View Full Version : When do you pay extra to avoid the big boxes
It's the time of year to stock up on some gardening supplies and there is a small business man in my neighborhood who has a nice selection, though he charges maybe 1.5 times what I could get the same thing from at Wallymart or Home Depot. I've been trying to do better at giving guys like this more of my business, but sometimes my wallet just tightens up and I go to the big box stores.
I do a little better with grocery shopping as the staff in the major supermarkets near my house are sort of rude and I have a Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage, and a Sunflower Market not far away.
Do you have some guidelines that you use when shopping? How much of a premium is it worth to buy from a local or smaller business?
Since the big box stores are an hour drive away, for me it's a matter of gas vs convenience. I also updated my price book and found that in some instances (dog food being one) local is actually cheaper than big box (which is quite fortuitous for me). For other things (paper goods) local is just a few cents more expensive and so it's easier and uses less gas to go local, You may want to double check the actual prices of what you're looking for - it may not be that much more costly to go local. I was very surprised at my findings. Right now, there's only a couple things that I'm willing to travel for, because locally they're at least twice the cost of WalMart and I'm not willing to pay that for dog pee pads!
I almost never shop at big boxes. It costs me an entire day's travel and about $50 in ferry fees to get to one.
Bastelmutti
4-20-11, 9:54am
Gifts. I try to buy from Etsy or other craft sites when I don't make it myself. Kids' gifts is where I still fall down on this somewhat. Also, I shop at ethnic markets a lot for food - my main store is local & cheaper than the large chain grocery stores.
goldensmom
4-20-11, 9:55am
Price of gas vs savings and/or time. Home Depot, for example, is over an hour drive to and from plus $20 in gas. For groceries oftentimes it is cheaper at the local grocery. I swore of Walmart many years ago, just too big and busy, hard to find a parking space and really not all the economical for the items I buy. I almost always prefer to put a few more dollars into the local economy than to drive and save a few dollars.
iris lily
4-20-11, 10:06am
Well, WalMart doesn't operate in my city, and my first rule is always to buy in the city, and I hate driving out to the 'burbs, so it is not hard to avoid Walmart. But there IS a Kmart and a Target in the city that I frequent.
My general shopping rule is: start with my neighborhood, next go out within the city, and then go out to the county only if necessary. That works perfectly with restaurants since this city if chock full 'o fabulous independently owned restaurants, but works less well for retail buying.
I go to Target about once a year and go to Kmart about 2X a year. In other words, seldom.
I do my real shopping at thrift stores and, currently, Michael's craft store since I'm doing a lot with flower shows. I do a fair number of buys on Ebay since I am looking for unique things.
I guess I should re-phrase things, as I had assumed the majority people had a Walmart or the equivalents relatively close-by.
So, if you have decent close access to a big box store and also a regional or local business with an actual personality, are you often willing to pay more for things at the more local business?
No - usually not unless it's some kind of specialty store. I very rarely (and I mean rarely) buy anything anyway but do use the Big Box's when I shop. Target for basic household stuff, Lowes (where I get a 10% military discount on everything) for fix-it stuff, usually a Ralphs supermarket - sometimes Trader Joes - for food, and for clothes it's usually a Kohls or a discounter like Marshalls or TJ Max (also get my workout clothes and running shoes there). I don't think I've been in a specialty shop in years (last time was for a new road bicycle) and will usually buy that kind of stuff second hand anyways.
I would like to support our small local hardware store but he refuses to warranty anything. I have never had a problem returning things at Walmart. If the small town stores want my business they need to have the same warranty policies as the big box stores.
In our city, we have almost every kind of vendor. In fact, huge multiples of each. We actually like Meijers, a more regional store for groceries but buy fish, poultry, etc. from the downtown store we can walk to.
I go to Walmart for shampoo, body wash, $4 acid reliever pills, and a few other things and stock up so I dont have to go often. Their quality for other things is so spotty.
I used to shop more regularly at large big box type stores -- for awhile we lived very close to a Walmart, so I even shopped there some (didn't really like it, though). But lately, I have developed a grocery shopping routine that lets me stick almost 100% to our small local stores. I bought a rolling cart at Ikea (big box, oops!) and now once a week I do a tour of all the different stores to stock up on what we need for the week. I can get almost everythign in the neighborhood.
we're out of Sichuan bean paste, so I have to do a big box trip soon, and I'm actually dreading it...
lhamo
Being a Peak Oil believer, I tend to think more in terms of local producers than local stores. We have a large and attractive family owned supermarket in the area, but they carry the same national brands and imported vegetables as the Big Box stores at somewhat higher prices. They do carry a few local items and I will especially go out of my way to shop there for local, free-range eggs because that's the only store I know of that sells them. I'm working on disciplining myself to shop mostly at a small, regional supermarket chain with headquarters and a dairy farm about one hundred miles from here and a store about three miles from my house.
Some things I just can't get anywhere but a Big Box store, however. I had to stop at MallWart two days ago because I couldn't figure out where else to get an umbrella. It seems that all the department stores and dollar stores in my area are national chains.
We rarely go to the big box stores. It's not worth the savings as it's more important to keep our local businesses in business! We shop at Goodwill for clothing & household needs, my husband is a builder and gets supplies from work at wholesale (and they get them from the local folks), and our food shopping is at our local co-op.
When we had teens at home, we shopped at Costco. Once that membership is up in August, we're dropping it. But will probably first stock up on organic sugar, organic butter, organic quinoa, TP, tissues, and tuna!
I did a lot of research and very specifically chose the neighborhood we live in for those kind of conveniences; Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and 2 other grocery stores, Farmer's Market year round, Hardware store, 3 used bookstores, 4+ clothing resale shops plus at least 3 thrift stores, EVERYTHING I need is right here. Including multiple bus lines to take us almost anywhere.
If I do go to a box store such as Ikea or Lowe's, my shopping is limited to what we can carry on the bus =) The NOT going to box stores has been a big savings. Not needing a car regularly has been an even bigger savings!
Rogar, the only big box store I shop is Home Depot, and then only when I simply don't have another source nearby. I'll spend up to twice the price for something that is made to last and build/sold by a real person. Example: I buy really good gardening tools. I could've bought them at a big box store and paid half as much, but they wouldn't have lasted me 15 years and counting. There's no real savings there for me.
Same thing for HD's "warranty" on plants. I can tell a healthy plant from a stressed one, and know how to treat them when I get them home. If they look bad, I don't waste my time and sweat buying them just because they're cheaper. Add up the time to buy, get it home ,get it planted, monitor its slow death, dig it up, go back to the store to get my replacementm plant the new one.....that's life energy I don't need to spend when I can just get really good stock for slightly more to begin with.
So where there's a "human" option, I'll use it. If Big Boxed into a corner, sometimes I have little choice where I live.
I think of TJ's and Whole Foods as big box stores... mostly because their profits don't stay in my community. That is one of my measures.
I buy at a local hardware store for much of my home repair needs.
Kid's clothes is mostly Target, Kohl's and TJ Maxx. I have taken them to the local thrift stores for clothes, but we haven't had much luck there. And there is a time/effort consideration. I usually only have their shopping attention for about 30-60 minutes. At Target, they try on 2-3 styles of jeans or shirt, find the one they like and I just buy 7 of them.
Food is mixed: some from local health food store, some from Aldi and more rarely Shop and Save for items I can't get at the other two.
I WILL spend more (sometimes lots more, i.e. the person who cuts our hair) for my money to go to an individual instead of a corporation.
We support local whenever we can but sometimes its not practical.
The only corporate store I frequent on purpose is Saver's thrift stores. They are clean and well-organized compared to the local thrift stores. We have big box stores within 1-2 miles and even a new urban Walmart just down the street but I just don't care to patronize them. I bought one clothing item at the new Walmart, some sweat pants, and they fell apart after just a few washings so what's the point of cheap if the quality stinks. Luckily, we live in a city that heavily promotes local business so there are lots of choices that way.
I prefer to shop local, but most of our stores are large chains. Food I buy in Trader Joe's or costco, with an occasional foray into vons or alberson's. When I was a kid, there were several locally owned groceries, but no longer. There are still a couple small local ethnic markets, but they are too specialized so I don't buy much there.
Our big box is only 3 or so miles further than TJ's and the other groceries. I don't often shop Whole Foods because they are further away, very expensive as well as being a chain.
We used to also have many local retail stores such as clothing, hobby, auto parts, hardware, toy, etc. But now they are almost all large chains. Sad really. We do have a couple decades old local bookstores that survived our two closing Borders. We still have many fine local restaurants however, but patronizing them would require eating out. Not gonna happen.
For other things it depends how large the price difference is. If it's too much more, sorry, I'll buy Home Depot.
I do prefer shopping local chains as opposed to the internet. At least the chains employ local residents.
I avoid making small to medium-sized purchases at big-box home centers. Home Depot and Lowe's are time sinks, and I often go to a small hardware store even though Home Depot is closer to home.
While Lowe's is more pleasant than Home Depot, I am less than impressed with product quality at either one.
I buy almost all my produce and all my cheese, eggs and milk at the Farmer's Market or a service called Local Grown, where you can order from local farmers. There are a lot of them here, which is one reason I love Athens. I do pay more than I would at the grocery store, but the higher quality and knowing I'm supporting local growers makes it worth it to me.
I used to buy almost all my staples, like grains, beans, tea, and herbs from a co-op in the city I lived in. There's a co-op here, too, but it's not as large or well-stocked. So I find myself having to buy a bit more from the grocery store here, or stocking up when I have to go back to the other city.
This is a really interesting thread. I have been mulling it over the last few days.
I do shop mostly at "chain" stores, but that is because there are not a lot of local businesses to support here. As sad as it is, the small places that do spring up are usually out of business by the time I hear about them. I think part of that is because, with the average pay being maybe $9 an hour or so, people really can't afford to pay more for the things they need, even if they want to support local businesses. And sadly, local businesses cannot compete with the prices of large corporations.
I do go to the farmer's market in the summer, but it gets smaller every year and more and more of the produce is trucked in rather than grown locally. DH and I support restaurants, too, that are locally owned and not part of a chain. I also shop at/donate to thrift stores that are smaller and locally run, especially the one that supports the small private school DH attended as a child. I do still go to the bigger stores, too, though, like Goodwill. Oh, and I usually stop by local nurseries when looking for plants. They are more expensive, but they are better quality and the owners give great advice. Plus, my grandpa owned a greenhouse for many years (the 40s-80s), so I like to support local greenhouses.
iris lily
4-24-11, 12:19pm
I forgot that DH goes to Lowes 3X weekly at least. He's in the home repair biz. He used to go to Home Depot but he got mad at them over an order for windows and he is now boycotting them. I used to love going to Home Depot with him on weekends because it was like being with a rock star--all of the workers would smile and wave at him and call him by name. Well, except for that window guy who perpetrated the unfortunate incident. ;)
There are NO hardware stores that carry all of the things he needs so he has to go to a big box.
He will go to specialty supply stores for marble, tile, etc, but not often.
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