Supporting small businesses and each other!

[JennsPeeps]

We support local business at every chance.

Granite countertops
We decided to get a solid surface countertop for the bathroom, and started out at the big box stores. We found out that the minimum purchase price was WAY above what our little 2'x3' counter would cost: $900-$1500!! DBF found a brand new place that sells granite. Our counter is going to cost $300... installed. We thought we were priced out of granite.

Strawberries & blueberries
The berries in my region are incredible. They come from a nearby valley called the Puyallup Valley. When I was a kid my parents used to get a 5 gallon bucket of blueberries every summer. One year we drove out to the blueberry farm, only to discover it had become a housing development during the winter. I buy all my berries in that valley to help prevent more of that incredibly fertile land from being a housing development that does little more than grow grass.

 

[rufus]

The concept of the double duty dollar seems to have faded into the past. This concept meant that you buy locally from someone who will in turn buy from you or employ someone locally. This keeps the money circulating within the community.

If you buy at WalMart, the money goes to China, if you buy at Safeway, it goes to Great Britain. But if you buy at the corner store, that merchant will spend money in the community.

Sadly, now that we are in a global economy, we are competing with people in China, India and the rest of the world. They can do computer programing and every thing else just as well as we can. But they do it cheaper.

The good news is that there are jobs available, the bad news is that they are in a rice paddy in Thailand.

I don't know the answer.

Rufus

 

[hikerchick]

Part of the problem is that we have been conditioned to think that price is all that matters. WalMart is cheaper; who cares if it is ruining the local econmony. Being so short-sighted and making all of your decisions on price alone will ultimately cost you. In order to nuture our local community, we need to become stakeholders in it. When you sacrifice, you gain. Go ahead and buy the cheapest of the cheap at WalMart. Then scratch your head when your manufacturing plant closes and you lose your job.

 

[mamagardener]

I try to buy locally from small businesses as much as I can, but sometimes you just have to go to a big store. What burns me about Wal-Mart, is that it has lost a lot of its original values since Sam Walton died. I watched a documentary about it, and they were saying if the makers want to have their stuff American made it is very hard because Wal-Mart wants to pay so little for everything. So a lot of people who want to support American made items, end up having their produce made overseas where it is cheaper.

 

[Dar]

I cant afford to buy local...sorry...

i can go to one of the locally owned stores and buy a top for myself and it will cost $60.00 I can go to walmart and buy a similar top and pay $15

I can go to the local grocer and pay $5.99 for a bag of milk (about a gallon) ... I can go to walmart and buy a bag of milk for $3.99

our local store are concentrated in the downtown core where you have to pay for parking, walmart parking is free

 

[Shared Acres]

I was watching a documentary about Walmart and they were talking about how Walmart TELLS a company how much they are going to pay for a product, like Levis. Which forces Levis, and other companies to cut corners and make a cheaper, not as well made product.

It's amazing how so much of our society has turned into, if it breaks (and with more and more cheaply made things it just breaks sooner) we'll throw it away and buy another cheap one. That's all nice and dandy, but now you have a landfill filling up with this useless crap and noone wants to live near a landfill.

There is a baker next to my store that is closing. She apparantally uses cake mixes as a base for her cakes than adds to it. I was HORRIFIED to see Walmart bags filled with cake mixes when we have Publix (headquarters in Fla) and Winn Dixie (this store being MUCH closer, headquarters down the road) right down the road.

Walmart, Publix, Winn-Dixie they all make cakes. But it's hard enough for stores to compete with Walmart but then as a small business you are just helping them to push you under the water?

PHOTOGRAPHY

In my business, Walmart, Kmart and so many other stores have photo departments where people can get 50+ pics for like $10. And then people come to me and ask why I can't do the same.

Box store photo booth employees just know how to click the camera, they don't necessarily know how to run a camera, think about good angles or generally care about you.

Those photos on the walls are samples that HEADQUARTERS sent and have been supremely edited. They are NOT a sample of how good the local store is. I've seen some pretty scary crap come out of some of the better stores.

And that 50+ pics, well at least half of them are going to be mini wallets, that could maybe fit into a locket, and do you know many people with wallets now adays? Not to mention, ALL those pics have to be the same pose.

Now, if you come into my store, 1-I'm friendly and will suggest clothing, poses, packages that I really think would be best for your needs, not necessarily my bottom line. 2-No stale backgrounds that are at least 20 years old. 3-No crappy poses with a rose in the mouth or stuff like that. 4-Those 50 pics can all be different and I don't even offer mini wallets in any package.

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I need some new shorts today. Think I'm going to head some thrift shops, save my money and buy clothes that look new and in some cases are for a fraction of what BOX STORE NAME HERE would charge. Not only am I supporting a small company (that in many cases supports a charity) but I'm getting name brand stuff at a fraction of the cost.

 

[beak]

Quote:
You are so right on correct. As for immigrants, if people didn't hire them they wouldn't be here. Then you wouldn't have to compete with them.

 

[Scoop]

I spend only a small fraction of my money at Wal-mart any more. They are no longer the cheapest anyhow. Some of their clothes are so paper thin!

And has anyone noticed they can always price men's jeans at $10.00 while the women's are usually double that? Women are really getting ripped off there. Same for socks and underwear!

I'm just not a fan of the place any more. It's like so over.

 

[Shared Acres]

So, while I was waiting for the thrift store to open I ran to Lowes as I needed some floating shelves for my office. They were running about $17 each so I decided to pass.

Went to the thrift store, found two still in the box for $4.98 each! Not quite as fat as I had wanted and would have prefered a thired but got both for half of what it would have cost to buy ONE at Lowes!

Then I bought 4 pairs of Capris, one of them a dressy style for work, walked out only spending $24.