KLRU
Sometimes the Local Business Has the Best Deal
RECEIVED Tue., Dec. 16, 2008
Dear Editor,
Like many people in Austin, I try to shop locally whenever possible. It is difficult sometimes because the nationwide or worldwide conglomerates have put many local places out of business. The big-box stores almost always offer a much better selection at lower prices. This is the nature of the business. A local auto parts store may buy 10 car batteries at a time while a national chain purchases 500,000. So of course the chain gets a better deal and can therefore sell the batteries at a lower price.
However, you know all of this. What I would like to point out is that occasionally the local place has a better deal (and in this case, a better selection). I have been renting from a local independent video store for several years. Recently I was checking out an older HBO series on DVD and the local place was missing one of the discs. So I rented the next volume and stopped by the national chain rental store on the way home to check out the missing one. I had to reactivate my card, as it had been quite a while. I was amazed that the DVD in question was more than twice the price as it would have been at the independent place. Who would have thought? This national chain has several thousand stores with tens of millions of customers, and they can’t afford to rent DVDs for the same price as the local place? Obviously they could if they wanted to. I seriously doubt that the local rental store is running their business as a nonprofit. The difference is that most towns don’t have a local-owned video store anymore. All they have is the national chain. So these corporations get to set the price as they see fit.
All I am saying is that we shouldn’t assume that the megastores are always the better deal. Check around for different prices and selection.
Like many people in Austin, I try to shop locally whenever possible. It is difficult sometimes because the nationwide or worldwide conglomerates have put many local places out of business. The big-box stores almost always offer a much better selection at lower prices. This is the nature of the business. A local auto parts store may buy 10 car batteries at a time while a national chain purchases 500,000. So of course the chain gets a better deal and can therefore sell the batteries at a lower price.
However, you know all of this. What I would like to point out is that occasionally the local place has a better deal (and in this case, a better selection). I have been renting from a local independent video store for several years. Recently I was checking out an older HBO series on DVD and the local place was missing one of the discs. So I rented the next volume and stopped by the national chain rental store on the way home to check out the missing one. I had to reactivate my card, as it had been quite a while. I was amazed that the DVD in question was more than twice the price as it would have been at the independent place. Who would have thought? This national chain has several thousand stores with tens of millions of customers, and they can’t afford to rent DVDs for the same price as the local place? Obviously they could if they wanted to. I seriously doubt that the local rental store is running their business as a nonprofit. The difference is that most towns don’t have a local-owned video store anymore. All they have is the national chain. So these corporations get to set the price as they see fit.
All I am saying is that we shouldn’t assume that the megastores are always the better deal. Check around for different prices and selection.
Steven McCloud
