Buying locally - do you and why?

[tango]

I prefer local. I had an injury and can't drive for a while, so husband brought some groceries for me. The blackberries are imported from Mexico, but tasted like chemicals, not fruit. I didn't eat them. Local is much better - in the summer, blackberries grow wild here, no chemicals involved. Local is best, even if it is a little more costly.

I had locally grown raspberries a couple of weeks ago. I'd forgotten how much I love raspberries, especially when they are fresh and actually taste of raspberry. The taste was so intense it almost hurt... they were awesome.

 

[ValleyGal]

I had locally grown raspberries a couple of weeks ago. I'd forgotten how much I love raspberries, especially when they are fresh and actually taste of raspberry. The taste was so intense it almost hurt... they were awesome.

That's exactly how I feel when I go back to my hometown and have fresh fruit ripened on the trees. My dad used to have a neighbour who grew organic blackberries, and one year he traded an hour of work for a whole flat of them...oh, they were soooo good! I miss the home-grown fruit! Where I am now, we have raspberries, blueberries, hazelnuts, and corn. Back home there was so much variety! My folks still live there, and they bring some with them when they visit in summers.

 

[Albion]

What you're all arguing is that there is a free market in operation in any city that has local markets/stores and also big box-type superstores. There is a difference in the quality and cost between the two. Logically, therefore, people ought not talk as though the big box took away everyone's job or drove the little guy out of business.

If everyone in town really wanted fresher and better tasting blueberries and was willing to pay more to get it...the supermarket wouldn't be running anyone out of business.

 

[psalms 91]

Yet the reality is that mom and pop stores are a thing of the past because of them.

 

[Albion]

Yet the reality is that mom and pop stores are a thing of the past because of them.

But a question remaining is, "Is this because of them or because the customers found the big store more to their liking?" Apparently they do. IOW, several recent posts have indicated that customers weigh a lot of factors when deciding where to shop. In many communities, the Big Box has become their choice. How can we fault the Big Box store for meeting the customers' wants and needs better than the little stores?

 

[Stravinsk]

Just a reminder -

This thread isn't about national/international corporation vs local run store but more about whether you would buy a locally produced product over something produced in another country - and why. Does it cross your mind to support the local producer - who - as a local can be held to account for products that may have an adverse effect on the local population - as opposed to the non-local product, who cannot be practically held to account within the country who buys said product as it is based in a different geographical location?

 

[Albion]

Again, it appears to me--from reading these posts--that people weigh a number of factors when buying in either place. The deciding factors seem to come down, most often, to cost and convenience unless we're talking about locally-produced fruits, etc. which account for only a small part of the goods offered for sale in any grocery store. So for anyone who is concerned about ecological issues or keeping local businesses alive in the face of foreign competition, I say "Go for it." But there are more people on the other side, apparently, and I cannot fault them for shopping in the Big Box stores if those outfits meet the needs and wants of these people. It's not as though they're buying on the black market or those stores are operating illegally, etc. There is something to be said for either course of action--locally owned or big corporation.

 

[psalms 91]

But a question remaining is, "Is this because of them or because the customers found the big store more to their liking?" Apparently they do. IOW, several recent posts have indicated that customers weigh a lot of factors when deciding where to shop. In many communities, the Big Box has become their choice. How can we fault the Big Box store for meeting the customers' wants and needs better than the little stores?

The truth is that the small stores could not compete price wise because they did not have the volume buying power of the box stores and people will go where the prices are best even if most of their money goes somewhere else rather than local

 

[psalms 91]

Just a reminder -

This thread isn't about national/international corporation vs local run store but more about whether you would buy a locally produced product over something produced in another country - and why. Does it cross your mind to support the local producer - who - as a local can be held to account for products that may have an adverse effect on the local population - as opposed to the non-local product, who cannot be practically held to account within the country who buys said product as it is based in a different geographical location?

I try to buy local when possible

 

[Albion]

The truth is that the small stores could not compete price wise because they did not have the volume buying power of the box stores and people will go where the prices are best even if most of their money goes somewhere else rather than local

Quite so. The question is whether or not there is something wrong about this. I would think not. As with similar developments in societal evolution, there is a downside to the matter but also an upside, too. What people usually do when thinking about this is to focus on the one that affects their family or friends the most.

 

[tango]

Yet the reality is that mom and pop stores are a thing of the past because of them.

The reason the small stores go out of business is because people choose to spend their money at the bigger stores.

Some years ago Starbucks opened a branch in Vienna and within a short time closed up shop, simply because the Viennese people don't like chain stores and refused to buy coffee there. After Starbucks moved out an independent coffee shop moved in (taking advantage of much of the work Starbucks had done) and did very well.

The trouble is that the individual appears either unaware of the power they wield, or merely unwilling to accept the consequences of the way they choose to wield their power. If the consumer refused to support a company like Wally World they would close up shop. If the average guy in the street went to the authentic Mexican restaurant rather than paying over the odds for the pretend Mexican you get somewhere like Taco Bell, there would be no Taco Bell. But people want the convenience of a store like Wal-Mart without accepting the consequences that the mom and pop stores will go out of business if nobody supports them. Yes, you'll pay a little more supporting the local business because they can't buy in anything like the quantities that the Wal-Marts of the world can. But there's a fair chance you'll save at least some of the money back by not having to drive to Wal-Mart, more of the money will stay in your local community and you'll be helping maintain your community rather than enabling the corporate behemoths to leach everything out of the community.

In many ways it's not hugely unlike the howling that went on in the UK when it was revealed just how little tax companies like Amazon were paying. To be clear, Amazon was working entirely within the rules, they were just taking advantage of a perfectly legal method of transferring profits to a jurisdiction with a more favorable tax regime. None of the people howling about them "not paying their fair share" would voluntarily structure their own tax affairs to maximise their tax bills, yet apparently expected Amazon to do just that. And of course the people howling about "fair shares" didn't appear to have any difference to Amazon's sales.

Most things like this come with benefits and costs. If you shop locally the cost is that you may pay a little more, the benefit is that you help maintain the community, you probably won't have to travel as far, and the local guy is there when you need a 10c item and don't want to have to make a 30 mile round trip to get it. If you buy from the behemoths the benefit is you pay a little less and the cost is you help leach resources out of your community.

Whatever people might like to think you can't give your money to the corporate behemoths and then point fingers at anyone and everyone else when your local stores start to close down.

 

[tango]

Just a reminder -

This thread isn't about national/international corporation vs local run store but more about whether you would buy a locally produced product over something produced in another country - and why. Does it cross your mind to support the local producer - who - as a local can be held to account for products that may have an adverse effect on the local population - as opposed to the non-local product, who cannot be practically held to account within the country who buys said product as it is based in a different geographical location?

If you're talking about something grown then local is better simply because it tastes better. I don't really want something harvested before it's ripe, kept in an artificial environment, artificially ripened such that it looks nice on the shelves but goes rotten within a couple of days and even if you eat it before it goes bad it doesn't taste of anything because it was picked before the flavor developed.

When things are manufactured it becomes trickier because if you buy something made in a Chinese sweatshop it's hard to know much about the quality but so much of the time if you buy something manufactured locally the price is higher due to the increased cost of human labor but the quality is still mediocre. In days gone by it seemed you'd often have the option between something made by a craftsman that would be expensive but would last forever, or something made by a machine or on a production line that would be a lot cheaper but wouldn't last as long. Now so much of the price appears to be little more than multiple layers of profit it's hard to tell what's expensive because it's good, what's expensive because it's got a 500% markup instead of a 200% markup, and what's expensive because it's got a billion dollar marketing campaign behind it and people are lining up to buy it just to be seen with it, even though it's a piece of junk.