We need to shop local before we say ‘goodbye local’
By Lethbridge Herald on August 31, 2022.
Editor:
A recent letter cited the dissatisfaction of a reader who compared prices of items bought in Lethbridge (locally) and similar ones bought online.
The conclusion, apparently, was that all further purchases would be from online businesses.
My question is, “Why didn’t you do more ‘shopping’ to see whether other local suppliers had better prices?” I, for one, do much shopping locally, but I also shop where I can get the products I need at a price with which I feel comfortable.
If my “regular” store doesn’t carry the brand I want, I go to a Canadian-based store. If it isn’t here, I go to another store which carries it.
If we all decide that online shopping is convenient and cheaper, what happens to our local neighbourhood store and the people who operate and work there?
Eventually the Amazon-type stores will have a monopoly on the products, and we will be subjected to pay the price which is asked!
After all, these “big-box” stores have investors who need a profit from their investments, and I am absolutely certain the prices will go up to return the profit to the investors.
My advice is if we buy local, we, our friends and neighbours will survive.
If we don’t, then it will be bye local and we will be at the mercy of the mercenaries in charge of the online businesses.
E.E. Balay
Lethbridge
13-12
Interestingly, my husband’s barber complained recently that he was losing business to non-local chains. But in the next breath he commented on the great deal he got on a TV from an American-owned Big Box Retailer.