Amazon Shopping v. Buying "Local"

[kib]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I have no idea where to put it. Mods please move as appropriate!

On the recommendation of my eye doctor, I set off to purchase some lubricating eye drops. Before I left, I checked Amazon. Upshot: the Exact same package, same product, same amount can be bought for $10.90 delivered to my door, or I can drive to a chain supermarket near me and pick it up for a mere $24.99.

Do you frequent the Evil Am-pire? Do you think there's really anything usefully "local" about shopping at a branded supermarket chain that happens to have stix and brix around the corner? I guess I'm helping provide local jobs but it's really hard to see this as reasonable in the face of a 229% mark up from what is already a retail price with some profit built in.

[bae]

Many of my local on-island stores charge prices roughly twice what I can get by shopping online, or visiting the mainland. It feels extortionate. Especially since *some* of the local stores charge quite reasonable prices - I *do* shop at those.

[iris lilies]

Sure, I order from Amazon all the time. I don’t care about price, I care about convenience. I simply have zero interest in playing the “ shopping morality” game There are few things more convenient than having it delivered to my front door.

That said, I always have an eye out for our local stores. Again, because I don’t care about price, but I would like to support them when possible. Just this week I bought a leather belt from the local leather shop for $55. Then I bought one of a different color for about $12 From Amazon. I can’t see that one is all that much nicer but I’m Satisfied to have supported the local guy.

When we bought a recliner, I made an effort to buy it from the local furniture shop and spent $1000. I could’ve purchased much cheaper recliners online, but I want to support our local furniture store. Besides, it’s just an ugly stupid recliner. No matter which vendor I use, it’s not going to look very good. But when it came time to buy sofas, I didn’t bother to go to the local store because I wanted fashionable pieces and they don’t have that.

We bought our refrigerator from the local appliance store because we wanted to give them the business. We went to talk to them face-to-face about the kind of refrigerator we wanted which was pretty generic, and we decided on an order. We asked if they wanted any money down and they said “no, you can pay later. “ So when the refrigerator was delivered, we asked the delivery guys if they wanted any money and they said “no, just come down to the store when you can to pay. “ That level of small town trust is cute.

I hate big drugstores because I can walk into one and I have to wander around to find what I want. Our local pharmacies are tiny and sometimes get over-the-counter items from there, and I always get vitamins from there. But I order a hair number of over-the-counter meds from Amazon.

[kib]

Many of my local on-island stores charge prices roughly twice what I can get by shopping online, or visiting the mainland. It feels extortionate. Especially since *some* of the local stores charge quite reasonable prices - I *do* shop at those.

Bisbee was more like that. I sometimes forgave them for gouging since we were off the beaten path and big-town shopping was such a nuisance, but at this point I don't really see a reasonable justification - the locals are just buying from online sources too. Presently I'm in a large city and to me this is really unconscionable. I am also noticing that chains in the upscale neighborhood to the north charge Less for the same item than the local lower income area - nothing new there, but it makes me even more irritated with supporting the "local" chains.

[pinkytoe]

I don't have a high level of trust in amazon things I put on my face or ingest. Probably perfectly fine if you check out vendor - just something I wonder about since they have been known to sell counterfeit goods. The amazon convenience factor is a big plus.

[Tradd]

I get both a lot of stuff AND my groceries from Amazon. Groceries are Amazon Fresh. Prices are really good. I'm in the Chicago area and I have no lack of Amazon DCs in the area. There's at least two, maybe three. I can sometimes get stuff same day, depending on when I order. There are also two Amazon Fresh stores within 20 minutes of me. The Fresh delivery is another $100 on top of Prime subscription, but it's worth it. I tried Walmart and just didn't like it. I have severe osteoarthritis in both knees, which makes even walking around Aldi an issue. I'm not going to deal with pickup when I can have it delivered, especially for a large order. I sometimes do Target pickup for a few items. Target has a huge advantage over Walmart pickup. There's no minimum and you don't have to deal with a pickup window. You just go to Target and wait. Even on the way home from work, it's not that bad of a wait.

I order everything and I do mean everything from Amazon, except for some clothes and Republic of Tea. For those, I go directly to the company websites.

[Tradd]

I definitely agree with Iris that I want convenience. I don't play the shopping morality games either.

[KayLR]

I hope this link below works. I'm on my old Kindle. All the above responses got me reflecting on how far we've come on this board, kind of on the order of the "How we've changed" thread. I suppose most of us are more well off now. At least I hope that's why we've become more consumeristic than in 2011, seemingly.

I did a dive into the oldest posts I could find on consumerism and ftugality. We were so cute back then! I really warmed to the post where members were trying to help Mattj bolster up his crappy couch because he wasn't ready to replace it.

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/sea...hid=8349748&pp