The town I work in has a lot of problems. The state took over its finances due too poor management. Anyway there a a jewelry store that sells a bunch of watches on the Main Street and it’s been there for decades. They are now going out of business, I popped in to see what they have. I bought a seiko gmt, I think it was 190 with their going out of business sale. Don’t have a picture as I got it for a gift for someone and already mailed it out. Now it wasn’t a horrible deal, it was a bit of a pity buy for me as I got into a discussion with the sales girl and she was bummed out about losing her job.

Anyway that same seiko gmt was 166 at jomashop. Granted it was sold out but still how do the little mom and pop places compete? I know the chains have similar issues and this question can be asked about any retail brick and mortar shop. It’s sad to see. I do like to support local owned business when possible but I do also need to think about finances. It’s just sad overall I can’t tell you how many small business and even big business I’ve seen close shop over the past year in the rundown city I work in. Even with covid out of the picture it must be incredibly difficult for these small watch/jewelry stores to do business.

 

At this point I'm guessing older people who have not embraced the technology and resources.

 

One good thing about covid, our recycling / donation centre was closed for a long stretch. Stuff really piled up after a while and I realized that, sweet baby Jesus, do we buy and toss a lot of stuff! I’m now enjoying buying less, buying better, and buying local A LOT more, even if it costs a bit more

 

Similar for me. I had no idea how much money I was throwing away on things I didn't really need and only thought I wanted when in actuality, nothing I really had to have.

 

It also did not go unnoticed that Starbucks tucked their tail and ran early in the pandemic, shutting doors and eliminating jobs at an amazing pace. It was the local coffee shops that dug in deep and figured out a way to keep people employed, and to keep the community serviced. Lets remember this when skys are one again blue and Starbucks reopens to siphon money out of the community and into the hands of shareholders

 

We all hear the news about major employers laying of 10% of their work force, on occasion putting thousands out of work. But small businesses employ a huge percentage of the working public. But who hears about one of these businesses closing, laying off 10, 20, or 30 people? While bucket houses in locations far away with little overhead, skim the cream. It’s a sad story!

 

More than a decade ago, a big Borders bookstore opened in what used to be an enormous, vintage movie theater in our area and, over the course of a year, drove nearly all the local, small book stores out of business in three towns. A few years later, Amazon killed Borders.

We’ll never get back that theatre, which showed only classic movies. I first saw Seven Samurai in a theatre there. The location was empty for years afterwards.

And, we’ll never get back all those bookstores.

COVID is only hastening what’s been going on for over a decade.

 

In fairness:

At one time, I swore I’d never buy a book online.

Now, I can’t remember the last time I bought a book in a real store.

 

I swore I’d never use those self checkouts at stores as i didn’t like how they were taking jobs from people but certain places are now not giving an option.

 

I hear you but it's not my responsibility to do aything other than what I do. A business makes choices, but when their choice is more convenient for me, I'm in!

I get that the checkers might be standing around bored, but they're paid to stand around being bored. They're not paid by the piece, after all.

 

What's a book?

 

Philistine!

 

So true. While it seems that we have a lot of Amazon deliveries, I am definitely buying a lot less this year. Also, no airfare, no hotels, less restaurant meals. And obviously we're all driving a lot less. In fact, I received a partial refund on my auto insurance.

 

Hey, just saving trees. Electrons are more recyclable.

 

Those things that look like DVD’s from far away. It’s basically a movie you can read.

 

Ah, @Walrus, we'll make a commie out of you yet.

Hopefully we can get some form of a new deal with building roads and bridges. Invest in manufacturing for alternative energy. It has a huge potential for jobs.

I remember when people laughed at the internet. Who can make money on that? "It's balmy I tell ya!" Now it's everything. Alternative energy can be like that.

It's not just book stores here. Restaurants, coffee shops, all the places that were the only backstop for people who weren't accountants or engineers or doctors. The working poor aren't working anymore, just poor.

We still have a chance. There's a lot of rumbling out there. Mitch McConnell said he's in favor of States declaring bankruptcy because it worked for towns. States! For ***** sake. Hopefully there's still people with better ideas left.

In the meantime, good on ya mate for supporting your local economy.

 

I much prefer to be able to examine what I buy before I buy it.

 

The only thing worse than shopping is shopping online.

 

I am not a big online shopper. I have purchased watches online from Chronext, regretted it and sold all of the on afterwards. I do scour the net for things I collect like airline memorabilia but everything else is purchased in a shop.

The only watches I keep and wear every day were purchased from my local Jewlers whom I now have a very friendly relationship with. Yesterday I dropped my moonwatch in for a service and picked up two watches that had been in for little issues. I had forgotten my warranty card but as I know them, I simply sent an SMS photo of it when I got home and that was fine. The service on the moonwatch was offered free at purchase and because my two little issues with the others I picked up were not big, I was told it was free. One service and two repairs at no cost plus an Omega buckle for my two-stitch strap thrown into the mix. This is the way it used to work before we went on-line, we built relationships with the Mom and Pop shops, we were loyal to them and they repaid that loyalty and we were a community.

I do the same with my butcher, baker, hairdresser, car garage etc, I stick with them and they take care of me, all on a first name basis.

SWMBO does all my clothes shopping for me because I couldn't give a rat's about fashion. Hole in underpants and jeans means new items needed, Tee shirt looking like a sexy tank top because its been washed 1000 times and 2000 additional pizzas around the waist = replace with next size up and so on.

I get that there is stuff on line you will never find in your local shops but if we do everything online, eventually there will only be online and downtown will cease to exist.

 

Starbucks actually closed stores soon after opening in Australia because the cafe culture is so strong they couldn’t compete with the fresh foods and great coffee offered by the numerous coffee shops.
Noticed the Australian style of coffee shops is going strong in the New York area.

Pizza shops are usually still small scale operations still in most cities, we still have Domino’s but most will still support their local.

We spend time exploring most things we buy for a buy right buy once ethos.
Need a lunch box = buy a aluminium one


Need a hammer = pay a local blade smith to make you one


Need a kitchen island = Buy one made in Australia