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There's a mom and pop hardware store in my town that has a sign hanging in their window: "Cash only. No refunds - we are not Home Depot". Guess where I go to b

There's a mom and pop hardware store in my town that has a sign hanging in their window: "Cash only. No refunds - we are not Home Depot". Guess where I go to buy my hardware? I shop where it's convenient for me to shop. Whether that's Home Depot or Amazon. If the local stores want my business they need to make it worth my while. If Amazon puts local stores out of business because they offer superior service, so be it.

daxfohl 9y ago
Maybe in the last year I've become a bit anti-establishment. But seriously, I think of all this stuff now as something verging on "addiction". Amazon pushing their junk, google pushing their whatever that collects your data, big oil pushing "power".... Convenience is one thing, but I find myself frequently questioning now, at what cost?
- dwaltrip 9y ago
  You are on to something, but I think it needs more refinement and analysis. To me, it seems the root of your concern is whether there are dangerous or negative long-term effects on society caused by this immense centralization of activity and power that we see with Amazon and other tech giants. I don't think that personally subsidizing local merchants does much, though. Once the problem is better understood, there are likely better approaches.
  - daxfohl 9y ago
    "Society" can do whatever it wants. I just feel better when buying something is a conscious effort. Not click-click-click-sold. But it took me several years to recognize this. I think if more people sat and thought about it, they'd come to the same conclusion. Not everyone, but many.
  - eswat 9y ago
    IMHO I think one problem is ecommerce in general creating more convenient ways for us to spend money, first by optimizing our purchases on the web (Amazon 1-Click), bringing this optimizations back to brick & mortar (Amazon Go) and who knows what else. But is increasing the quantity and frequency of consumer spending really necessary? These tactics may help businesses meet their end-of-quarter goals but along the way more people are drowning in debt and shit they don’t need.
    - btian 9y ago
      There's eBay to sell their shit. There was a shortage of everything when I was a kid (not in US), so having everything in abundance is a huge plus for me.
      - Layla454 9y ago
        I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do, ====http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
    - daxfohl 9y ago
      And the weird thing is, even with all this new easy way of buying stuff you don't need, wages have been stagnant for the last 15 years. Something isn't adding up.
    - Omnius 9y ago
      It's not Amazons fault that consumers purchase things they don't need or can't really afford. I really dislike how everything is always someone's else fault. I'm fat because Mc'ds made me that way. I am broke because the evil corporations keep making me buy stuff. If you want to live a minimal life (and you really should) more power to you but if the smiths wont to live pay check to pay check drowning in debt that's their problem. I am not trying to come off argumentative to your statement but business offer services that people want. If they don't they go out of business. Responsibility is SOLELY on the individual not the people offering good's and services. OBVIOUSLY i am talking about business acting in a lawful manner and only talking about discretionary spending.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
sndean 9y ago
There are also place like Frager's Hardware in DC [0]. They're really crammed full of stuff and cluttered. But you can walk in and ask for essentially anything and they'll come out of a back room with a box full of it. The Mom and Pop stores need to emulate that to keep up... which takes a lot of time and effort (e.g., "Locally owned and operated since 1920.") [0] http://www.fragersdc.com/ http://www.fragersdc.com/
- Lillian56 9y ago
  I get paid over $90 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I've been doing, ------------>http://www.joinmate2.Com http://www.joinmate2.Com
voltagex_ 9y ago
I've always been shocked that retail works as well as it does in America with such weak consumer laws. Writing "no refunds" in Australia makes no difference to your consumer rights [1] 1: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund#repair-replacement-or-refund https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees...

daxfohl 9y ago

Maybe in the last year I've become a bit anti-establishment. But seriously, I think of all this stuff now as something verging on "addiction". Amazon pushing their junk, google pushing their whatever that collects your data, big oil pushing "power".... Convenience is one thing, but I find myself frequently questioning now, at what cost?

dwaltrip 9y ago
You are on to something, but I think it needs more refinement and analysis. To me, it seems the root of your concern is whether there are dangerous or negative long-term effects on society caused by this immense centralization of activity and power that we see with Amazon and other tech giants. I don't think that personally subsidizing local merchants does much, though. Once the problem is better understood, there are likely better approaches.
- daxfohl 9y ago
  "Society" can do whatever it wants. I just feel better when buying something is a conscious effort. Not click-click-click-sold. But it took me several years to recognize this. I think if more people sat and thought about it, they'd come to the same conclusion. Not everyone, but many.
- eswat 9y ago
  IMHO I think one problem is ecommerce in general creating more convenient ways for us to spend money, first by optimizing our purchases on the web (Amazon 1-Click), bringing this optimizations back to brick & mortar (Amazon Go) and who knows what else. But is increasing the quantity and frequency of consumer spending really necessary? These tactics may help businesses meet their end-of-quarter goals but along the way more people are drowning in debt and shit they don’t need.
  - btian 9y ago
    There's eBay to sell their shit. There was a shortage of everything when I was a kid (not in US), so having everything in abundance is a huge plus for me.
    - Layla454 9y ago
      I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do, ====http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
  - daxfohl 9y ago
    And the weird thing is, even with all this new easy way of buying stuff you don't need, wages have been stagnant for the last 15 years. Something isn't adding up.
  - Omnius 9y ago
    It's not Amazons fault that consumers purchase things they don't need or can't really afford. I really dislike how everything is always someone's else fault. I'm fat because Mc'ds made me that way. I am broke because the evil corporations keep making me buy stuff. If you want to live a minimal life (and you really should) more power to you but if the smiths wont to live pay check to pay check drowning in debt that's their problem. I am not trying to come off argumentative to your statement but business offer services that people want. If they don't they go out of business. Responsibility is SOLELY on the individual not the people offering good's and services. OBVIOUSLY i am talking about business acting in a lawful manner and only talking about discretionary spending.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

sndean 9y ago

There are also place like Frager's Hardware in DC [0]. They're really crammed full of stuff and cluttered. But you can walk in and ask for essentially anything and they'll come out of a back room with a box full of it. The Mom and Pop stores need to emulate that to keep up... which takes a lot of time and effort (e.g., "Locally owned and operated since 1920.") [0] http://www.fragersdc.com/ http://www.fragersdc.com/

Lillian56 9y ago
I get paid over $90 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I've been doing, ------------>http://www.joinmate2.Com http://www.joinmate2.Com

voltagex_ 9y ago

I've always been shocked that retail works as well as it does in America with such weak consumer laws. Writing "no refunds" in Australia makes no difference to your consumer rights [1] 1: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund#repair-replacement-or-refund https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees...