I was reading about some local policy changes intended to make running a small business easier and that got me thinking. I go to restaurants and ethnic food stores which are usually small businesses, and maybe some of the gas stations I use are small businesses too. However, everything else I buy comes from big-box stores or the internet. These have replaced a lot of small businesses, but how is it that there are any little shops left at all? Sometimes I walk into a corner store because I don’t want to go all the way to the big box store or wait for delivery but the prices are so much higher (often by over a hundred percent) that I walk right out again unless I need something very urgently.
I’m not making a moral judgement here. I just don’t know how the economics work out.
Depends on what it is. Like for pizza, I do go to the big chains sometimes but I prefer the local pizza places more. But the prices are insane!
Pizza place down the road wants $30 for a simple large pepperoni pizza. But Dominos will only charge me around $12 for the same size pizza with more toppings.
A local Mexican restaurant does pizzas and I’ve been going there more because their pizzas are the absolute best I’ve ever tasted and they’re cheap at around $10 for a large. You simply cannot beat it any way you try.
But it’s hard because of this. Either local places are too expensive or just aren’t as convenient. I hate to say it, but it’s convenient to go into a place like Walmart and get both groceries and electronics and furniture all in the same trip, not to mention the cheaper prices. But there’s also other factors too like peace of mind. I bought some clothes from Target recently in another city and took them back for a refund to my local Target and had no grief. Also, if I don’t have the receipt, they have the ability to look up my card and find my purchase and refund. I also have peace of mind knowing they have blanket policies they follow. 90 days means 90 days for all their stores.
Whereas a local place may tell you 7 days, but is it really? Some places can be more lenient and go beyond the 7 days and some will pretend they never made such a promise. Such is the case for this place down the road from me that is a small, locally owned outlet place that resells stuff and they tell you 7 days and tell other people a different policy and then sometimes don’t honor it at all. Even if one of the Targets denies my return, I’ll go across town and try another Target and maybe get an employee who just doesn’t give a shit and get my stuff done. Happened to me with a bank and a manager who was doing some illegal shit and not letting me withdraw my money. I reported her and the bank and they did get investigated and eventually apologized to me for the manager, but that was months later. And the point was that I went across town and did my legal transaction without issues there. A local bank with one branch could have denied me and I’d have been out and waiting on the government or a lawyer to strongarm them into doing what they legally are supposed to do.
And another thing I realized years ago is that I as a minority may have issues in small towns where they don’t like people who look like me. Local restaurant legally can’t not serve me because they’re racist pricks but may do something like jack up the prices on me or be rude to me to discourage me from staying. But try that in a chain like Dennys and corporate will knock that shit off quick. They don’t want lawsuits and the negative publicity that comes with it all and will fire those racist pricks from representing their brand. I have peace of mind knowing that I can go into a Walmart and less likely to deal with discrimination. Though….the recent news about large chains wanting to make “personalized”/surge pricing is one of those downsides that a local place will likely never be able to do because they don’t have the technology for it or the manpower to maintain such a system.
Conclusion for me has been that I’m grateful both exist. But online retailers like Amazon I think are a bigger threat we should be worried about. Your local government can do something about both local and big businesses but can’t do much about online retailers fucking you over. And online retailers are causing brick and mortar to close at larger rates than ever before. It’s depressing seeing so many businesses, both small and big, close down and shopping malls become ghost towns.