Does anyone else?

[def90]

I try to spend my money with local retailers as much as I possibly can even if it costs me a bit more than buying online. I prefer to have an item in my hands so that I can judge it’s quality in person rather than gambling online, especially with clothing, I’ve been almost always disappointed by all clothing I’ve ever bought online.

 

[Brightside]

I can't beat the convenience of Amazon, but I live about 30 minutes from town, and hate shopping. The time savings are just too important to me.

About two years ago I was going to rebuild a deck. I priced the lumber out at Home Depot, and went to the local lumber yard. The guy took my list, added it up, and the price difference was huge. I told him I couln't take it be cause the price difference was astronomical. He said he cold meet the quoted prices. It pissed me off that he could meet those prices but was willing to rape me, when I was trying to shop local. Nonetheless, I bought from him to support his local business.

A little background before I continue. I'm not a professional carpenter, but I've done a hell of a lot of construction, because my dad was a home builder and our family built our home and many of the additions and garages on our houses before that one. I'm not the guy that digs through the whole lumber unit to get clear stuff, etc. Unless its obviously been sitting there warping for six months, I take my lumber and I deal with it, because I know how to. I also used to work in (real) lumber yards as a kid, so I know my way around wood.

Back to our feature program. I go out with my yard receipt to load up. No one around with a fork truck to pull a unit, nothing. I've got to crawl under the crappiest pile of garbage (on racks) I've ever seen. I damn near went and got my money back. but found enough to make that load.

So that's the last time I tried to support the local lumber yard. If you're the local guy and that's the best you can do, then good luck. It was clear that their business model was truck delivery at an inflated price to builders who would bake their inflated prices into the job.

I am experiencing this as well in coastal Oregon. Local is a great idea but difficult on the buyer a lot of the time.

 

[spc7669]

I do business with my local lumber/hardware store because the product knowledge at Lowe’s and Home Depot is laughable. Also, at least in my experience, their lumber is of a lower quality by far.
A trip to Wal Mart makes me want to gargle with Drain O.
I do use Amazon. I live half an hour from town and most of the supplements I use aren’t available locally anyway.
I do my best to give local businesses my money.

 

[Carpenterant]

I try to spend my money with local retailers as much as I possibly can even if it costs me a bit more than buying online. I prefer to have an item in my hands so that I can judge it’s quality in person rather than gambling online, especially with clothing, I’ve been almost always disappointed by all clothing I’ve ever bought online.

I used to be like that but have had great results with online clothes lately

 

[MuleyFever]

Amazon pushing brick and mortar joints out of business, then opening brick and mortar stores to replace them. On and on.

Amazon, Walmart and such dont push anyone else out of business. The consumer does. If the consumer wanted to they could push Walmart out of business too.

 

[kopecsean]

Well said!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[Next Ridge]

I do business with my local lumber/hardware store because the product knowledge at Lowe’s and Home Depot is laughable. Also, at least in my experience, their lumber is of a lower quality by far.
A trip to Wal Mart makes me want to gargle with Drain O.
I do use Amazon. I live half an hour from town and most of the supplements I use aren’t available locally anyway.
I do my best to give local businesses my money.

 

[ky hunter]

Small businesses and some others when necessary .

 

[wildtrader]

Does anyone else boycott the big box. Amazon, Walmart, lowes, home depot I just can't wrap my mind around them and the stuff.

In business for myself so using the smaller lumber home stores I have to charge a touch more in some cases.

When, I made the choice to not set foot in those stores under any circumstance, I thought for sure business would suffer. Turns out it is just the opposite.

Anyway my reasoning is what it is. Just wondered if anyone else I tired of supporting the billionaire, good club folks?

 

[browning2480]

So what will you do if your supporting local business helps them grow and they get too big? You going to move in to the next little guy? Funny because no business starts out huge. I guess they should just decide to only get so big and not provide jobs to millions of people.

Your money, do what you want with it. The whole boycott thing just never really makes sense to me.

Take Walmart for example. It was started in a little town in Arkansas. One local store that everyone liked to support. I guess Sam Walton got greedy by expanding and leaving a legacy to several generations of his family. He should have only made so much so that people wouldn’t dislike him.

It is also amazing the amount of money Walmart pours back into the community, but no one ever talks about that.

 

[HuntHarder]

Yeah, I am not one to boycott much of anything. Cancel culture drives me nuts. If a local store can be close in price to a bigger box store, I will usually go that way. I do not avoid the bigger stores all together tho. Closest with the best or close to the best price, usually gets my $$$$$.

 

[DenverCountryBoy]

I shop where I can get what I want for the best price, period.

This. If I'm buying a product, I want the best price.

But hiring a service, I want the best value, i.e. quality/price. That often comes from developing relationships with other with local small businesses.

 

[Deadfall]

Size of a place or how much money it makes isnt the concern....when they get big enough that organizations like CIA and such start Dowling out denerio for contrcts that can't be good.

When they start wanting to propagate global socialism/aligart stuff that ain't good. Some use the muse of giving back to keep one hand from watching the other.

By all means dont take my word for it! Consumers cutting own throats.

Same as anything else. Cheapest isn't always best. Sometimes. Not always..

 

[Nomadx2]

I buy from from both big box and small local and look for the best quality at the best price. Both have employees who have to earn a living.

A small local lumber yard? Haven't one of those in years.

 

[Mt Al]

I'm inconsistent and, given a life that's way too busy, prioritize on convenience for my time. Where I live, before things went insane with growth, there were a few locally owned lumber/hardware companies. One was great but was part of True Value - a nice way for a local company to get some infrastructure, buying power, inventory management behind them. They were excellent before and after they aligned with True Value. The other company SUCKED and guess who complained the most when the Home Depot and Lowes moved in? Them. They may have improved, they built a huge building, hope they changed their ways but I don't darken their door.

Wherever I shop, I try to follow this list in no particular order
-If something's made in the USA, it doesn't necessarily mean it's any good. Quality first.
-US owned companies vs. foreign owned. Every tried to follow who owns Ryobi/Miliwaukee/etc? Crazy.
-Made in USA (if it's good)
-Made anywhere else but China. We are at war with China, just a fact. If something's made in other Asian countries, by a US owned company, I don't have near as much of a problem with it.

My 2 cents

 

[DMTJAGER]

I boycott my A*S off but its getting harder and harder because there are getting fewer and fewer places to buy besides the big box places and CommiZon and the PLANdemic is running killing alot of the big box commiZons competition out of business again IMHO not a coincidence any more than the PLANdemic was.

I have quite the list of people and places I refuse to buy from or patronize and it grows larger all the time.

 

[gbflyer]

Realizing our situation is less than normal for the average lower-48’er, we shop Amazon a lot. I live 50 air or 70 boat miles from a real town. No road. Also shop the local mercantile as much as possible. Could we survive without the online retailer? You bet. I wish it was still catalogs and mail order. Sometimes I think an EMP going off wouldn’t be such a bad thing for this country. Not serious of course but we certainly have lost our way (as I type on my iPhone)