Posted on 07/19/2018 4:23:39 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
My wife and I have decided that for this year's Christmas Shopping we will ONLY shop/buy at REAL Brick and Morter LOCAL(w/in 200 Miles) Establishment(s) and we will support local REAL people that we can see and talk too. Amazon and Amazon-like "shopping" just doesn't seen right anymore.
Take care of the Home Folks.
I like it.
I’m in.
That’s the great thing about the free market, you have the opportunity to make the choice.
I hate the holidays
I’m with you on that.
Well...make sure to not buy CHINESE products rampant in your local stores also.
Yeah... Me and mine like to patronize local privetly owned restaurants instead of going for corporate food.. With the slight exception of Chick-fil-a.. :)
Your proposal is OK I guess.
Except that I cannot “get” a lot of the stuff I need locally. So, I have to get in the car and drive 40 minutes to the nearest asupplier—where they don’t have it in stock. They can “order it for me.”
And they probably will get it from Amazon and jack up the price 40%.
Does your plan include avoiding big box stores who have put the small local stores out of business too?
You see, the plan sounds good—but chances are you are not going to “save” anyone. The marketplace has spoken. It has spoken loudly.
Capitalism is a brutal master.
“That’s the great thing about the free market, you have the opportunity to make the choice.”
Exactly right. Amazon is an extremely efficient marketplace which I like. Finding what I need in seconds, paying for it in seconds, having somebody else do the driving and burning the gasoline to get it to me are all extremely valuable to me. They give me back a lot of time, the most precious of all commodities in life.
I just bought a lot of networking components and bits and pieces that I wouldn’t find in any retail store anywhere in the US. I found what I needed from six different suppliers. I placed one order and Amazon conducted the transaction with the six suppliers for me. I got confirmations from the sellers and within 12 hours started getting “Your order has shipped” notices.
Maybe it’s the engineer in me, but I LOVE efficiency — the least input for the most output.
I quit buying gifts a while ago.. Everyone’s an adult and they don’t need anything..
So I make candy and send that.
We try to buy Made in America first and foremost.
The online stuff isn’t always such a great deal either.
I like being able to shop and see the stuff I’m buying so prefer brick and mortar stores but some things just can’t be had that way.
One thing that helps is that with stores, you can catch sales. Do your Christmas shopping all year long. Get an idea of what you want for each person and keep your eyes open for it during the year. Then by Thanksgiving, your Christmas shopping is basically done and you can go into the holidays with far less stress and you don’t have to fight the insane crowds in the malls.
My wife runs an online store. Her operation is apple pie.
Store fronts are very expensive. Her costs would be doubled.
The actual product is what is key. I only wear things that come from countries who at least like us.
In many cases, it’s Chinese online or Chinese locally. But there’s something to be said for online efficiency.
In a few weeks, I’m going to be leading a summer adventure camp for about 100 boys. One of the things will be a large water war.
Last week, I bought 100 water balloons, the kind that have the stems to fill them for $7.98 at Walmart.
Later, I bought 1100 of the same thing for $15.99 online.
If I had to spend $80 on water balloons, we would have had to do something else.
I quit buying gifts a while ago.. Everyone’s an adult and they don’t need anything..
So I make candy and send that.
right. mine are local so I bring pie and ice cream.
CFA is a franchise, I. E. Local or regional ownership.
Sounds very nice, but also very time consuming.
We really don’t do Christmas any more, regarding presents. We have the grandkids over and make stuff (if they are young). If they are older we go out for a meal some time.
The whole big deal about gift giving is more of a 20th century thing that has outlived its usefulness. We’re back to celebrating why the event exists in the first place.
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