Ordering from the Internet vs. local buying

I live in a smallish town on the edge of the world. It's a bit further for us to get to our main shopping mecca (50 miles), but we are trying to cut trips down to twice a month, instead of weekly.

We try to shop locally more. Local hardware store (not the big box one), local supermarket and veggie stands.

Books are my last holdout for Internet shopping. Oh, and clothes. Believe me, there are no clothes for me in this part of the world!

 

I do a mix. I'm in a metro area, so stores are right around the corner (plus a couple miles down the road, so I can't walk ). There are some things that I order online because it's at a much better price, or lack of local availability. Then there are things which I buy at a mark-up locally because I can just stop by and get them as needed.

 

I usually just get common stuff in town, and order anything random needed off the internet. ie: chicken wire I go to Lowes. Apple logo mousepad: internet. I know I'm not going to find an apple logo mousepad in town so theres no point in even trying. And if I HAVE to have it and cant wait...overnight shipping .
Some things you can buy in town, for everything else, there's maste...wait no. The internet .

 

If your "going to town" for your major shopping you don't shop locally anyway.

More later, falling asleep in my chair

 

I rarely order anything from the internet. I have my local stores do it for me. If they stock the supplier, they'll order a specific item even if they don't stock it. I figure it pollutes less as the item is being delivered to their store in bulk and not on a specific shipment just for me. My local, small hardware store will even import items from other nearby hardware stores based on my needs in the cases where they don't stock the supplier.

In your case, Tom, it's kinda hard to vote with your dollar when your product isn't on the shelf. If would suggest that if there are one or two stores with which you continually encounter your problem, you talk with management and let them know that you're taking your business to the internet if they don't start stocking their stores better. Or, you can just do like me and have them order the stuff you need for you. They'll call you when it's ready for you to pick it up. In that way, you can stay and support your local economy.

 

When I first moved to rural North Dakota I was 6 miles from a town of 600 residents, and 6 miles the other way to a town of 80. The bigger town had two general stores, one of which was owned by my landlord's dad, and I liked the family, so I shopped there.

Remember Garison Keillor's joke about Ralph's store? "If you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably do without it." That was very nearly true of this very small general store. Food, clothing, hardware, kitchenwares, pretty much everything.

But over the years people started driving more to the larger town 15 miles away, and the two general stores closed within a year of each other, and in their place a grocery store opened. The grocery store had double the floor space of the two general stores combined, and probably 10 or 20 times the floor space devoted to food of the store I had been shopping at, and yet there was less actual choice. More brands of the same thing (30 kinds of cereal instead of 5, and more boxes of the same thing) but less actual food variety. The new store had three times the space for fruits and vegetables, but never had good quality. The old store had received fruits and veggies once a week, but on that day they were always fresh. Once I asked how they could get such good quality produce, and the old man said that he simply refused to accept less than the best quality. After the new store had been going a while, I asked why the produce was so poor, and the owner told me, "That's what they bring me." I asked her why she didn't refuse it, but she seemed to think that was not an option. She was less assertive, and maybe didn't eat vegetables herself, so didn't really care.

Poor selection of foods, and poor quality of produce. I started shopping at the bigger town, or even going to Fargo. And without a general store, I had to go to the big town or the city for anything other than food or pharmacy items, and soon even the pharmacy closed.

Here in Spokane I shop locally when I can. I phone first because the stores I expect to finds things in often do not carry them. Then I order on the internet. Big box stores care about profits, not about their customers or the quality of what they sell. The old man who ran the general store had pride in his store, and the quality of what he sold, and cared about his customers, who were his small-town neighbors. He never would have considered selling cheap overseas clothing in place of good-quality American-made clothing. He didn't always have every kind of fruit, but whatever he had was good.

Progress: Don't you just love it? eep:

 

I buy local for things I can buy local. I buy online for things I can ONLY buy online such as the Pulitzer Prize AND Nobel Prize-winning* book Sam and Max Surfin' the Highway ("Spontaneous combustion! What a stroke of luck!") or a Pistols for Pandas T-shirt ("They need all the firepower they can get!"), or media that are out of print.

* This is true. Except the part about winning a Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize.

 

I've tried three times to buy an Apple Timecapsule.

I tried in person when I was getting my laptop repaired.

I tried twice by phone.

They're not in yet.

They're not in yet.

They're sold out. We don't know when we're getting more.

I went online and bought it from the Apple Store. I can even sign for it in advance online. Now I won't be driving around trying to find one. It will be delivered directly to me rather than the store where I'll have to drive to go pick it up.

I'll recycle the packaging.

 

Qbee,

Is there a nice, reputable store in town that does have customer service (not the box stores). This might work better for you, give them a call in advance and ask them to order/hold the items you want. That way, you can plan your trips to town and have a better chance for success in finding what you want, as many as you want and (hopefully) in functioning order.

I'm spoiled though, lots of places to go in the bay area.....of course, there's lots of people here too.....all gunning for the same items. Feh!