I gladly paid $32 with tax for a cabin air filter for my wife’s Raptor this Saturday that I could have bought for $21 with shipping from Rock Auto. I generally am willing to pay at least 10-20% more for local service because I hate to buy something that I can’t put my hands on first. I also am willing to pay more for something that I can buy and have in my hand now instead of something that I would have to wait a few days for to have in my hand. I appreciate being able to shop for something in person and am willing to pay more to do so.

Depending on price, 10 to 20%

Make every effort to support local small business owners.

depends on a lot of factors. Do i need it immediately, did the local store give me service, my mood etc.

A couple of things that I consider when shopping locally:

Is the item In Stock locally, or will I need to place an order and pick it up when it comes in? I'll order online myself and have it delivered to my door saving me another round trip to wherever.

Does the local shop buy from or otherwise support any other local source? If yes, then I'll likely buy from them. If I ask a few questions and they don't answer or are hesitant, then I'll get it online unless I need something at that moment.

Politics: I flat out refuse to support the opposition. If you have anti-Trump propaganda or I know that the business is left leaning, I'll pass and try to find a solution that's possibly a town or two away. Also use this philosophy online. I'm doing a lot less shopping with Amazon and more with some independent organizations.

Lastly is cost: While it's a great practice to support locals and keeping your neighborhood tax man happy, reality is a bitch. The more I spend for any particular item, the less I have to keep my family fed, clothed, housed and otherwise healthy and safe.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Needed a part for our pool & try to give the majority of my business to the local Leslie's Pool Supply where I get my water tested.

The part needed was the retaining band for the filter housing. Either the nut of bolt had stripped & it was barely (I assume) holding pressure, and had a very slow drip with the pumps on.

Leslie's lists the part for a bit over $300, not including the washers, spring & nut.

At that point, I'd decided I'd just try to fix it, rather than replace it.
Did a bit of searching & found it on Amazon in the $200 range, then found it on Walmart.com from a 3rd party seller for <$200, with all the ancillary parts included.

Ordered that one & kept the old one, and plan to fix it as a backup, just in case.

Mentioned it the mgr at Leslie's & he was sympathetic, but said they can't price match online vendors. But, that they aren't commission-based & that I should order from wherever is the best deal.
Even referred me to another company that deals in small parts/things Leslie's doesn't carry.

Leslies for equipment is state prison ass rape. Always has been. I use them to test my water also (twice a week in fact) and I buy all chems from them. But equipment is another matter. They gouge. Next time you're in the store, price out a Polaris Hose and tail scrubber. Then jump on Amazon and see the price difference. If it were 10 or 20% I'd just pay it in person to be done with it. The difference in price, or rather the % should tell you a lot. Now go to variable speed pumps, booster pumps, filters, grids, etc, it's mind blowing. I have a pool guy that I only use for full scale equipment changes and to keep him on the roster I pay him to pull the filter apart a few times a year and clean the grids. He can get parts much cheaper than what Leslies charges, and that's with him getting a %. Every major metro area has a pool equipment distributor that local pool companies use. I marvel at Leslies prices on things.

Support is like an onion ,
it has many varied layers.

I only support the local I.G.G. grocery store when what I want is on sale.

I don't support the gas stations at all as they do not sell fossil gas.

the tiny town barber gets all my hair money because he is $9.00 cheaper than anywhere .

local INS. company does get my $, because they are nice and reasonable at the same time.

Local hardware store (ACE) only gets it on stuff under $8.00 , its not worth the trip in too town.

Pizza hut , Subway, local bars, no.no.and no

tiny Pharmacy is 15% more than Wal mart but they are handy and pleasant.

Define local. Almost no local stores here that aren't chain stores anyway, but I do realize even they support the local economy.

I do buy all my appliances, TVs / AV stuff and some furniture from a local 3rd generation store. I know the owner, his father, and knew and bought stuff from his grandfather all the way back to the 70s. I do pay a bit more there, sometimes, but being called by your first name when you walk in the door plus the personal excellent service is worth a lot to me. I just bought a new $1,600 AV receiver from them over the phone last week, didn't even look anywhere else. The owner mentioned he was SO busy that they were having a hard time maintaining the level of service they were known for during this virus crap.

Within the last two weeks my purchases were a wifi 6 router and a new sewing machine for the wife. About 500 bucks combined. I looked for both to buy local and no one within ~50 miles of me had either item and both were name brand items. Supporting local is something I like to do, even if it is actually a chain... I did look... but so often it is just not an option. Amazon prime for the win on both items this round.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Zero?

I don't run a charity. Either you are competitive, or you aren't.

In order to sell me something, you will have to beat out all other stores on some combination of selection, availability, convenience, reputability, after sales support, and price. I do not care for pre-sale education, as I never trust salespeople to give me best available information.

Lately, local shops fail on all fronts. I can almost always find a wider selection of in-stock items at a better price conveniently delivered to my door. Returns are also low friction now, as most places will offer an RMA and shipping label with no resistance, and most online stores have reputations that precedes them.

Typically, I can have something ordered and on its way within minutes of recognizing my need for such items. It's usually delivered long before I would have ever considered getting in the car and driving out to buy it.

Dave Truong is one of the few local shops that can still deliver on all aspects, so he gets my money still.

I wonder if you feel the same about Legal Zoom....

Best buy is circling the drain. I went to buy a subwoofer cord that I needed for a new av receiver and subwoofer. Listed for 14.99. I get to the counter and they tell me it is 19.99. I tell them it is 14.99. They ask if I want to wait for a price check. I don't and it was the last cable. So I say thanks but no thanks.

Went home and ordered one from amazon for 7.99. had it in 3 days. I am done dealing with Best Buy for ever. just not worth the aggrivation

I'll support local up to a point. When a big box store sells the same hot water heater for $200 less than the local plumbing supply store and which the counterman says is the same one what would you do?

Big box store also offered 18 months no interest, a big point when budgeting on a fixed income.

And no offer to "let me see if I can do something on the price", just a take it or leave it feeling.

And don't get me started on computers or associated items or home and car audio. I can go to the local Best Buy or ABC and get pissed off at the lack of service or just order it from Amazon and have it in a couple of days.

We have some local gems but few and far between despite being in the middle of a fifty mile circle surrounded by Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor and Detroit.

In grand scheme of things I don't mind supporting local.
But that support is generally pretty limited to small or service businesses.
As for paying "more" for simply being local - not so much.
I won't penny pinch but even local needs to compete.
However, if you want to compare merchandise built outside of the USA then that is another story.
I would and do pay more in many cases for US made goods.
On a similar note on merchandise local vs online it is very hard to pay more (or the same) for the inconvenience of fighting a retail store ~ not always but in many cases.

My limit is around 20%.

One thing I will not do is go look at the item in a store then go home and order it online. To me, that’s theft of service.

It is not just a matter of price. It is the assistance and knowledge I receive from the business. I personally know many of the small business owners and I value relationships. It was a big loss when the hardware store across the street closed. They were more expensive but I could buy five nails if I wanted. I will purchase online when the products are not available locally.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

And don't get me started on computers or associated items or home and car audio. I can go to the local Best Buy or ABC and get pissed off at the lack of service or just order it from Amazon and have it in a couple of days.

I would say that attitude has developed in those businesses (ones I have been in all my life) for two reasons.

1) The evolution of the retail store aka brick and mortar where there USED to be actual sales people. We would take a customer from start to finish to see they have the best product for their needs and budget through education and qualification of the customer.
2) High priced items are much easily shopped.

^^Both are the resultant cause/effect from the Internet and online shopping.

You can't provide tons of service without making a profit. Time is money.
It is why NOW you have an eighteen year old pimply kid at a Best Buy more interested in playing video games than helping you.
It used to be THEN we had true sales professionals in those businesses.

It is also expensive to carry inventory and there is the overhead associated costs.

Additionally, you take the time to educate the customer, help them with their product purchase just to have them go buy it online doesn't work out well for the longevity of that type of business.

Also many can "educate themselves" with Youtube or even at many vendors themselves.

It is the evolution of those business and technology.
In many cases sad but in many cases it is better as well.

I once paid $90 for bike pedals when I could've ordered them for a little more than 1/2 online. Why? Because buying local, I get the pedals right away and they installed them. That was worth the money to me. Plus, I had built a relationship with that local shop and when I bought things such as bike tubes there, they installed them for no charge. They also assembled and set up a bike trailer I bought there.

I support local small business whenever I can. We appreciate our customers who support US whenever they can. I don't have a problem recommending another local gun shop when we don't have or carry something that a customer is after. I even recommend shopping on the web when I pretty much know that something will be darn near impossible to find locally.

Having said that, I will admit that I took perverse satisfaction when a first-time customer transferred in and crowed about buying some so-called 'unobtainium' rifle on the internet for an outlandish though probably "panic-appropriate, virus-gouging" price, only to suddenly be confronted with the SAME brand new gun on OUR rack for $1500 less.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I once paid $90 for bike pedals when I could've ordered them for a little more than 1/2 online. Why? Because buying local, I get the pedals right away and they installed them. That was worth the money to me. Plus, I had built a relationship with that local shop and when I bought things such as bike tubes there, they installed them for no charge. They also assembled and set up a bike trailer I bought there.

This is a bit of an exception for me too. I have a fantastic LBS mearby & am happy to spend a bit more & shop with them.
They support the club/team I rode with & members got a discount too, so it wasn't much more than a lot of online options.

I try to buy as locally as possible as much as possible. Small, local store > large, big box store > on line.

How much more am I willing to pay? That's variable, but generally around 15% or so, depending upon the cost of the item.

If I don't like the price I'll ask them if they can work with me. Surprisingly, more often than not they've been able to do so. And even when they haven't they've usually been understanding of my need to budget and have thanked me for at least giving them a chance to get my business.

There's a gadget I want for the car. It's $70 at the store mentioned by those who recommended it to me. I don't have a particular connection to that store, and it's not local to me. So I took the part number and headed to Amazon. Amazon offers ten different iterations of the same darned thing, clearly Chinese knockoffs, for anywhere between $14 and $30.

I figure even the one from the "preferred vendor" is a knockoff -- there's not a US-made option -- so I look a little more. The Amazon units are clearly Chinese, so I'm tempted (because I don't know the one from the vendor is Chinese) to order from the vendor. But dang, that's a big price difference!

Looking more closely at the Amazon ones, I see one of the bunch that comes from Hong Kong, for about $22. I'm way more tempted to buy the Hong Kong knockoff -- even at 50% more than the lowest-priced China version, simply because it comes from Hong Kong rather than China.

At the moment, because the gadget is not a necessity, an adage from a great friend comes to mind: "Sometimes, do nothing is a valid alternative." But if I could verify that the gadget from the "preferred vendor" is of American or German origin, I'd probably drop the extra coin.