea that you can buy it on ebay for 1/5 the cost. The should be selling other stuff to be viable and competitive but they are barely connected to the internet themselves, if at all.

I've had this conversation with many older shop keepers.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Given that, is it right to support these businesses, or not?

They are going to die out anyway, the internet will see to that.

Would it not be best to switch off the life support?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Given that, is it right to support these businesses, or not?

They are going to die out anyway, the internet will see to that.

Would it not be best to switch off the life support?

Yup. See Borders and Angus and Robertson.