In the era of big boxes, a day for the little guy

[folkypoet]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/era-bi...080317993.html

Just a nice story on a town that decided to overwhelm a long-standing, local store with their business. :o)

[catherine]

It's great that the little business was shown gratitude by the community.

However, will those people continue to come back? Or was their visit "charity"? I wish there was a more sustainable option for small businesses. I'm as guilty as anyone who has ever gone to Home Depot and put the local hardware store out of business. I'm as guilty as anyone who has used Barnes & Noble like the public library and put private booksellers out of business.

I don't know what the answer is, but the story made me a little sad that the store has been struggling and the community in effect did the owner a favor by buying something there (not to diminish the goodness of the guy who came up with the idea, or the people who actually went). But as he said, he hadn't seen some of those people in years.. I'm sure they were hiding out in Home Depot. Kind of a shame.

But I don't mean to be Debbie Downer. It is a nice story.

[creaker]

It's great that the little business was shown gratitude by the community.

However, will those people continue to come back? Or was their visit "charity"? I wish there was a more sustainable option for small businesses. I'm as guilty as anyone who has ever gone to Home Depot and put the local hardware store out of business. I'm as guilty as anyone who has used Barnes & Noble like the public library and put private booksellers out of business.

I don't know what the answer is, but the story made me a little sad that the store has been struggling and the community in effect did the owner a favor by buying something there (not to diminish the goodness of the guy who came up with the idea, or the people who actually went). But as he said, he hadn't seen some of those people in years.. I'm sure they were hiding out in Home Depot. Kind of a shame.

But I don't mean to be Debbie Downer. It is a nice story.

It would be interesting following up and seeing if it changed the way anyone shopped. There's a small hardware store close to my house, I try to use them as first choice for buying that kind of stuff.