I was reading about some local policy changes intended to make running a small business easier and that got me thinking. I go to restaurants and ethnic food stores which are usually small businesses, and maybe some of the gas stations I use are small businesses too. However, everything else I buy comes from big-box stores or the internet. These have replaced a lot of small businesses, but how is it that there are any little shops left at all? Sometimes I walk into a corner store because I don’t want to go all the way to the big box store or wait for delivery but the prices are so much higher (often by over a hundred percent) that I walk right out again unless I need something very urgently.

I’m not making a moral judgement here. I just don’t know how the economics work out.

  • cecilkorik@piefed.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Only buying things that are the lowest price has many consequences and not all of them are beneficial to you. Sometimes it’s just that the thing you are buying for the lowest price is crappy and poor quality. But now we are coming to realize that one of those consequences might be the destruction of the world. Figure out how to price that consequence into your economic model, and choose accordingly.

    Apparently not destroying the world is more valuable to some people than others. Personally, I would pay at least 1000% more to not destroy the world, because not destroying the world is really important to me. Maybe it’s not as important to other people, I don’t know. The wonderful thing about the world we are destroying is that everyone gets to make their own decisions.

      • cecilkorik@piefed.ca
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        12 hours ago

        Perhaps I was laying it on a little thick for you, but sometimes you’ve really got to sledgehammer the point home, to ensure the people in the back can hear. My point has been made, nobody is obligated to take it personally, you are welcome to ignore it or do with it whatever you please. That said, if your instinct is to take it as a personal attack directed at you, maybe the point actually is directed at you after all. I tend to trust people’s own judgements on this.

        • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          12 hours ago

          Hitting the combo by laying on a smug and sarcastic non apology. Hit me with the, “It’s not my fault that people think I’m being an asshole, they just don’t understand sarcasm” so I can get bingo on my random internet douchebag card.