I mean, it drives me crazy that the customers are so illogical.
I know, it's no surprise. We're just monkeys.
But it still drives me crazy.
I've mentioned before the rather constant irrational pursuit of saving a buck -- at the expense of time, energy and space. People taking hours and driving miles to save 1.00 or 2.00 or 5.00 or even $10.00
But buying from corporate entities is also illogical.
How do you profit by making everyone else earn less? Do people think they are disconnected from the process?
If you own a service business in Bend -- say, an electrician or plumber -- EVERY DIME you earn will come from locals.
And yet the same electrician and plumber will send the vast bulk of his earnings out of town, to corporate entities who can never return the dollar by hiring them back.
The thinking is so short sighted, it's maddening.
I've always had a fantasy that I could take the 6 biggest card manufacturers in a room in 1990 (only one who is still in business) and say, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you understand that the card shops are the golden goose? Don't you see how your sales started skyrocketing after the establishment of card shops? That the mass market is only interested because the market has already taken off?"
Or, I'd ask my card shop competitors -- "Why are you buying from Walmart? Don't you see how every dollar you spend there is going on Walmart's books and Topps is looking at who is buying?"
"Oh, I can't afford not to save money," was (and is) the response.
Which to me is like saying, "Look, I'll hand you a 100,000.00 today. But in five years from now, I'll be back to put a bullet through your brain."
"Gee, mister. That sounds great!"
You can get any book in print, just about, from a local independent bookstore IN ONE DAY! Ingram's happens to be in Roseburg and is a one day ship. ONE DAY! It isn't possible for Amazon to be any faster than that.
We ship jobs overseas so we can get cheaper goods so that we can have stagnant wages and lost jobs so that we need cheaper goods.
But getting great swathes of cheap crap doesn't improve your life folks, any more than buying smaller amounts of higher priced goods ruins your life.
I suspect that I wouldn't feel any richer if I was buying from mass markets instead of locally. Or that I feel any poorer because I buy locally. In other words, in the daily scheme of things it really doesn't seem to matter. I don't sit around thinking about the price of a book I'm enjoying.
Why is that?
I know, it's no surprise. We're just monkeys.
But it still drives me crazy.
I've mentioned before the rather constant irrational pursuit of saving a buck -- at the expense of time, energy and space. People taking hours and driving miles to save 1.00 or 2.00 or 5.00 or even $10.00
But buying from corporate entities is also illogical.
How do you profit by making everyone else earn less? Do people think they are disconnected from the process?
If you own a service business in Bend -- say, an electrician or plumber -- EVERY DIME you earn will come from locals.
And yet the same electrician and plumber will send the vast bulk of his earnings out of town, to corporate entities who can never return the dollar by hiring them back.
The thinking is so short sighted, it's maddening.
I've always had a fantasy that I could take the 6 biggest card manufacturers in a room in 1990 (only one who is still in business) and say, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you understand that the card shops are the golden goose? Don't you see how your sales started skyrocketing after the establishment of card shops? That the mass market is only interested because the market has already taken off?"
Or, I'd ask my card shop competitors -- "Why are you buying from Walmart? Don't you see how every dollar you spend there is going on Walmart's books and Topps is looking at who is buying?"
"Oh, I can't afford not to save money," was (and is) the response.
Which to me is like saying, "Look, I'll hand you a 100,000.00 today. But in five years from now, I'll be back to put a bullet through your brain."
"Gee, mister. That sounds great!"
You can get any book in print, just about, from a local independent bookstore IN ONE DAY! Ingram's happens to be in Roseburg and is a one day ship. ONE DAY! It isn't possible for Amazon to be any faster than that.
We ship jobs overseas so we can get cheaper goods so that we can have stagnant wages and lost jobs so that we need cheaper goods.
But getting great swathes of cheap crap doesn't improve your life folks, any more than buying smaller amounts of higher priced goods ruins your life.
I suspect that I wouldn't feel any richer if I was buying from mass markets instead of locally. Or that I feel any poorer because I buy locally. In other words, in the daily scheme of things it really doesn't seem to matter. I don't sit around thinking about the price of a book I'm enjoying.
Why is that?