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To those judging others when they buy online

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posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 12:54 PM
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You!

You hyprocratic brainless consumist. You think you can judge others when they buy on Amazon or similar? When they don´t "support your local business"?

Here´s the wakeup call, you are as guilty as those you look down at.

Killing small business started WAY before amazon or even easy access to the internet.

Let´s just keep it at one product, for example: Strawberry

It started when consume became important. It started when it was more important to get that new marmalade advertised on TV and have 20 different sorts of strawberry available. First it was the huge sortiment, then it was the price that killed your local salesmen that got fruit and seasonable stuff locally but international stuff, too (bananas for example). But no, everyone needs to eat strawberries in december!!! Then it became convenient to shop 24/7.

And the small items you forgot, you want to get at your local store and you want % because you buy 3 pack milk and you think that poor soul behind the counter should be grateful you even showed up.

THAT my friends started everything. It killed local business and allowed big industry to grow. It forced agricultural family owned business to expand like insane to compete on a nearly world-wide market, too. If you went to any chain store, you are guilty!

That´s how it is so everyone talking about someone buying in the internet, remember, you did this to your local family owned shop.

There it began and it continued because bigger consume, sortiment and demand forced other companies out of business. Expand irrationally or die.

It wasn´t even the small price difference (if you drive 50km to the next supermarket, you need fuel, too), it was because you could not choose between 31 brands of peanuts and could not get the advertised stuff NOW and 24/7.

As you my realize, I come from a family that had a local shop for generations. We were not rich but we could live and haid fair prices. Then the madness began.

Ultimately, everyone judging others who buy online and not "support local", but buy or have bought regulary at any chain-managed supermarket, # YOU you ignorant pieces of #.


Rant over

edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: had to clip a sentence because it made no sense



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:02 PM
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To be clear, I am not mad because we lost our shop. The elderly in our town suffered / still suffer way more because they need to ride 25km to the next store.

You may not see the consequences but I do.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:03 PM
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Eighty percent of the crap I own says made in(not USA).

Also, it's good to do what you can when you can.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:04 PM
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Half teh shi you get on Amazon is knock off..



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:06 PM
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I do support local shops but I also buy online. It depends.

My point is, don´t judge others that buy online because it didn´t start with the internet or online shops. It started decades ago already with big chain markets.

Kaufland, Aldi, Lidle for Germany,
Cosco, Wallmart and the other stuff in the USA for example.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:08 PM
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There are no small family run grocery stores here , except small convenience stores that hold a few grocery items.

Getting groceries in my city means going to large supermarket chains, except when going to the Farmers Market for fresh produce. Not many options OP 😕



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:09 PM
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a reply to: verschickter
The cycle is even older than that. Somewhere in William Cobbett's "Rural Rides" (1830), he complains about the innovation of "shops", because they take custom away from market stalls. Since then, from shops to supermarkets, from supermarkets to hypermarkets, from hypermarkets to online sales.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:16 PM
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a reply to: DISRAELI
I understand. But in a small town, there is no marketplace. Shops popped up because shop owner began to horde and buy stuff on the big markets and tow them in town.

For that fast availability, shop owners add a bit to the price to cover the cost of storage and energy spent to get it in town.

So not everyone has to walk into the next bigger town or city, to buy anything.

This reversed with supermarkets, everyone was driving out to buy cheap. Well, everyone who could but the one that could not were not enough to hold the small shops.





posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:17 PM
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a reply to: Sheye

Probably they are all gone, or never even existed, if a supermarket is near.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:20 PM
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I don't apologize for buying online. It's usually cheaper and it's usually not available locally. I'll give two examples, one small, one large. I like Lawry's Seasoned Pepper. I use a lot of it to make croutons from leftover French Bread. We once had a local Albertson's that carried it, and periodically I would buy every jar they had. But Safeway bought Albertson's, and since there was a brand new Safeway across the street, Albertson's closed. The ONLY place I could get it was online, via Amazon, in bulk. I went to where the product was available.

The second example is a car. It's a specialty car, a Corvette, and local dealers usually carry only one or two at a time. They usually do not have the specific options someone wants, so they compromise to get it. Also, the local dealer adds a "local market adjustment" reflecting the fact that the cars are rare. In other words, they add $10,000 to the MSRP which makes a $70,000 car an $80,000 car. But these same cars are available online with a wide variety of choices. Plus they are offered at a discount up to 20% off MSRP. So that makes a $70,000 car a $55,000 car. So I'm faced with buying an $80,000 car that is not quite what I want or a $55,000 car that is precisely what I want, roughly 30% less than the local price. Once again, Internet to the rescue. I'm sorry the local car salesman and dealer didn't make any money, but they quite obviously are not paying attention to the national marketplace, or they figure I won't and they can gouge me.

No apologies, and yes, this trend started way before the Internet was a household issue.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:20 PM
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Markets will always strive for efficiency. There is nothing efficient about small, single proprietor businesses. You can compete in niche markets like bars, restaurants, speciality shops, but not with groceries or general merchandise.

If you sell generic products you simply can’t compete without economies of scale. Back office support must be consolidated. Deliveries need to be coordinated. These are things that aren’t efficient for a single owner businesss.
edit on 2018/8/13 by Metallicus because: Sp



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:24 PM
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It stated earlier in the USA than in Germany and it´s still not on the same level.

Define efficiency???
Everybody driving out of town and going to lenghts (20km to the next supermarket by car) to get super much freedom in brands to choose is efficient?

You grew up in a consume driven country, here it only started in the 90´s. It basically swept over to here. Don´t get me wrong, just an observation, not any judgment.

edit: I asume you grew up in the USA.
edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:30 PM
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originally posted by: Metallicus
If you sell generic products you simply can’t compete without economies of scale.

Define economies of scale?

By scale, do you mean supplly in stock or overbloating by offering 20 sorts of every kind?

See that´s exactly the difference.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:35 PM
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I tell these people they should try to buy something you can´t get at a H&M, a Footlocker, a McDonalds, a Nordsee, a Saturn and Mediamarkt. Or from one of these shops where you buy clothes for 1 Euro, to throw them away after wearing them once.

They can try this at every german or european city, there are alwayss the same three useless stores. In Cologne, the only people that still buy stuff in the city are tourists. Try to buy computer hardware in a german city. Where? Saturn and Mediamarkt? LOL!

A real problem are the rents. Only huge companies can pay the rents in the city centers, meanwhile. The result is that you only have these few companies in every city. And nothing else.

I don´t pay 300 Euros for a pair of sneakers at Footlockers, when i can have the same shoes from the web, for 100. I don´t wear the "hip" clothes 99% of the "massindivualists" out there wear, from the above named stores, all looking the same because all wear the same clothes. I don´t need stores like Saturn or Mediamarkt, where the clerks have no clue about anything they have to sell there. Consultancy from these people is zero, one has to tell them what they sell there, what it is good for and why it´s crap to fool the people. It´s really three or four years that i went to the city, to maybe get some clothes. That was the time i noticed that it doesn´t make sense, trying to buy something in the city. You just won´t get it.

So nowadays one has to order from the web, otherwise you will run around naked in future(if you don´t want to look exactly like 99% out there), or your computer will get no new hardware and stuff like that. Try to buy a peace of meat or groceries in the city, Schildergasse or Hohe Strasse.

You will arrive with empty hands back home!



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:38 PM
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a reply to: verschickter

Interesting OP.

Yea, its a shame to see the shops go away. I don't know what the situation in Germany is like, but.............if its anything like what's happening in the US, here's the real problem..............supply chain! Countless times, we go to the local Super Market or Pharmacy or even Walmart, and just our usual "sundries", i.e., day to day consumables like......soap, are out of stock! Vitamins.......out of stock, toothpaste, you name it. The stuff we've used for years, periodically......its out of stock! What's a person to do? We have to order online just to get usual stuff.

And your elderly have to drive 25km to get stuff? That's 15 miles?

The nearest town of size, i.e. 17,000 people is 35 miles from where we live. And we're surrounded by elderly......and there's no public transport available.

15 miles........we wish.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:47 PM
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a reply to: TonyS

There is a bus that drives there in the morning, comes back at afternoons and drives back to the town and it stays there until the next day.

Yes it´s rural and keep in mind, elderly need to pay for transport instead of walking. It takes time away, too.

Also, why not just use another soap for the period of time your favorite is not available? Maybe it´s because I was son to parents that grew up in / after war? We we´re luck to have any soap.

Maybe that is the reason?? Spoiled would surely the wrong word compared to what spoiled nowadays means. The meaning shifts constantly.

I´m not against change but this is going out of control. Most 1. worlders live in a throwaway civilization. That´s a fact and probably also a reason.




posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:53 PM
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Small town here. We have no small market places to get groceries. We have Walmart, IGA and No Frills. All of which are large nationwide chains. There is one very small farmer's market which is only open one day a week for a few hours. No local meat market, only a chain: M&M Meats.

Want clothes? Well... there's Walmart. The other shops in town which are local owned have clothes sold at a huge markup because they're designer brands for the most part.

Two dollar stores and all our drug stores are large chains. None local.

Electronics? Walmart or The Source. The only small shops we had closed down ages ago.

Hardware and housewares? Walmart, Canadian Tire or Home Hardware. All chains.

Sport and outdoors and gardening is one area local businesses have the huge edge.

We face ordering online, or a long 2 hour drive to the closest major city where you can actually have options.

For our town, it was pretty much Walmart becoming a Supercenter that started the slide. Nothing can compete except for the more specialized things.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 01:57 PM
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a reply to: DerBeobachter
Keep in mind I´m obviously talking about food and every day items, not specialized hardware like mircochips, cars or _fill in the gap_.

I thought you´d think I´m intelligent enough to realize that after all our discussions





I don´t pay 300 Euros for a pair of sneakers at Footlockers,

Or you buy good handmade (leather for example) shoes that cost less than those child-labor brand shoes (300€ seriously??) with poison in it, but will be good for years. Yes they may not be trendy anymore in 6 months.

Just one example.

There´s that saying you probably know: If you buy cheap you buy several times, but buy good it will probably last you a lifetime.

It depends on the usage, though. Shoes, you spend most of your life in them. Something that you need twice in your life but can justify to buy it before yourself (can´t lend or rent), does not need to be "high-end".


cheap != inexpensive
billig != günstig

If something is inexpensive, the price matches the quality in favor of you (r perception).
If something is cheap, you get less what you pay for, compared to something inexpensive.

At least that´s the direct german translation, I don´t know if englishmen differ between that.

edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:13 PM
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If you buy strawberries at your local store, you are contributing to the income of the people who work there, your community members. Their pay circulates among your area, you help to make it so people in your locality can work and make a living.

I have to shop online for some things I cannot buy here, but we spend ninety five percent of our income in the UP. I bought twenty four quarts of local berries from the local farmer, he paid his help to pick the berries. I buy half a cow from a farmer fifty miles from here, we became their customers before becoming their friends. I am an American, I try to buy American made, but it is pretty hard to do these days, it seems that even American companies saying made in America buy components from China. But at least someone is working to put them together here.

My allegance is first to my family, then to my friends, then to my community and the UP. then to my country people.

The stores here supply work for many people in our area, Amazon does not supply work except to the UPS workers and they are really overworked these days.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:16 PM
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a reply to: verschickter

I'm getting a vibe that business hasn't been good lately.

Listen, there are many people who shares your concerns as do I-whenever my supermarket runs out of my locally produced milk i have to begrudgingly buy the #e generic brand which I swear is being watered down.

However I come from a relative small town and when it comes to retail we have nothing that caters to our needs so we have no other option but to shop online. No committed computer store, no music stores, yet there are a gazillion cafes, taverns... because people are bored because they need something to do while waiting for seven to ten days for delivery!

Sorry you weren't allowed to curse, but there are ways around that (psssst rhyming slang)




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