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Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? Something to be said for supporting jobs in your community, keeping mon

Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? Something to be said for supporting jobs in your community, keeping money in your area, bumping into people you might not have seen as much otherwise, etc. Stores can also be great for discovery. It's a lot easier to play with laptops at Best Buy than it is to research how the keyboard might feel online. In another product category, the local video store (we still have one!!) still beats out online in terms of being able to browse selection; I'll see frequent complaints from Netflix users about not being to find what's on.

dpark 9y ago
> Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? No, but it’s a big part. > Something to be said for supporting jobs in your community, keeping money in your area, The comment here was about “major retailers”. If you want to buy from a local mom and pop shop, awesome. There are great reasons to do that. If you’re going to Best Buy, those reasons pretty much evaporate. That money doesn’t stay in the area and the jobs probably aren't better than UPS provides. > bumping into people you might not have seen as much otherwise No thanks. People say this because it sounds good and is hard to refute but I don’t care a bit about bumping into people at the store. I bump into someone I care about at a store less than once a year. Interacting with people in a retail store is not generally very rewarding. They’re almost always either salespeople or strangers. People in stores are better referred to as crowds. > Stores can also be great for discovery. It's a lot easier to play with laptops at Best Buy than it is to research how the keyboard might feel online. Sure. There are reasons to buy in person and this is a good one. “Need to physically hold to evaluate” is not a common attribute of most of the things I buy, though. And generally free return shipping solves for this when I do need it.
mitochondrion 9y ago
None of [Major Big Retailer]'s local store's profit stays in "my community". It all goes to Corporate HQ, which in the case of Best Buy is located in Richfield, MN. Amazon is just more efficient than obsolete brick-and-mortar stores at siphoning off "local" dollars. The part that isn't profit that's paid to labor goes to minorities and white trash to pay for tattoos and probably opiates.

dpark 9y ago

> Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? No, but it’s a big part. > Something to be said for supporting jobs in your community, keeping money in your area, The comment here was about “major retailers”. If you want to buy from a local mom and pop shop, awesome. There are great reasons to do that. If you’re going to Best Buy, those reasons pretty much evaporate. That money doesn’t stay in the area and the jobs probably aren't better than UPS provides. > bumping into people you might not have seen as much otherwise No thanks. People say this because it sounds good and is hard to refute but I don’t care a bit about bumping into people at the store. I bump into someone I care about at a store less than once a year. Interacting with people in a retail store is not generally very rewarding. They’re almost always either salespeople or strangers. People in stores are better referred to as crowds. > Stores can also be great for discovery. It's a lot easier to play with laptops at Best Buy than it is to research how the keyboard might feel online. Sure. There are reasons to buy in person and this is a good one. “Need to physically hold to evaluate” is not a common attribute of most of the things I buy, though. And generally free return shipping solves for this when I do need it.

mitochondrion 9y ago

None of [Major Big Retailer]'s local store's profit stays in "my community". It all goes to Corporate HQ, which in the case of Best Buy is located in Richfield, MN. Amazon is just more efficient than obsolete brick-and-mortar stores at siphoning off "local" dollars. The part that isn't profit that's paid to labor goes to minorities and white trash to pay for tattoos and probably opiates.