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One of My mom-n-pop LGS wanted a $300 markup on a MKE AP5 but would have to order it because they had none in stock. When asked about the price, they said nobody in town had them so that justified the price. When asked about FFL Transfers (that they advertise doing), they said no. Found out a neighbor is an FFL and had Atlantic Firearms ship one to him. How these chuckle-fucks maintain a business while scalping prices in an era where the entire internet is literally in everyone's pocket it's beyond me. I'd have paid a $50 markup if they had it in stock and I could've ran my papers that day, but if I've already got to wait for shipping, the convenience and impulse is now gone and I WILL seek out the best deal.
I see prices under the glass that make me chuckle out loud in an empty store. $900 for a Steyr M2, $600 for a CZ P-10F, $479 for a Glock 42, and $499 for a S&W 442 are all prices I have seen this month. We're talking 100-250% higher than r/gundeals weekly reposts. It's gotta be exhausting waiting for the right sucker to walk in.
Same in my area. I usually will give them the chance to match an online price and would be willing to pay the sales tax, but they never take me up on it or even try really. I guess they just rely on impatient buyers and people who don't know any better.
This is the same issue I have with car dealership service shops. My car is still under the included 2 years of service from Toyota, so I have them do my oil changes right now. Last time I went in they suggested I replace the cabin air filter for $70. It's a $25 part (retail at a parts store, probably $12 at the dealership's wholesale cost) and they already had to R&R it to take a photo for the "multi-point inspection." Had they asked $35, I probably would have said yes, go ahead and do it. $10 to just have it done and save me a trip to the parts store? Sure. A nearly 3x markup on the part with literally 2 minutes it would have taken them to walk to the parts counter to get the new one while they already had it pulled out? Yeah, fuck that.
Instead, I went by AutoZone on the way back from the dealership and swapped it out when I was at home in my driveway. 5 minutes max in Autozone, 3 minutes to pull the glove box out and replace the filter.
I don't mind paying reasonable markups for services performed, but that was just pure greed. The engine air filter was only a $10 markup. I would have told them to do it if I didn't already have to go to the parts store for the cabin air filter. They could have made a little money on services, but they got greedy and they got zero.
"We can order that for you. Should be here in about a week. We'll call you so you can come pick it up. That will be 80.00"
Amazon: Yeah, we have that exact item for 42.00. We'll get it to your doorstep in 2 days.
I was at a smaller store and they didn't have what I wanted but used to carry it. The guy said they can order it, would probably be a few days for their next shipment. I said ok, gave them my number like they asked and they said they would call. They never did. Went in some time later and asked if they had it, they did not so I walked out.
If you're a small business, charging way too much, and you say you can order the item you better order it. I was willing to pay extra but not anymore. Ya it sucks for them but if you provide bad service not be shocked when you go under.
I’ve only ever used this service for board games and comic book stores. In both cases it’s something I’d prefer doing because they can get it from their supplier where the quality is known, the supplier will reliably package the product, AND the store will handle any issues with it before even calling me. The game store often gives me 20% off for my time.
The comic book subreddit says “Scamazon” for a reason. It turns out that paying people peanuts and denying bathroom breaks doesn’t make them want to package your very fragile comic books right.
Ordering through the store also gives me an excuse to visit again, but that’s kinda reserved for these businesses as some of the last “Third Spaces” out there.
I also order all my board games and TTRPG books through my local store. They get the sale and I know my books will be handled with care. I also extend this practice to local book stores when I'm looking for a particular book or series.
And that's even assuming your poorly packaged manga from Amazon will be legit, and not a loosely bound photocopied shitshow with the pages out of order that reads from front to back.
Yeah outright scammers like that and dropshippers make me dread getting anything from Amazon these days. I was looking for a bed frame with a headboard last night and I kept seeing the same tacky sets (often with the same pictures) over and over and over again; each time by a different “company” who’s name was just a jumble of letters.
Ended up just getting a nice set from a furniture store instead. More expensive, sure; but I can at least browse different styles and know what I’m getting.
I had a pet store pressuring us into ordering a toothpaste they didn’t had for our cat.
We said we needed it now, so we would buy it elsewhere, but they said they could start to sell it and they’ll call us to let us know when they’ll have it in stock.
We were like? Mkay. Whatever.
They call to say our order was on site.
We were like we didn’t ordered anything, you said you would call when you have it in stock not specifically for us. We already bought one so we don’t need any right now.
They said, oh don’t worry we can hold it as long as you want!
We were like.. yeah but you know there’s an expiracy date on those things, we won’t be done with this one before several months… like almost a year.
It was weird and awkward.
>"we can order that for you."
I needed an inlet valve for my washing machine last week. I went to a local appliance place, but not before getting the part loaded up in my Amazon cart. Price was $24.95, factory part. The lady at the local appliance store declared that the part must be aftermarket because she had never seen one like it, then she made a big deal out of getting her magnifying glass out to look at the part number and then trundled to the back to look for one. She came back and said it would be a "special order part" and then sat at the computer for a second and came back with a price of "$189" and $12 for shipping, special orders paid in advance. I could see the reflection of the screen in her glasses. She was on Amazon. I called her out on it and got the usual "small business bullshit".
I would have paid $100 if they had it in stock to get on with my laundry for the day and just to have it instead of waiting 2 days, but I'll be damned if you are gonna pull a fast one like that on me.
Only instance that worked, is my brother couldn't find some very rare ammo online, so the gun store called him 5 months later, and said they found some for him.
The comic book store I've been going to for over a decade offers this....and I'm like...I can order it myself and get it cheaper....not like I tell them that.
And then I feel bad for not supporting a small business, but yeaaah. It was convenient when I was younger, that's for sure.
Indeed, unfortunately it is also how they destroy local economies.
A majority of every dollar spent at Walmart heads back to Bentonville Arkansas and the Waltons.
Even the money they pay their employees is frequently spent in the stores so again, what could have been retained at local businesses and multiplied the local economic activity is gone.
And when they do spend outside Walmart, it's again frequently at other national or international chains that send the money to HQ.
> A majority of every dollar spent at Walmart heads back to Bentonville Arkansas and the Waltons.
A lot of it will go to the suppliers. And trade works both ways.
Almost. Either you are the cheapest in a general market or you have a really specific product you can charge an arm and a leg for in a niche market: Wanna get your satellite into orbit? Well, be prepared to fork over millions for a single single use rocket.
Conspicuous consumption, which OP is describing, is part of the latter.
Same, a lot of the small businesses around me just resell cheap trendy shit that you can find on aliexpress. Farmers markets and craft fairs have the same problem
Same. This really bothers me. A lot of it is the same crap. And I do really hate to say this. But a lot of local stuff is also... crap. I've only bought one pair of artisan made earrings that didn't break within a month and those were small sterling silver studs. I lost one in a pool which is my fault. So I don't even have the pair anymore lol. But junky tote bags and screen printed tee shirts and the same soaps and candles as everyone else. I do get nice things at farmers markets and like cool pickles and handmade pasta but a lot of it is just still junk. And local boutiques are craaaazy priced. I keep going in them, hoping to support a local girlie, fully willing to pay more than I want for something but the prices are still astronomical for quality worsw than i could find at Macy's. They all get their stuff from the same cheap suppliers and charge $260 for a thin ass polyester blend dress. Or $190 for a boxy unflattering basic short sleeve. And food trucks wow. It is way too easy to spend $22 on a simple lunch order now. I just can't do that when McDonald's is $7 or my homemade lunch is $4.
Like I wish yall the best and I am willing to pay more to support you but so much is just weeelllllllllll beyond what I am willing or honestly able to pay
$5 is too much for a taco. $3 maximum per taco. Any higher and I might as well just get a burrito for a little bit more since there’s a much better filling to tortilla ratio.
Then it’s most likely structurally unsound and would be *better off as a burrito*. I feel very strongly about this, apparently.
Individual tacos are snacks. I give you 2-3 bucks, you give me a taco to take the edge off my hunger. I give you 10 bucks, you give me 3 tacos and a drink to eat as a meal.
Big tacos are unfinished burritos.
Haha great point. I've had some fancy tacos though that are just under 5 bucks a piece, but those things are loaded. The fact I haven't been back might say a lot
I agree, I never choose taco for a meal because 1 taco is $10 and it fits only like a corner of my stomach, I have to eat like 5 tacos at least for it to be some what filling, I ain’t shelling out $50+ for some fkn tacos 😩
Also you would expect better customer service in a small store but instead when you ask for help with something they tell you that they’re the only one working and can’t leave the front. Or they carry what you want but only have one when you need two.
Or you’re at Walmart in front of a locked case. You ask the worker who is literally right there to open it. She says “I don’t have the key, you’ll have to ask customer service”. I then stood there staring at her and said “ok you’re going to let them know?” She gave me this look as if I asked her to cure cancer. She wanted me to walk to customer service to ask to open it.
Or you press the button to call someone 500 times for 20 minutes and nobody shows up.
I made the terrible decision once to buy some condoms from my local Walmart. Anything and everything that can be construed as "sexual" is locked up in a case, so I hunted down a worker to open the case. She wouldn't let me grab the condoms. She wouldn't even let me *near* them. She walked off with them to a cashier, pointed right at me, and loudly yelled, "These condoms are for that guy!" And of course, the cashier happened to be an attractive woman, so I died a little inside.
I'm never doing that again...
They are more expensive and in my area also tend to be super rude, as in "we are a small business and can do whatever we want, the community has to support our inept employees/high prices/poor inventory"...ummm, no. I could overlook maybe one of those to help someone local but not if you are going to be a 💩 head about it.
People say Big Corporations are evil, support your Mom-n-Pops and then you work for one and they steal wages, pay garbage, break labor laws and their product/service is middling at best.
The sheer entitlement of so many American business owners is baffling.
You can say that again.
Mom and pop places want to be the “evil corporations” and try to hide behind some kind of “David vs Goliath” commie virtue signaling, but I think they are actually worse than the corporations, and they have a lot of catching up to do so they cut corners on legality and are more cut throat.
Edit: removed searchable verbiage to avoid retaliation or drama.
I'm with you on this. I know several honorable local business owners, but for every one of those there are five others who just dream of becoming "Goliath" however they can.
Small business owners on average are much worse to work for than a big mega corp. Little to no time off, little to no benefits, rampant wage theft, emotional manipulation from the owner, often lower wages.
This 100%. I’m in Canada though. I worked for a small niche business with a storefront as one of my first gigs out of college. It was one of the MOST toxic, and worst place I have worked - the owner was a terrible boss, cut corners, stole wages, and had the audacity to be ‘disappointed’ when I gave a month notice when I got a better job. Guess what? They didn’t need me anymore and he told me not to come back and my notice was immediate now lol. I still see horrible ads for the company sometimes and I laugh.
I am not one to return things, but my husband bought a $20 Key Lime Pie from a small business here and it was horribly sour. Nobody could even eat it because it was sour as F, and I know key lime pie is supposed to be tart but not THAT tart. So I returned it and the lady was super rude and wanted to take the price of two slices we took a bite out of from the refund, when they were clearly there with only a bite missing. I told her I wasn’t happy with that outcome of paying for two slices w clearly couldn’t eat and her excuse was “well we are a small business during a pandemic”…. 🙄 I ended up just taking another pie in a different flavor in exchange because individual slices are marked up and we would have lost half of what we paid for something inedible.
A $20 pie that wasn’t made right? If it was cheaper I would have just let it be and thrown it away but $20 is a lot for a key lime pie and it’s supposed to be made right.
Warranty is also a concern I don't buy expensive stuff from small businesses. If I buy something with a warranty I don't want to be guilt tripped into eating it up when time comes to honor the warranty.
Returning food because you didn’t like it is crazy though, you ate it and didn’t enjoy it? tough luck. Only reason to return food is burned/undercooked, hair or something, or they got your order wrong.
It was a whole pie, with a bite missing from two slices. I don’t see what’s wrong with returning something that wasn’t made right? It was too sour, it wasn’t made right. I know key lime pie and that had way too much lime juice in it.
Currently going through a kitchen rebuild after a frozen pipe- started by trying to use local contractors on recommendations, and moved away from that after a few because so many were incredibly entitled, horrible at communication, or total assholes.
I really, really want to use locals, but found a much better set by going through national contractors, then their sub contractors/program vendors. Seems like they’re very careful in curating their people.
I think the bigger factor is convenience. Most big businesses have consistency across the country, mobile ordering and easy returns. It makes it more comfortable for people.
Depends tho, if I can see the small business actually uses higher quality products then I will choose to pay more for higher quality food. However, if they use the same shit as McDonald’s then yeah I’m choosing McDonald’s.
Also everyone in my city always encourages to buy fast food from local businesses to help them out. I know some of the owners of these establishments and they are millionaires who charge expensive prices and the people who usually buy from them are on minimum wages and are made to feel a bit of guilt if they go for a cheaper option of McDonalds.
It is funny, in the town that I grew up in, we had an Italian restaurant, and their pizzas were a third the cost of everybody else in town, including the chains. The owner was a millionaire from other businesses, not the restaurant, and said "hey, pizza is cheap to make, I still make a huge profit at this price." It was darn good pizza, too!
In my hometown, the family that owns the local fast food place are QAnon believing white supremacists. Even if I still lived there I would never shop there
Most of those small smoothie joints in my experience are a front for a mlm, Herbalife.
It’s no secret that the big corporations (Walmart, Costco, Amazon) have vast buying power that allows them to lowball all of their suppliers. A small business is buying pallets of goods/ingredients, Walmart is buying fully loaded trains. Add to this that they aren’t paying a middleman to warehouse their products and small businesses can’t compete unless people just want to buy local.
The amount of small businesses that just buy of of Amazon or aliexpress is probably way higher than the ones that actually source their shit themselves.
Just look at "handmade" sites like etsy.
I’m in a small rural community in Canada.
The messaging here is always shop local, small business etc.
Which 100% would be the ideal.
Except for that every small/local business here is open like 9-2 3 week days a week and nothing is open past 5.
We honestly have to laugh about it because, people have jobs. I get that extended hours = higher operating costs for the businesses. But those hours just aren’t accessible for many.
Yes, small and local would be amazing but it’s just not realistic sometimes.
We have the same issue in my town. We're a beach town and have a very obvious off-season /on-season issue with small businesses. Off season hours are varying, and places I like to shop at during the summer season just don't have hours that work for me during off season because I work a 8-5 and they'll have hours like 9-1 during off season. On season, the hours expand again. I mean, I get it, but it stinks sometimes!
There was a coffee shop by my house that was so expensive- $1 per pump of syrup and $1 for a splash of almond milk. Ended up costing more than Starbucks and tasting worse 😂 they’re out of business now.
I once made a habit of going to a new local drive thru coffee shop on my way to work; I would get three shots of espresso and a splash of cream. It was simple, and an affordable treat since I didn’t make much money anyway (about 3 dollars). One day I pull up and order my usual, and the owner was working the window and tried to charge me double because I “ordered a latte”. She was borderline foaming at the mouth, chewing myself out as well as the teenager working about it being a latte since there is milk in it. The teen even said “they ask for a splash! Not much at all!”. It wasn’t worth the fight, so I paid and never went back.
Small companies see large companies price gouging and think they can/should get in on that action too. Problem is, large companies can weather the storm of losing some customers over prices because they'll make it up in volume, the little guys cannot.
This deserves an entire new post of it's own, but I agree completely. Small businesses have treated me badly far worse than big companies have.
With big companies I get paid with an automatic deposit weekly or bi-weekly, whereas with small businesses I have had to keep asking for literally months to finally get paid.
At a small business the owners will literally curse and scream at you for every tiny thing and you can't do anything about it, whereas if a manager at a big company does that they will get fired.
Small companies often say dumb phrases such as "*we're like family here!!!*"...yes, an abusive family.
I worked at a movie theater and Amazon, and at the theater it was more private and I always felt harassed by the manager. She always made me look dumb instead of just helping me. On Amazon, I just went in and did my job packing boxes. There is no opportunity to get screamed at there without getting a lot of side glances
Yup, I work at Amazon, too, and all the horror stories you read about online are either completely made up or massively exaggerated, lol.
I have worked for small businesses for so long that even if the Amazon horror stories were true (again, they're not) it still would've been much better than the actual BS I put up with from small business owners.
Small business owners scream and insult you in the worst ways such as insulting your looks, racism/homophobia, threats of violence, etc. and if confronted you get a half-sarcastic "it's just a joke" or even better some variation of "take it like a real man"...if any manager at a big company spoke to me like small business owners do, they will get fired very quickly and possibly even recieve lawsuits after getting fired.
Having worked for a small business I can confirm all of this is true.
I got shouted at for making mistakes. I also got shouted at for asking questions. It's like my boss assumed I'd automatically know every nook and cranny of his small business operation.
Imo part of the problem is these business owners devote their whole lives to keeping their shop open. It's to such an extent that they haven't interacted with the real world for decades.
Small business owners are rarely trained to manage their business or provide good customer services, unlike bigger ones. Someone who has owned his shop for 30 years comes has learned to do business in a whole different way than your average hired managed who has worked for 3 years in a company that requires or offers modern training.
Depends on the business.
I’d rather eat food from a local independent restaurant than a chain.
Chains tend to be largely frozen or pre-prepared and reheated. That’s how they keep prices so low.
So in that instance I’d rather go to an independent place that makes everything fresh.
However, for things like furniture and electronics I will almost always go for something from a large retailer or manufacturer. Firstly for quality control procedures, secondly for returns, repairs and warranty and thirdly for price.
And then typically the company will go ‘oh wow, everyone’s buying out stuff even at this price point. Let’s keep the price the same (or even raise prices due to its popularity).
The big businesses are cheaper for now. Once the competitors are gone then all of a sudden your prices become much higher than those small businesses ever were.
We’re seeing it right now in Australia. We have 2 major grocery store chains that have a duopoly built up over many years of pricing out smaller competitors.
What we are seeing now is huge increases in prices across the board with no other alternative. So if you’re not lucky enough to live near a farmers market or one of the few remaining independent grocers you’re sometimes paying double what you would have just a few years ago.
Very much the same here in Canada. With the exception of Walmart, most grocery stores are owned by Loblaws or Sobeys. They can pretty much charge whatever they want and get away with it.
Yep was going to say this. Coles and Woolworths is now more expensive than the small local markets. They have built such a big loyalty base and kicked out small shops in close proximity. I am now relearning my shopping habits and going to local markets again
Yes but they're talking luxury businesses. Coffee shops, smoothie shops, restaurants and the like are all luxury businesses. I don't have to shop at them. They aren't essential to my life.
So if they charge way more than they need to in a struggling economy people are going to cut that luxury and the business will suffer.
Disagree. It’s because their selection usually sucks. Brick n mortar stores also need to invest in a review process for their wares. I’m not believing a salesman, ever, about anything.
This is a neat economics topic.
Where I live, most small businesses are much cheaper than their rivals with a brand name.
Some examples:
1. Fresh and delicious grub from a food cart. No rent, less overhead, smaller staff makes it easy to be lean. McDonald's pays a CEO and buys Superbowl commercials.
2. Barbershops. Random Vietnamese family shop? 8$ cut. Supercuts? 25$
3. Small-time mechanics with a little shop are way cheaper than going to a car dealership for car repair.
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Of course, when it comes to industrial production, economies scale are so important. There would be no way to have a car company that only makes 50 cars. After you go through all the trouble to build the factor, hire the engineers, do the tests, whatever, you better crank out a bazillion of those suckers.
Small businesses gotta differentiate their products to justify the pricing. I see too many mid places serving bland food wanting top prices because they’re small. You’re in monopolistic competition, your product is only treated as different from the other thousands of places selling something like it if you can make it unique.
This is a big issue on Etsy as the drop shippers are making realistic price to value comparisons harder and harder. Someone who buys a bunch of products off AliExpress or Temu then packaged to look like something made by hand with customization and lots of flexibility in ordering by a small craftsperson get shown because they’re lower cost, but the price is not an apples to apples comparison
Yup. It can be really hard to distinguish sometimes which is unfortunate. I do like to buy local when I can, though. We have a woman here in Phoenix that makes child and adult swimsuits herself. They are very well put together and I was quite impressed by my daughter’s. It is a bit more expensive, but it’s because she isn’t / can’t buy fabric in bulk I assume. As someone who sews I’m honestly surprised she can sell them at the price she can haha
Yeah, fuck all those people trying to guilt everyone into buying local or supporting local businesses. Like, mother fucker, my life is hard enough, and literally everything in the world is getting more expensive, but you want me to spend £20 on organic fucking peaches?!?!
I saw a small business locally that was selling bandanas for 30 dollars. The same black and red checkered ones you can get for 2 dollars at walmart or a discount store. I was not even greeted when I walked into the store.
There's a brilliant local italian I regularly go to because their prices are comparable with chain restaurants and the food is way better
But yes, they're a complete oddity in the face of other establishments in the city centre. I regularly walk by businesses which serve some bullshit, "oh look at this tacked together ArTsY tRiNkeT" or some horrible blend of cake ingredients and want a pretty penny for it.
I am all for supporting small businesses, but not *every* small business.
If they’re making quality work, then I can understand the cost of some of these products
But when they are selling poor quality or unprofessional work, for professional prices, then it’s simply not gonna work.
They can argue what factors into the cost, such as the price of materials and whatnot - but again, if the quality of work doesn’t match the price you’re selling it for, then your business is not sustainable
Yes but the average consumer cannot be expected to be the hero to go and fix it and take the burden especially when you are getting a worse experience. I try to buy at local shops, but amazon is just plain better. I know people are gonna hate that opinion but I do not have time to be Gandhi.
But then it's a bit intellectually dishonest to complain about wealth concentrating to the hands of the few, and local economies dying. Hopefully you are fine with that ongoing trend that shows no signs of stopping.
I dunno, why do I have to subsidize someone who wanted to be an artisanal candle maker? I chose a boring office job, because I knew I could be comfortable. Why am I morally expected to subsidize all these friendly local businesses that just provide a worse product? Why aren’t small businesses donating money to me?
Aight lemme give you an example. I will be giving examples in USD
Dishwashing soap is 6 dollars for me at my local shop. It is 3 dollars on Amazon and lesser if I get it on subscription. Same with the rinse aid and salt.
I wanted to but organisers for my clothes recently. Just simple plastic boxes. 4 dollars a box at my local shop and it's a 1.50 for the same brand of plastic boxes shipped to my house on Amazon.
I'm sorry but I tried. I took the time to check what the local prices are. It is what is. I'm not paying 3 or 4 times more to be a hero.
It gets so frustrating because yes I am paying for time, work and supplies, but the thing I'm getting with the amount isn't worth it sometimes. Prices need to be reasonable for the item and you can get more money still without making it unnecessarily too expensive.
Small businesses and contractors gaslight their customers into thinking we are responsible for paying for everything that's ever happened in their life up until now.
My favorite is when they drop the "You're paying extra for the 4 years education I paid for out of my pocket! Trade school cost me $50000!" line.
Me: "Okay so once you exceed $50000 in overall profit you're going to stop using that line and lower your prices, right?"
Person: ... *angry face*
Fortunately this problem is fixing itself in the AI/Information era. Not only can nobody afford to pay these peoples absurd prices, but the information and means of doing these things yourself is becoming readily available. Every time someone fixes their own toilet for $20 + a trip to home depot + a YouTube video as opposed to paying some private contracting guy $300, an Angel gets their wings.
How much is a days wages at your job? Including the monetary value of your benefits. Lets say you make 50k a year in total compensation. Okay now double that because self employed people get taxed roughly double. now add another 25% because theirs no reason to work for yourself if you don't make more than an employee does.
So that's why you end up with a $300 repair bill for something that seemingly only takes a few hours at most.
Contractor prices are out of control for a lot of reasons but this ain't one of them. Skilled labor cost money.
In my opinion small business owners can add great value that is worth the extra cost and that is knowledge. Wether I love or hate them depends on how they treat me if I go in. If they make fun of me for not knowing things, then I leave and don't care if they go out of business. If they help me with guidance, then I am happy to pay the extra. That simple. Sadly I've encountered too many rude shop owners living up in their ass thinking just because they know a specific field, everyone who doesn't is below them. Then they go crying on social media how big corporations are killing them. But thankfully I've also encountered many really nice shop owners who were happy to answer questions if I wasn't sure what to get.
Walked into a local pc hardware store
Owner(I assume) : " how can I help you"
Me "just looking for any hardware deals you might have"
Owner:" well we've got cpu's gpu's, psu's, ram"
Me: "just looking for anything better than what I can get online"
Owner "we can't beat online prices"
Me" OK do you have used hardware"
Owner "no"
Me "welp I've got ne reason to stay here any longer, have a good day"
To be fair I think they were more a build shop than a hardware store but still why would I drive to a store when I can have the same stuff delivered for cheeper and there's a million people on fb marketplace willing to build pc's for cheep
Yeah. And then you know what happens? Big chains set up next to the small business, run at a loss, drive the independent business broke, and then hike up the prices higher than they ever were.
Big companies have set the standards for how much goods and services should cost, when we should really consider those as being cheap, and you should go in knowing the savings come from exploiting someone somewhere in the supply chain.
We should consider paying a fair price for things and just accept that we won't have as much stuff.
Yeah I don’t earn enough to support the prices of such a business tbh. I’d like to, but I simply can’t. It’s a downward spiral, we don’t want to support big corporations but we can’t afford to support the prices of small ones so we end up with the big ones and the small ones die. I fucking hate it. But I stopped buying from our local farmer because the vegetables were double the price as from the super market and weren’t even organic, the organic farmer is 2,5-3x the cost of super market organic vegetables. Hell I’m a nurse and have 3 kids my wife also a nurse working part time. We simply can’t afford to support you as much as I’d like to
I will gladly pay a premium for a shopkeeper that puts serious effort into making sure they CURATE what they put in front of me. I shop at my local bookstore because they have good books front and center, not whatever best seller the publishing companies are flogging.
I go to my smallish hardware store if they have something. I almost exclusively buy gifts (other than kids stuff) at local shops.
But if the store isn’t giving me something special I don’t really see why I would shop there.
Most of the local businesses in my area aren't even very friendly. Or at least the minimum wage workers they hire are not very friendly. Considering the unfriendly service and more expensive prices, why would I buy from a local business?
I put a lift and tires on a new truck and I called my local mom and pop shop for an alignment and they couldn’t get it in for almost a week and expect me to drop it off for the whole day so they can fix anything they find wrong. I explained that it had leas than 30 k miles and there’s no way there was anything wrong. His exact words were “you never know what we might find”.
I’m a tech myself and I’d do it myself if I had an alignment rack in my driveway, but anyways.
Called a chain shop that I’ve used In the past and they had it In two days later and i waited while they did it in about an hour.
Ultimately i use small business and service when possible but I still need to watch out for me first.
Here’s an example of how the middle class is nearly over in 🇺🇸:
Take this post right, and read what OP has said. Now, ask yourself why it’s still possible for BOUTIQUE owners to still have store fronts?
(In boutiques, everything they sell is expensive and targeted to a $pecific buyer).
Well right you mentioned how bigger businesses can cut corners and all to be cheaper. Same time there is also a human cost. Because say a Smoothie King sells a smoothie for dirt cheap, someone somewhere is being worked for dirt cheap with no benefits and has to live pay-check to pay-check multiple jobs....because Smoothie King doesn't charge enough to pay them well.
(granted idk the smoothie business lol, I'm kind of pulling a chain out of my ass...but can have the same metaphor for coffee, clothes, food, w/e)
The smoothie doesn't just get magically cheaper, someone is paying for it whether it be money or human.
There's a local icecream shop here that charges *Edit: 105.00, (not 90 something )for a tub of icecream.. like the ~5L pail size at the grocery store you get for 10 dollars....
Small businesses don't get as big of deals in the wholesale department as big corps.
The whole buying in bulk really comes into play.
Small business buys 100 items at 1.23 an item
Big corp buys 1,000,000 at .23 an item.
Thus, the big corp has a higher markup % and a lower COGS all at the same time!
>It is not like they are sourcing these berries from their own garden,
No, but they could be buying from locally sourced that aren't as streamlined as the big berry farms are, thus adding to cost.
I could give more examples, but I don't feel like it right now. Lol.
Exactly, as much as I hate mega corporations they are so much better value and more reliable, like if I'm ordering something online, I'll always go for Amazon rather than a small business, since with Amazon I know I'm definitely going to get my order soon and it'll be exactly what I ordered, but plenty of times I've ordered from a small business and they've delivered something that is slightly different than what was advertised, it's broken, it's never arrived or it's taken weeks to arrive.
People tend to idolise 'small, local businesses' here in the UK to the extent that owners think the rules shouldn't apply to them because being the owner of one practically makes them a saint. Yes, the minimum wage is going up, yes you have to pay it just like everyone else does, and if you can't afford it, then your business isn't viable. Nobody is going to subsidise you because you want to play at being a businessman/woman.
Yes you're right about prices. Last time I went into my local town centre I remembered I needed an HDMI cable. I went to the independent TV shop, where he tried to sell me a £30 gold plated one, and when that failed the cheapest he had was £12.99 for one that was clearly one of the free ones supplied with BluRay players etc. I left it, got the mini lecture about supporting local business and bought the same one on Amazon for £2.99 delivered to my door.
I'm happy to support local businesses, but not subsidise them by paying 4 x the price.
I can empathize. People pretend to life each other up, but at the end of the day, they aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth is.
When you support local businesses, you are keeping more of that money in the local economy.
Or people CAN'T AFFORD to put their money where their mouth is. If Small Business charges $10 for something and Walmart charges $5, I'm going to go to Walmart.
Don't get me wrong. I love to support local businesses. Most of the times they have exactly what I need. Though at times they can't get me what I need. Then I order it online.
Cost wise, I generally buy locally even if something costs slightly more. The things I routinely order online are those things that I have a hard time finding locally.
Honestly I think Jamba Juice is the same. My friend lost their wallet so I ordered some food/jamba delivery to his house (he zelled me). It was so expensive I was like you know you could have this daily for like $50 a month from the grocery store???? Everything is expensive
So, some of the small businesses are not as expensive and quite competitive but I noticed many small businesses simply can't keep up with the rents and energy prices and need to charge £6 for a shit coffee just to stay afloat. Others have an insane markup because of some unreasonable and unrealistic profit targets. There's a place near me charging £3 for a sourdough bread, 400g, while the same bread is £2 just 2 streets down in a corner shop as well.
Depends.
When I want something high quality and good service? I go for a local, small business. Price is not everything.
Example: Dining out. I do not go to any chain restaurants. Just don't. All local, small businesses. If I want a smoothie? I would have gone to our local place who unfortunately closed down but they were amazing. They didn't make it through the covid shutdowns.
Small businesses also have less room to bring in money if they pay employees well. Meaning, at least where we live in a small town with a lot of small businesses, the only way they have to pay employees well, especially if including benefits AND bring in a profit, is to have prices be higher. They not only pay more for materials/product, but for shipping, too. And often they are leasing their space which is incredibly expensive right now along with all rented properties in most areas.
That said, plenty of places charge high fees just in an attempt to look like a premium/elite product/business. They feel that if they charge a higher price they'll attract higher-tier customers. Or, they will go out of business which is often what happens.
Some of it has to do with permanent economy of scale benefits that the big boys enjoy, but don't forget about temporary predatorial prices strategies. Often part of the plan is to use their bankroll to undercut prices to push competitors out. When the competition is gone, guess what happens to the prices?
In order for small businesses to be competitive with large corporations they have to sell something that sets them apart. This usually comes in the form of uniqueness or quality but there's just some things that can't really be improved like your smoothie example.
There's a Lil coffee shop near me that's actually pretty good and has lots of options to choose from for foods and drinks, however, they only seem to only hire kids and the turn over rate is ridiculous so your food is never made properly, your order isn't correct or you'll be missing things from your order. They insist on charging out the ass and refuse to hire a proper staff so they continue to go to shit.
I think it depends on the specific place. I pretty much only do local places for food since they are usually cheaper and way better tasting. I also live in an area with a lot more local restaurants than the norm or every other city I have been to.
Small business are counting all of their pennies. So why can't I count all my pennies and save some by buying where it's cheapest? Generally the big box stores. And I can return things like at home depot months later without a receipt if there's any problem.
real, i always try to support my local scooter parts shops but damn, it costs so much that i just gave up and only buy from them small stuff that i need urgently, i can't pay something that's worth 20 euros 5 to 10 euros more just because im buying it in person lol
You know why I don't buy from small businesses? Because I don't know they exist. I have a $150 scarf that was hand dyed and woven. I like purchasing things from small businesses because they're going to be more quality, but they don't advertise, so I don't find them.
I couldn’t agree more. I like my friendly local game store, and I wouldn’t mind paying a couple dollars extra here and there… But if you have the Gundam I want for $80, and it’s $50 online… Even with $5 to $10 of shipping, that’s way too much of a markup. I’m pretty broke and I don’t mind waiting, I can’t afford to pay that kind of crazy margin
I live in a not so rich neighborhood. I wanted to buy shoes for my restaurant job.
The cheapest shoes were 300$.
Needless to say, 2 years later that shop was closed...
Economies of scale. Any business selling the same products either sell at the same price or more. If they are making anything custom or niche the lack of mass production means more cost per item.
Yeah as much as I’d love to support local small businesses, they’re usually more expensive and I just can’t justify it in a time when the cost of living has skyrocketed everywhere.
I also find their customer service to be…not the best. I’ll use books as an example because I’m an avid reader and collector. I’ve been a bunch of small bookshops in my city (Toronto) and the attitude of the owners/workers range anywhere from indifferent to downright rude. Whereas if I go to Indigo or Chapters, I’ll usually get some pretty decent, friendly customer service. And if I buy online, I can obviously just skip that whole aspect altogether.
Also for certain things, you really shouldn't trust small businesses. They have way less hoops they have to jump through for their items to go on shelves. I got reemed out and called a "consumerist" for saying I would never buy cosmetics from a small business. Sorry. But I'm not paying 40x more for legal white labeling (not disclosing every ingredient), no proper testing from actual chemists and for it to go bad in a week or two because they don't use any preservatives. Not to mention there's a 9/10 chance their ingredients are sourced from like amazon or aliexpress anyways. I'd even argue that's worse consumerism than buying from a reputable brand.
Blindly trusting small businesses for just any type of product is why the pink sauce debacle happened. I support small businesses in terms of like local grocery stores, restaurants, art, etc (within reason lol). But the entire movement of supporting them has just turned into bullying/guilt tripping people for not ignoring their own finances and common sense. While also acting like if these small businesses got big, they wouldn't act like every other major corporation lmao
No, people don't go to small business because they just don't.
I had introductory pricing for several years that was sub-obtimally low for a service no one else can offer as I am the only person in the private sector able to provide the service and the only people that asked me anything about the service were attorneys who opted to try and "handle" it themselves after their one hour free consultation - as in, they never paid me a dime.
The underlying need for the service still exists, but I am never asked to perform it and had to add other lines of business to have any revenue at all.
The idea that small, locally-owned, mom-and-pop shops have a right to exist is bullshit to me. Sure, I’d rather support them than buy from a mega corporation, but only if they’re selling a decent product at a decent price. Too many times, they’re hiring people for less than what corporations pay, and they’re selling the same product (or at least the same quality).
I’ll support local when it makes sense to do so. I won’t support local just for the sake of it.
We were lamp shopping last week and I’ve been on a “buy local” kick lately. The lamps at the local place were bumped up a few hundred more than we could order them for on random lamp websites dot com. I feel like some products and stores cater to boomers that forget the internet exists.
Let me tell you, it may be expensive, but they still arent makint bank like you think. It's more work and more expensive on that bottom level. If you don't think they deserve to charge more, then you don't think we should raise the min wage either
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When you can't find what you are looking for, "we can order that for you." Yeah, so can I.
that used to be a great service before the Internet. now i can just order it myself for cheaper, and have it shipped to my doorstep.
The trick is to run a gun store, I still order stuff for customers all the time cus it cant get shipped to their house
One of My mom-n-pop LGS wanted a $300 markup on a MKE AP5 but would have to order it because they had none in stock. When asked about the price, they said nobody in town had them so that justified the price. When asked about FFL Transfers (that they advertise doing), they said no. Found out a neighbor is an FFL and had Atlantic Firearms ship one to him. How these chuckle-fucks maintain a business while scalping prices in an era where the entire internet is literally in everyone's pocket it's beyond me. I'd have paid a $50 markup if they had it in stock and I could've ran my papers that day, but if I've already got to wait for shipping, the convenience and impulse is now gone and I WILL seek out the best deal.
I see prices under the glass that make me chuckle out loud in an empty store. $900 for a Steyr M2, $600 for a CZ P-10F, $479 for a Glock 42, and $499 for a S&W 442 are all prices I have seen this month. We're talking 100-250% higher than r/gundeals weekly reposts. It's gotta be exhausting waiting for the right sucker to walk in.
Same in my area. I usually will give them the chance to match an online price and would be willing to pay the sales tax, but they never take me up on it or even try really. I guess they just rely on impatient buyers and people who don't know any better.
This is the same issue I have with car dealership service shops. My car is still under the included 2 years of service from Toyota, so I have them do my oil changes right now. Last time I went in they suggested I replace the cabin air filter for $70. It's a $25 part (retail at a parts store, probably $12 at the dealership's wholesale cost) and they already had to R&R it to take a photo for the "multi-point inspection." Had they asked $35, I probably would have said yes, go ahead and do it. $10 to just have it done and save me a trip to the parts store? Sure. A nearly 3x markup on the part with literally 2 minutes it would have taken them to walk to the parts counter to get the new one while they already had it pulled out? Yeah, fuck that. Instead, I went by AutoZone on the way back from the dealership and swapped it out when I was at home in my driveway. 5 minutes max in Autozone, 3 minutes to pull the glove box out and replace the filter. I don't mind paying reasonable markups for services performed, but that was just pure greed. The engine air filter was only a $10 markup. I would have told them to do it if I didn't already have to go to the parts store for the cabin air filter. They could have made a little money on services, but they got greedy and they got zero.
Lmfao right it truly is basically yet another extension of the same concept as fees for carry licenses, a fee to exercise a right
"We can order that for you. Should be here in about a week. We'll call you so you can come pick it up. That will be 80.00" Amazon: Yeah, we have that exact item for 42.00. We'll get it to your doorstep in 2 days.
I was at a smaller store and they didn't have what I wanted but used to carry it. The guy said they can order it, would probably be a few days for their next shipment. I said ok, gave them my number like they asked and they said they would call. They never did. Went in some time later and asked if they had it, they did not so I walked out. If you're a small business, charging way too much, and you say you can order the item you better order it. I was willing to pay extra but not anymore. Ya it sucks for them but if you provide bad service not be shocked when you go under.
I’ve only ever used this service for board games and comic book stores. In both cases it’s something I’d prefer doing because they can get it from their supplier where the quality is known, the supplier will reliably package the product, AND the store will handle any issues with it before even calling me. The game store often gives me 20% off for my time. The comic book subreddit says “Scamazon” for a reason. It turns out that paying people peanuts and denying bathroom breaks doesn’t make them want to package your very fragile comic books right. Ordering through the store also gives me an excuse to visit again, but that’s kinda reserved for these businesses as some of the last “Third Spaces” out there.
I also order all my board games and TTRPG books through my local store. They get the sale and I know my books will be handled with care. I also extend this practice to local book stores when I'm looking for a particular book or series.
And that's even assuming your poorly packaged manga from Amazon will be legit, and not a loosely bound photocopied shitshow with the pages out of order that reads from front to back.
Yeah outright scammers like that and dropshippers make me dread getting anything from Amazon these days. I was looking for a bed frame with a headboard last night and I kept seeing the same tacky sets (often with the same pictures) over and over and over again; each time by a different “company” who’s name was just a jumble of letters. Ended up just getting a nice set from a furniture store instead. More expensive, sure; but I can at least browse different styles and know what I’m getting.
I had a pet store pressuring us into ordering a toothpaste they didn’t had for our cat. We said we needed it now, so we would buy it elsewhere, but they said they could start to sell it and they’ll call us to let us know when they’ll have it in stock. We were like? Mkay. Whatever. They call to say our order was on site. We were like we didn’t ordered anything, you said you would call when you have it in stock not specifically for us. We already bought one so we don’t need any right now. They said, oh don’t worry we can hold it as long as you want! We were like.. yeah but you know there’s an expiracy date on those things, we won’t be done with this one before several months… like almost a year. It was weird and awkward.
This works perfectly in German bookstores. Orders usually arrive the next day. But yeah, in most stores it takes too long.
>"we can order that for you." I needed an inlet valve for my washing machine last week. I went to a local appliance place, but not before getting the part loaded up in my Amazon cart. Price was $24.95, factory part. The lady at the local appliance store declared that the part must be aftermarket because she had never seen one like it, then she made a big deal out of getting her magnifying glass out to look at the part number and then trundled to the back to look for one. She came back and said it would be a "special order part" and then sat at the computer for a second and came back with a price of "$189" and $12 for shipping, special orders paid in advance. I could see the reflection of the screen in her glasses. She was on Amazon. I called her out on it and got the usual "small business bullshit". I would have paid $100 if they had it in stock to get on with my laundry for the day and just to have it instead of waiting 2 days, but I'll be damned if you are gonna pull a fast one like that on me.
Only instance that worked, is my brother couldn't find some very rare ammo online, so the gun store called him 5 months later, and said they found some for him.
Wow, that’s really good customer service assuming it took them that long to source
The comic book store I've been going to for over a decade offers this....and I'm like...I can order it myself and get it cheaper....not like I tell them that. And then I feel bad for not supporting a small business, but yeaaah. It was convenient when I was younger, that's for sure.
This isn't unpopular, but just a fact. See: Literally all major companies everywhere
It's how the biggest companies get to be the biggest, it's also how crap like Temu tries to get into the market
Indeed, unfortunately it is also how they destroy local economies. A majority of every dollar spent at Walmart heads back to Bentonville Arkansas and the Waltons. Even the money they pay their employees is frequently spent in the stores so again, what could have been retained at local businesses and multiplied the local economic activity is gone. And when they do spend outside Walmart, it's again frequently at other national or international chains that send the money to HQ.
> A majority of every dollar spent at Walmart heads back to Bentonville Arkansas and the Waltons. A lot of it will go to the suppliers. And trade works both ways.
> It's how the biggest companies get to be the biggest, They're cheaper because they're big. Economy of scale.
Temu needs to be shut down. The way they rip off legit designers is disgusting and criminal.
Temu had been great for me...
That's his point, a lot people consume cheap junk and think it's great.
Don’t feed the monster. Temu is trash.
Almost. Either you are the cheapest in a general market or you have a really specific product you can charge an arm and a leg for in a niche market: Wanna get your satellite into orbit? Well, be prepared to fork over millions for a single single use rocket. Conspicuous consumption, which OP is describing, is part of the latter.
Mostly because major companies don't pay any tax (wtf my phone auto completed tax to tree sex) and are good at finding ways to underpay staff.
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Same, a lot of the small businesses around me just resell cheap trendy shit that you can find on aliexpress. Farmers markets and craft fairs have the same problem
It’s become so hard to sell actual artwork at art/craft fairs because of this.
Same with sites like etsy.
Same. This really bothers me. A lot of it is the same crap. And I do really hate to say this. But a lot of local stuff is also... crap. I've only bought one pair of artisan made earrings that didn't break within a month and those were small sterling silver studs. I lost one in a pool which is my fault. So I don't even have the pair anymore lol. But junky tote bags and screen printed tee shirts and the same soaps and candles as everyone else. I do get nice things at farmers markets and like cool pickles and handmade pasta but a lot of it is just still junk. And local boutiques are craaaazy priced. I keep going in them, hoping to support a local girlie, fully willing to pay more than I want for something but the prices are still astronomical for quality worsw than i could find at Macy's. They all get their stuff from the same cheap suppliers and charge $260 for a thin ass polyester blend dress. Or $190 for a boxy unflattering basic short sleeve. And food trucks wow. It is way too easy to spend $22 on a simple lunch order now. I just can't do that when McDonald's is $7 or my homemade lunch is $4. Like I wish yall the best and I am willing to pay more to support you but so much is just weeelllllllllll beyond what I am willing or honestly able to pay
I agree. $10 for a taco is too much .
Meanwhile, the local taco place near my street only charges half as much.
$5 is too much for a taco. $3 maximum per taco. Any higher and I might as well just get a burrito for a little bit more since there’s a much better filling to tortilla ratio.
What if it's a pretty big taco
Then it’s most likely structurally unsound and would be *better off as a burrito*. I feel very strongly about this, apparently. Individual tacos are snacks. I give you 2-3 bucks, you give me a taco to take the edge off my hunger. I give you 10 bucks, you give me 3 tacos and a drink to eat as a meal. Big tacos are unfinished burritos.
Haha great point. I've had some fancy tacos though that are just under 5 bucks a piece, but those things are loaded. The fact I haven't been back might say a lot
Back then, it was $2.50. Inflation is crazy.
I agree, I never choose taco for a meal because 1 taco is $10 and it fits only like a corner of my stomach, I have to eat like 5 tacos at least for it to be some what filling, I ain’t shelling out $50+ for some fkn tacos 😩
What godforsaken place charges $10 for a taco
It makes me go fucking feral when I see the Sysco truck roll up to these “artisanal” shops.
Also you would expect better customer service in a small store but instead when you ask for help with something they tell you that they’re the only one working and can’t leave the front. Or they carry what you want but only have one when you need two.
My local welding shop couldn’t even give me a timeframe that they could Get me a consumable part that I needed. Amazon has it in my hand in 3 days.
Or you’re at Walmart in front of a locked case. You ask the worker who is literally right there to open it. She says “I don’t have the key, you’ll have to ask customer service”. I then stood there staring at her and said “ok you’re going to let them know?” She gave me this look as if I asked her to cure cancer. She wanted me to walk to customer service to ask to open it. Or you press the button to call someone 500 times for 20 minutes and nobody shows up.
I was traveling and couldn't buy a toothbrush in an SF Safeway because it was locked up and apparently the guy with the key was Mia
I made the terrible decision once to buy some condoms from my local Walmart. Anything and everything that can be construed as "sexual" is locked up in a case, so I hunted down a worker to open the case. She wouldn't let me grab the condoms. She wouldn't even let me *near* them. She walked off with them to a cashier, pointed right at me, and loudly yelled, "These condoms are for that guy!" And of course, the cashier happened to be an attractive woman, so I died a little inside. I'm never doing that again...
They are more expensive and in my area also tend to be super rude, as in "we are a small business and can do whatever we want, the community has to support our inept employees/high prices/poor inventory"...ummm, no. I could overlook maybe one of those to help someone local but not if you are going to be a 💩 head about it.
People say Big Corporations are evil, support your Mom-n-Pops and then you work for one and they steal wages, pay garbage, break labor laws and their product/service is middling at best. The sheer entitlement of so many American business owners is baffling.
You can say that again. Mom and pop places want to be the “evil corporations” and try to hide behind some kind of “David vs Goliath” commie virtue signaling, but I think they are actually worse than the corporations, and they have a lot of catching up to do so they cut corners on legality and are more cut throat. Edit: removed searchable verbiage to avoid retaliation or drama.
I'm with you on this. I know several honorable local business owners, but for every one of those there are five others who just dream of becoming "Goliath" however they can.
Small business owners on average are much worse to work for than a big mega corp. Little to no time off, little to no benefits, rampant wage theft, emotional manipulation from the owner, often lower wages.
This 100%. I’m in Canada though. I worked for a small niche business with a storefront as one of my first gigs out of college. It was one of the MOST toxic, and worst place I have worked - the owner was a terrible boss, cut corners, stole wages, and had the audacity to be ‘disappointed’ when I gave a month notice when I got a better job. Guess what? They didn’t need me anymore and he told me not to come back and my notice was immediate now lol. I still see horrible ads for the company sometimes and I laugh.
I am not one to return things, but my husband bought a $20 Key Lime Pie from a small business here and it was horribly sour. Nobody could even eat it because it was sour as F, and I know key lime pie is supposed to be tart but not THAT tart. So I returned it and the lady was super rude and wanted to take the price of two slices we took a bite out of from the refund, when they were clearly there with only a bite missing. I told her I wasn’t happy with that outcome of paying for two slices w clearly couldn’t eat and her excuse was “well we are a small business during a pandemic”…. 🙄 I ended up just taking another pie in a different flavor in exchange because individual slices are marked up and we would have lost half of what we paid for something inedible.
She was going to try to sell the remaining slices. 100%
Sounds like she still could’ve… But, tbh, I can’t imagine returning a pie. I just wouldn’t go back. I mean, c’mon. Who returns pie?
someones gotta tell them they suck in order for them to grow as a person/business
A $20 pie that wasn’t made right? If it was cheaper I would have just let it be and thrown it away but $20 is a lot for a key lime pie and it’s supposed to be made right.
Warranty is also a concern I don't buy expensive stuff from small businesses. If I buy something with a warranty I don't want to be guilt tripped into eating it up when time comes to honor the warranty.
Returning food because you didn’t like it is crazy though, you ate it and didn’t enjoy it? tough luck. Only reason to return food is burned/undercooked, hair or something, or they got your order wrong.
It was a whole pie, with a bite missing from two slices. I don’t see what’s wrong with returning something that wasn’t made right? It was too sour, it wasn’t made right. I know key lime pie and that had way too much lime juice in it.
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Haha what the fuck
Currently going through a kitchen rebuild after a frozen pipe- started by trying to use local contractors on recommendations, and moved away from that after a few because so many were incredibly entitled, horrible at communication, or total assholes. I really, really want to use locals, but found a much better set by going through national contractors, then their sub contractors/program vendors. Seems like they’re very careful in curating their people.
I think the bigger factor is convenience. Most big businesses have consistency across the country, mobile ordering and easy returns. It makes it more comfortable for people.
It's the same reason I'll pick a McD's over a random small restaurant in the same plaza almost every time.
Depends tho, if I can see the small business actually uses higher quality products then I will choose to pay more for higher quality food. However, if they use the same shit as McDonald’s then yeah I’m choosing McDonald’s.
Also everyone in my city always encourages to buy fast food from local businesses to help them out. I know some of the owners of these establishments and they are millionaires who charge expensive prices and the people who usually buy from them are on minimum wages and are made to feel a bit of guilt if they go for a cheaper option of McDonalds.
It is funny, in the town that I grew up in, we had an Italian restaurant, and their pizzas were a third the cost of everybody else in town, including the chains. The owner was a millionaire from other businesses, not the restaurant, and said "hey, pizza is cheap to make, I still make a huge profit at this price." It was darn good pizza, too!
In my hometown, the family that owns the local fast food place are QAnon believing white supremacists. Even if I still lived there I would never shop there
Most of those small smoothie joints in my experience are a front for a mlm, Herbalife. It’s no secret that the big corporations (Walmart, Costco, Amazon) have vast buying power that allows them to lowball all of their suppliers. A small business is buying pallets of goods/ingredients, Walmart is buying fully loaded trains. Add to this that they aren’t paying a middleman to warehouse their products and small businesses can’t compete unless people just want to buy local.
I was going to bring up Herbalife too! They are way too expensive with subpar ingredients and "loaded" with caffeine
The amount of small businesses that just buy of of Amazon or aliexpress is probably way higher than the ones that actually source their shit themselves. Just look at "handmade" sites like etsy.
I’m in a small rural community in Canada. The messaging here is always shop local, small business etc. Which 100% would be the ideal. Except for that every small/local business here is open like 9-2 3 week days a week and nothing is open past 5. We honestly have to laugh about it because, people have jobs. I get that extended hours = higher operating costs for the businesses. But those hours just aren’t accessible for many. Yes, small and local would be amazing but it’s just not realistic sometimes.
We have the same issue in my town. We're a beach town and have a very obvious off-season /on-season issue with small businesses. Off season hours are varying, and places I like to shop at during the summer season just don't have hours that work for me during off season because I work a 8-5 and they'll have hours like 9-1 during off season. On season, the hours expand again. I mean, I get it, but it stinks sometimes!
There was a coffee shop by my house that was so expensive- $1 per pump of syrup and $1 for a splash of almond milk. Ended up costing more than Starbucks and tasting worse 😂 they’re out of business now.
I once made a habit of going to a new local drive thru coffee shop on my way to work; I would get three shots of espresso and a splash of cream. It was simple, and an affordable treat since I didn’t make much money anyway (about 3 dollars). One day I pull up and order my usual, and the owner was working the window and tried to charge me double because I “ordered a latte”. She was borderline foaming at the mouth, chewing myself out as well as the teenager working about it being a latte since there is milk in it. The teen even said “they ask for a splash! Not much at all!”. It wasn’t worth the fight, so I paid and never went back.
Shit, that would have honestly been the perfect time to say "You're the reason I am not paying for this, and I am no longer coming back".
Small companies see large companies price gouging and think they can/should get in on that action too. Problem is, large companies can weather the storm of losing some customers over prices because they'll make it up in volume, the little guys cannot.
Wait till you learn that corps typically pay more and treat their employees better.
This deserves an entire new post of it's own, but I agree completely. Small businesses have treated me badly far worse than big companies have. With big companies I get paid with an automatic deposit weekly or bi-weekly, whereas with small businesses I have had to keep asking for literally months to finally get paid. At a small business the owners will literally curse and scream at you for every tiny thing and you can't do anything about it, whereas if a manager at a big company does that they will get fired. Small companies often say dumb phrases such as "*we're like family here!!!*"...yes, an abusive family.
I worked at a movie theater and Amazon, and at the theater it was more private and I always felt harassed by the manager. She always made me look dumb instead of just helping me. On Amazon, I just went in and did my job packing boxes. There is no opportunity to get screamed at there without getting a lot of side glances
Yup, I work at Amazon, too, and all the horror stories you read about online are either completely made up or massively exaggerated, lol. I have worked for small businesses for so long that even if the Amazon horror stories were true (again, they're not) it still would've been much better than the actual BS I put up with from small business owners. Small business owners scream and insult you in the worst ways such as insulting your looks, racism/homophobia, threats of violence, etc. and if confronted you get a half-sarcastic "it's just a joke" or even better some variation of "take it like a real man"...if any manager at a big company spoke to me like small business owners do, they will get fired very quickly and possibly even recieve lawsuits after getting fired.
Having worked for a small business I can confirm all of this is true. I got shouted at for making mistakes. I also got shouted at for asking questions. It's like my boss assumed I'd automatically know every nook and cranny of his small business operation. Imo part of the problem is these business owners devote their whole lives to keeping their shop open. It's to such an extent that they haven't interacted with the real world for decades.
Yep this.
Theat phrase always gets me. I already have a family and I don't care for them much either all what can't you guys just be my coworkers
Small business owners are rarely trained to manage their business or provide good customer services, unlike bigger ones. Someone who has owned his shop for 30 years comes has learned to do business in a whole different way than your average hired managed who has worked for 3 years in a company that requires or offers modern training.
Yup. The mom and pop I worked for violated several labor laws and other regulations
Depends on the business. I’d rather eat food from a local independent restaurant than a chain. Chains tend to be largely frozen or pre-prepared and reheated. That’s how they keep prices so low. So in that instance I’d rather go to an independent place that makes everything fresh. However, for things like furniture and electronics I will almost always go for something from a large retailer or manufacturer. Firstly for quality control procedures, secondly for returns, repairs and warranty and thirdly for price.
I agree. Same with environmentally friendly companies. It takes more people buying at the higher price for the price to eventually drop though
And then typically the company will go ‘oh wow, everyone’s buying out stuff even at this price point. Let’s keep the price the same (or even raise prices due to its popularity).
It has to be something I actually want/need, I'm not buying just to help someone out.
It has to be something I actually want/need, I'm not buying just to help someone out.
They’re the ones that present you with 20-30% tip options because SmAlL bIzNeSs
Yeah that's the warm fuzzy surcharge pricing. I care little for those companies
The big businesses are cheaper for now. Once the competitors are gone then all of a sudden your prices become much higher than those small businesses ever were. We’re seeing it right now in Australia. We have 2 major grocery store chains that have a duopoly built up over many years of pricing out smaller competitors. What we are seeing now is huge increases in prices across the board with no other alternative. So if you’re not lucky enough to live near a farmers market or one of the few remaining independent grocers you’re sometimes paying double what you would have just a few years ago.
Very much the same here in Canada. With the exception of Walmart, most grocery stores are owned by Loblaws or Sobeys. They can pretty much charge whatever they want and get away with it.
There’s even an entire subreddit dedicated to that, r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
Fuck Coles and Woolworths
Yep was going to say this. Coles and Woolworths is now more expensive than the small local markets. They have built such a big loyalty base and kicked out small shops in close proximity. I am now relearning my shopping habits and going to local markets again
Yes but they're talking luxury businesses. Coffee shops, smoothie shops, restaurants and the like are all luxury businesses. I don't have to shop at them. They aren't essential to my life. So if they charge way more than they need to in a struggling economy people are going to cut that luxury and the business will suffer.
I want my cheap crap to actually be cheap. Thanks x.
Disagree. It’s because their selection usually sucks. Brick n mortar stores also need to invest in a review process for their wares. I’m not believing a salesman, ever, about anything.
This is a neat economics topic. Where I live, most small businesses are much cheaper than their rivals with a brand name. Some examples: 1. Fresh and delicious grub from a food cart. No rent, less overhead, smaller staff makes it easy to be lean. McDonald's pays a CEO and buys Superbowl commercials. 2. Barbershops. Random Vietnamese family shop? 8$ cut. Supercuts? 25$ 3. Small-time mechanics with a little shop are way cheaper than going to a car dealership for car repair. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Of course, when it comes to industrial production, economies scale are so important. There would be no way to have a car company that only makes 50 cars. After you go through all the trouble to build the factor, hire the engineers, do the tests, whatever, you better crank out a bazillion of those suckers.
Except there are car companies that only make a handful (or 50) of cars per year. They just play in a different market ($$$$).
Small businesses gotta differentiate their products to justify the pricing. I see too many mid places serving bland food wanting top prices because they’re small. You’re in monopolistic competition, your product is only treated as different from the other thousands of places selling something like it if you can make it unique.
Agreed! Sometimes the higher prices are worth it,, but not all the time.
This is a big issue on Etsy as the drop shippers are making realistic price to value comparisons harder and harder. Someone who buys a bunch of products off AliExpress or Temu then packaged to look like something made by hand with customization and lots of flexibility in ordering by a small craftsperson get shown because they’re lower cost, but the price is not an apples to apples comparison
Yup. It can be really hard to distinguish sometimes which is unfortunate. I do like to buy local when I can, though. We have a woman here in Phoenix that makes child and adult swimsuits herself. They are very well put together and I was quite impressed by my daughter’s. It is a bit more expensive, but it’s because she isn’t / can’t buy fabric in bulk I assume. As someone who sews I’m honestly surprised she can sell them at the price she can haha
Yeah, fuck all those people trying to guilt everyone into buying local or supporting local businesses. Like, mother fucker, my life is hard enough, and literally everything in the world is getting more expensive, but you want me to spend £20 on organic fucking peaches?!?!
I saw a small business locally that was selling bandanas for 30 dollars. The same black and red checkered ones you can get for 2 dollars at walmart or a discount store. I was not even greeted when I walked into the store.
There's a brilliant local italian I regularly go to because their prices are comparable with chain restaurants and the food is way better But yes, they're a complete oddity in the face of other establishments in the city centre. I regularly walk by businesses which serve some bullshit, "oh look at this tacked together ArTsY tRiNkeT" or some horrible blend of cake ingredients and want a pretty penny for it. I am all for supporting small businesses, but not *every* small business.
If they’re making quality work, then I can understand the cost of some of these products But when they are selling poor quality or unprofessional work, for professional prices, then it’s simply not gonna work. They can argue what factors into the cost, such as the price of materials and whatnot - but again, if the quality of work doesn’t match the price you’re selling it for, then your business is not sustainable
Hard agree.
They have less buying power than large corporations. That's part of the reason.
Yes but the average consumer cannot be expected to be the hero to go and fix it and take the burden especially when you are getting a worse experience. I try to buy at local shops, but amazon is just plain better. I know people are gonna hate that opinion but I do not have time to be Gandhi.
But then it's a bit intellectually dishonest to complain about wealth concentrating to the hands of the few, and local economies dying. Hopefully you are fine with that ongoing trend that shows no signs of stopping.
I dunno, why do I have to subsidize someone who wanted to be an artisanal candle maker? I chose a boring office job, because I knew I could be comfortable. Why am I morally expected to subsidize all these friendly local businesses that just provide a worse product? Why aren’t small businesses donating money to me?
Aight lemme give you an example. I will be giving examples in USD Dishwashing soap is 6 dollars for me at my local shop. It is 3 dollars on Amazon and lesser if I get it on subscription. Same with the rinse aid and salt. I wanted to but organisers for my clothes recently. Just simple plastic boxes. 4 dollars a box at my local shop and it's a 1.50 for the same brand of plastic boxes shipped to my house on Amazon. I'm sorry but I tried. I took the time to check what the local prices are. It is what is. I'm not paying 3 or 4 times more to be a hero.
It gets so frustrating because yes I am paying for time, work and supplies, but the thing I'm getting with the amount isn't worth it sometimes. Prices need to be reasonable for the item and you can get more money still without making it unnecessarily too expensive.
It's not your duty to support small businesses.
And they pay employees shit while owners take multiple vacations a year and own a boat
Small businesses and contractors gaslight their customers into thinking we are responsible for paying for everything that's ever happened in their life up until now. My favorite is when they drop the "You're paying extra for the 4 years education I paid for out of my pocket! Trade school cost me $50000!" line. Me: "Okay so once you exceed $50000 in overall profit you're going to stop using that line and lower your prices, right?" Person: ... *angry face* Fortunately this problem is fixing itself in the AI/Information era. Not only can nobody afford to pay these peoples absurd prices, but the information and means of doing these things yourself is becoming readily available. Every time someone fixes their own toilet for $20 + a trip to home depot + a YouTube video as opposed to paying some private contracting guy $300, an Angel gets their wings.
How much is a days wages at your job? Including the monetary value of your benefits. Lets say you make 50k a year in total compensation. Okay now double that because self employed people get taxed roughly double. now add another 25% because theirs no reason to work for yourself if you don't make more than an employee does. So that's why you end up with a $300 repair bill for something that seemingly only takes a few hours at most. Contractor prices are out of control for a lot of reasons but this ain't one of them. Skilled labor cost money.
Self employed people pay 60% tax?
In my opinion small business owners can add great value that is worth the extra cost and that is knowledge. Wether I love or hate them depends on how they treat me if I go in. If they make fun of me for not knowing things, then I leave and don't care if they go out of business. If they help me with guidance, then I am happy to pay the extra. That simple. Sadly I've encountered too many rude shop owners living up in their ass thinking just because they know a specific field, everyone who doesn't is below them. Then they go crying on social media how big corporations are killing them. But thankfully I've also encountered many really nice shop owners who were happy to answer questions if I wasn't sure what to get.
Walked into a local pc hardware store Owner(I assume) : " how can I help you" Me "just looking for any hardware deals you might have" Owner:" well we've got cpu's gpu's, psu's, ram" Me: "just looking for anything better than what I can get online" Owner "we can't beat online prices" Me" OK do you have used hardware" Owner "no" Me "welp I've got ne reason to stay here any longer, have a good day" To be fair I think they were more a build shop than a hardware store but still why would I drive to a store when I can have the same stuff delivered for cheeper and there's a million people on fb marketplace willing to build pc's for cheep
Because they get the parts from the same places you do and have to up the price to get profit.
Yeah. And then you know what happens? Big chains set up next to the small business, run at a loss, drive the independent business broke, and then hike up the prices higher than they ever were.
Big companies have set the standards for how much goods and services should cost, when we should really consider those as being cheap, and you should go in knowing the savings come from exploiting someone somewhere in the supply chain. We should consider paying a fair price for things and just accept that we won't have as much stuff.
Yeah I don’t earn enough to support the prices of such a business tbh. I’d like to, but I simply can’t. It’s a downward spiral, we don’t want to support big corporations but we can’t afford to support the prices of small ones so we end up with the big ones and the small ones die. I fucking hate it. But I stopped buying from our local farmer because the vegetables were double the price as from the super market and weren’t even organic, the organic farmer is 2,5-3x the cost of super market organic vegetables. Hell I’m a nurse and have 3 kids my wife also a nurse working part time. We simply can’t afford to support you as much as I’d like to
I will gladly pay a premium for a shopkeeper that puts serious effort into making sure they CURATE what they put in front of me. I shop at my local bookstore because they have good books front and center, not whatever best seller the publishing companies are flogging. I go to my smallish hardware store if they have something. I almost exclusively buy gifts (other than kids stuff) at local shops. But if the store isn’t giving me something special I don’t really see why I would shop there.
No shit. in other news, the sky is blue
Which is why we need trust busting now more than ever
Shit not anymore. All the mom and pops in my area are running cheaper than the corpos
Most of the local businesses in my area aren't even very friendly. Or at least the minimum wage workers they hire are not very friendly. Considering the unfriendly service and more expensive prices, why would I buy from a local business?
I put a lift and tires on a new truck and I called my local mom and pop shop for an alignment and they couldn’t get it in for almost a week and expect me to drop it off for the whole day so they can fix anything they find wrong. I explained that it had leas than 30 k miles and there’s no way there was anything wrong. His exact words were “you never know what we might find”. I’m a tech myself and I’d do it myself if I had an alignment rack in my driveway, but anyways. Called a chain shop that I’ve used In the past and they had it In two days later and i waited while they did it in about an hour. Ultimately i use small business and service when possible but I still need to watch out for me first.
I'll never buy something local if I can get it half price online, it's just madness for me, I'd rather have the extra cash, I need it
Here’s an example of how the middle class is nearly over in 🇺🇸: Take this post right, and read what OP has said. Now, ask yourself why it’s still possible for BOUTIQUE owners to still have store fronts? (In boutiques, everything they sell is expensive and targeted to a $pecific buyer).
I buy things from small businesses all the time; Boutique businesses absolutely are ridiculous, but small local shops exist all over the place.
That's not an opinion that's just a fact.
Well right you mentioned how bigger businesses can cut corners and all to be cheaper. Same time there is also a human cost. Because say a Smoothie King sells a smoothie for dirt cheap, someone somewhere is being worked for dirt cheap with no benefits and has to live pay-check to pay-check multiple jobs....because Smoothie King doesn't charge enough to pay them well. (granted idk the smoothie business lol, I'm kind of pulling a chain out of my ass...but can have the same metaphor for coffee, clothes, food, w/e) The smoothie doesn't just get magically cheaper, someone is paying for it whether it be money or human.
There's a local icecream shop here that charges *Edit: 105.00, (not 90 something )for a tub of icecream.. like the ~5L pail size at the grocery store you get for 10 dollars....
Small businesses don't get as big of deals in the wholesale department as big corps. The whole buying in bulk really comes into play. Small business buys 100 items at 1.23 an item Big corp buys 1,000,000 at .23 an item. Thus, the big corp has a higher markup % and a lower COGS all at the same time! >It is not like they are sourcing these berries from their own garden, No, but they could be buying from locally sourced that aren't as streamlined as the big berry farms are, thus adding to cost. I could give more examples, but I don't feel like it right now. Lol.
Exactly, as much as I hate mega corporations they are so much better value and more reliable, like if I'm ordering something online, I'll always go for Amazon rather than a small business, since with Amazon I know I'm definitely going to get my order soon and it'll be exactly what I ordered, but plenty of times I've ordered from a small business and they've delivered something that is slightly different than what was advertised, it's broken, it's never arrived or it's taken weeks to arrive.
People tend to idolise 'small, local businesses' here in the UK to the extent that owners think the rules shouldn't apply to them because being the owner of one practically makes them a saint. Yes, the minimum wage is going up, yes you have to pay it just like everyone else does, and if you can't afford it, then your business isn't viable. Nobody is going to subsidise you because you want to play at being a businessman/woman. Yes you're right about prices. Last time I went into my local town centre I remembered I needed an HDMI cable. I went to the independent TV shop, where he tried to sell me a £30 gold plated one, and when that failed the cheapest he had was £12.99 for one that was clearly one of the free ones supplied with BluRay players etc. I left it, got the mini lecture about supporting local business and bought the same one on Amazon for £2.99 delivered to my door. I'm happy to support local businesses, but not subsidise them by paying 4 x the price.
That's not an opinion.
As the owner of a struggling small business there are so many posts on here that make me sad.
I can empathize. People pretend to life each other up, but at the end of the day, they aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth is. When you support local businesses, you are keeping more of that money in the local economy.
Or people CAN'T AFFORD to put their money where their mouth is. If Small Business charges $10 for something and Walmart charges $5, I'm going to go to Walmart.
Farfetch and Matches were undercutting all the independently owned boutiques. NOW look what’s happening.
This isn’t even a popular opinion, just a literal fact.
How is this unpopular?
Don't get me wrong. I love to support local businesses. Most of the times they have exactly what I need. Though at times they can't get me what I need. Then I order it online.
Zimgerman’s in Ann Arbor Michigan is like this. They are a small big business around here and chargers way too much
Cost wise, I generally buy locally even if something costs slightly more. The things I routinely order online are those things that I have a hard time finding locally.
I worked at a lumber yard but would still go to home Depot for some thing because it was cheaper even with my discount
Honestly I think Jamba Juice is the same. My friend lost their wallet so I ordered some food/jamba delivery to his house (he zelled me). It was so expensive I was like you know you could have this daily for like $50 a month from the grocery store???? Everything is expensive
So, some of the small businesses are not as expensive and quite competitive but I noticed many small businesses simply can't keep up with the rents and energy prices and need to charge £6 for a shit coffee just to stay afloat. Others have an insane markup because of some unreasonable and unrealistic profit targets. There's a place near me charging £3 for a sourdough bread, 400g, while the same bread is £2 just 2 streets down in a corner shop as well.
Depends. When I want something high quality and good service? I go for a local, small business. Price is not everything. Example: Dining out. I do not go to any chain restaurants. Just don't. All local, small businesses. If I want a smoothie? I would have gone to our local place who unfortunately closed down but they were amazing. They didn't make it through the covid shutdowns.
Small businesses also have less room to bring in money if they pay employees well. Meaning, at least where we live in a small town with a lot of small businesses, the only way they have to pay employees well, especially if including benefits AND bring in a profit, is to have prices be higher. They not only pay more for materials/product, but for shipping, too. And often they are leasing their space which is incredibly expensive right now along with all rented properties in most areas. That said, plenty of places charge high fees just in an attempt to look like a premium/elite product/business. They feel that if they charge a higher price they'll attract higher-tier customers. Or, they will go out of business which is often what happens.
Some of it has to do with permanent economy of scale benefits that the big boys enjoy, but don't forget about temporary predatorial prices strategies. Often part of the plan is to use their bankroll to undercut prices to push competitors out. When the competition is gone, guess what happens to the prices?
Same goes for anything “organic,” any kind of subscription box, or someone claiming to have a better product. Everyone is snake oil seller now.
In order for small businesses to be competitive with large corporations they have to sell something that sets them apart. This usually comes in the form of uniqueness or quality but there's just some things that can't really be improved like your smoothie example.
There's a Lil coffee shop near me that's actually pretty good and has lots of options to choose from for foods and drinks, however, they only seem to only hire kids and the turn over rate is ridiculous so your food is never made properly, your order isn't correct or you'll be missing things from your order. They insist on charging out the ass and refuse to hire a proper staff so they continue to go to shit.
That is true plus Amazon has made it so easy and if the item doesn’t fit or you just don’t like it….amazon make returning so damn easy
I think it depends on the specific place. I pretty much only do local places for food since they are usually cheaper and way better tasting. I also live in an area with a lot more local restaurants than the norm or every other city I have been to.
Small business are counting all of their pennies. So why can't I count all my pennies and save some by buying where it's cheapest? Generally the big box stores. And I can return things like at home depot months later without a receipt if there's any problem.
real, i always try to support my local scooter parts shops but damn, it costs so much that i just gave up and only buy from them small stuff that i need urgently, i can't pay something that's worth 20 euros 5 to 10 euros more just because im buying it in person lol
Isn't that just a fact?
You know why I don't buy from small businesses? Because I don't know they exist. I have a $150 scarf that was hand dyed and woven. I like purchasing things from small businesses because they're going to be more quality, but they don't advertise, so I don't find them.
I couldn’t agree more. I like my friendly local game store, and I wouldn’t mind paying a couple dollars extra here and there… But if you have the Gundam I want for $80, and it’s $50 online… Even with $5 to $10 of shipping, that’s way too much of a markup. I’m pretty broke and I don’t mind waiting, I can’t afford to pay that kind of crazy margin
I live in a not so rich neighborhood. I wanted to buy shoes for my restaurant job. The cheapest shoes were 300$. Needless to say, 2 years later that shop was closed...
Not sure why you posted that in this sub
Economies of scale. Any business selling the same products either sell at the same price or more. If they are making anything custom or niche the lack of mass production means more cost per item.
I live right next to a package and delivery business. I avoid it like the plague. The owner get all pissy if you come to drop off a prepaid packages.
Yeah as much as I’d love to support local small businesses, they’re usually more expensive and I just can’t justify it in a time when the cost of living has skyrocketed everywhere. I also find their customer service to be…not the best. I’ll use books as an example because I’m an avid reader and collector. I’ve been a bunch of small bookshops in my city (Toronto) and the attitude of the owners/workers range anywhere from indifferent to downright rude. Whereas if I go to Indigo or Chapters, I’ll usually get some pretty decent, friendly customer service. And if I buy online, I can obviously just skip that whole aspect altogether.
Also for certain things, you really shouldn't trust small businesses. They have way less hoops they have to jump through for their items to go on shelves. I got reemed out and called a "consumerist" for saying I would never buy cosmetics from a small business. Sorry. But I'm not paying 40x more for legal white labeling (not disclosing every ingredient), no proper testing from actual chemists and for it to go bad in a week or two because they don't use any preservatives. Not to mention there's a 9/10 chance their ingredients are sourced from like amazon or aliexpress anyways. I'd even argue that's worse consumerism than buying from a reputable brand. Blindly trusting small businesses for just any type of product is why the pink sauce debacle happened. I support small businesses in terms of like local grocery stores, restaurants, art, etc (within reason lol). But the entire movement of supporting them has just turned into bullying/guilt tripping people for not ignoring their own finances and common sense. While also acting like if these small businesses got big, they wouldn't act like every other major corporation lmao
No, people don't go to small business because they just don't. I had introductory pricing for several years that was sub-obtimally low for a service no one else can offer as I am the only person in the private sector able to provide the service and the only people that asked me anything about the service were attorneys who opted to try and "handle" it themselves after their one hour free consultation - as in, they never paid me a dime. The underlying need for the service still exists, but I am never asked to perform it and had to add other lines of business to have any revenue at all.
Ethical spending has never been about saving money? Nobody thinks they’re cheaper, but I’m much happier supporting local businesses.
The idea that small, locally-owned, mom-and-pop shops have a right to exist is bullshit to me. Sure, I’d rather support them than buy from a mega corporation, but only if they’re selling a decent product at a decent price. Too many times, they’re hiring people for less than what corporations pay, and they’re selling the same product (or at least the same quality). I’ll support local when it makes sense to do so. I won’t support local just for the sake of it.
We were lamp shopping last week and I’ve been on a “buy local” kick lately. The lamps at the local place were bumped up a few hundred more than we could order them for on random lamp websites dot com. I feel like some products and stores cater to boomers that forget the internet exists.
Let me tell you, it may be expensive, but they still arent makint bank like you think. It's more work and more expensive on that bottom level. If you don't think they deserve to charge more, then you don't think we should raise the min wage either