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Old 12-11-2008, 05:03 PM
 
502 posts, read 1,064,084 times
Reputation: 329

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Here's a fun report about how big box stores screw the public sector out of over $1 Billion/year.


According to a new study by the nonprofit research center Good Jobs First, little-known sales tax laws in 26 states that allow retailers to legally skim a percentage of sales tax revenue to pay for the administrative costs of collecting and remitting sales tax are providing big box retailers with an enormous advantage over their smaller competitors. The recently released report, Skimming the Sales Tax, also noted that these out-of-date sales tax laws are costing the public sector more than $1 billion a year.

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/skimming.pdf (broken link)
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Old 12-11-2008, 05:35 PM
 
5,019 posts, read 14,088,549 times
Reputation: 7091
Quote:
Originally Posted by TracySam View Post

I would love to support local businesses rather than going to the big chains, but sometimes business owners make this impossible! It’s almost like they don’t care about getting my business.

Examples:

I needed something from a hardware store. Went to the local mom & pop hardware store, but they are only open Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm, Saturdays 10-3, and closed Sundays. Home Depot is open 7 days a week, and has evening hours for those of us with jobs. Went to Home Depot when I found the local place closed.

I saw a cute little coffee shop open in a local borough. Went there on a Saturday afternoon, and saw they close at 12 noon. Don’t they know that some of us sleep in on weekends, then want to go out for a nice cup of coffee? Went to Starbucks instead.

Local family in my town opened a pizza shop. The pizza was pretty tasty, kept ordering it for a few months. A few months later, called for delivery, and learned they are now closed on Mondays. Called Domino’s instead. Called local pizza place a few weeks later for a delivery, learned delivery time would be over an hour and a half becasue they were "short on help." Hung up and called Pizza Hut instead. Called local place a few weeks later, learned that the son is on vacation and there are no deliveries now. Called Papa John’s instead. A few months later, local pizza shop closed down for good. It's a shame; the pizza was good.


I think it’s great when people decide to open their own business, but they need to know that to stay in business, they need to have hours and staffing coverage that are competitive. If you open a small store or restaurant, have your whole family work, and don’t expect vacations any time soon. I look at my local Chinese restaurants and dry cleaners: They are open 7 days a week, even holidays. They have their grandmother working the register, their kids bussing tables, sisters and brothers waiting on customers. The owners come in in the early morning and stay till closing. That’s what owning your own small business is all about, at least early on. When you grow enough to hire some extra help, then you go on vacations.

I'm even fine with paying a little more for the product when I can patronize a local business. The price is not my problem here. It's the business hours and customer service.

Is this a problem of work ethic? So many people claim they want to "work for themselves" but perhaps they are only cut-out for working for someone else.

Has anyone else noticed similar problems where you live?
Yes, I can totally relate.

I love this country and I love entrepreneurs.
I try to think globally, but shop locally whenever possible.

Ironically, when I moved to a small town in the Midwest I found that very difficult.

I moved from a larger city (Austin TX ) where I found plenty of home-town options; non-chain cafes and coffee shops, funky boutiques, artists markets, food co-ops etc etc. How odd to move to the "heartland of America" and find people enamored with Applebees and Walmart.

My slogan has become "people (meaning mom and pop owners) here HATE to make money!"

FYI: just thought I would mention, Etsy.com. I thought ~everybody~ knew about Etsy, but perhaps not. Won't solve your coffee/pizza/hardware problems, BUT a great way to buy hand-made-in-the-USA products from artists and craftsmen. They also have a "local" search function. I am not affiliated with them in any way, shape or form, but just want to spread the word.
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Old 12-11-2008, 07:10 PM
 
Location: Somewhere out there
18,287 posts, read 23,140,304 times
Reputation: 41179
Quote:
Originally Posted by plaidmom View Post
How odd to move to the "heartland of America" and find people enamored with Applebees and Walmart.

My slogan has become "people (meaning mom and pop owners) here HATE to make money!"
I have to disagree with your above statements. Just like anywhere else that gets new to their area people will check them out. The midwest is no different but many lost focus or didn't realize how the big chains coming in were going to shut down the heart and souls of their communities. Mom and Pop could never compete with the pricing of chains and people flocked to the chains because they were so much cheaper than mom and pop. To little to late kind of thing. Now mom and pop are a lot like the rest of their communities they don't have any money and you have to have money to make money.

Can't blame it all on mom and pop we must take responsibility ourselves for buying into the bigger is better campaign. Now we have no other choice but to shop Wal Mart that was their master marketing plan and we all fell into line shopping there.
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Old 12-11-2008, 07:59 PM
 
5,019 posts, read 14,088,549 times
Reputation: 7091
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson View Post
I have to disagree with your above statements. Just like anywhere else that gets new to their area people will check them out. The midwest is no different but many lost focus or didn't realize how the big chains coming in were going to shut down the heart and souls of their communities. Mom and Pop could never compete with the pricing of chains and people flocked to the chains because they were so much cheaper than mom and pop. To little to late kind of thing. Now mom and pop are a lot like the rest of their communities they don't have any money and you have to have money to make money.

Can't blame it all on mom and pop we must take responsibility ourselves for buying into the bigger is better campaign. Now we have no other choice but to shop Wal Mart that was their master marketing plan and we all fell into line shopping there.
As the OP siad "it's not all about PRICE".

I am willing to pay more for good old fashioned customer service and unique "made in America" product selection.

See Breed & Co. my very favorite hardware store in TX.

Just disappointed that there is nothing like this here.

Give me the store and we will throw down the cash.
I WANT people in MY (adopted) hometown to make money!!!
It is good for everyone!
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Old 12-11-2008, 08:30 PM
 
Location: Somewhere out there
18,287 posts, read 23,140,304 times
Reputation: 41179
Oh I agree I don't mind paying a little more if service is good. Only problem is there are more folks who want the cheaper prices over keeping mom and pop going. It will be hard to turn back the hands of time now to get more local stores healthy again.
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Old 12-14-2008, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Wishing It Was Wisconsin
534 posts, read 1,591,974 times
Reputation: 879
Well just today I went to do some shopping at Walmart. I buy the Quaker Oat granola bars, but the Walmart here doesn't carry the peanut butter ones, which are my favorite. They carry every other flavor, but that one. So I went to HyVee(one of our 2 other stores here that aren't Wally or Target)because I know they carry the peanut butter ones and the other store we have is closed on Sundays. Well I paid $1.94 for them at Walmart. They were $3.15 a box at HyVee! I couldn't believe it.

There is no way in this day and age that I could ever afford to do all my shopping at this store and we make decent money. It killed me to pay that and I have decided to give that kind up unless HyVee puts them on sale. Or I will have to try generic, which I do buy generic stuff, but I don't know how granola bars would be. Plus I can't find generic ones that have the low calories like the Quaker ones I buy. I bought a ton of stuff at Walmart and it wasn't even 20 dollars. It was $9.45 for 3 boxes of granola bars.
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Old 12-14-2008, 12:54 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,610,333 times
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The thing that changed alot of mu shoping habits from local business is the exchange policy on items that were broken form the get go. Local stores had basically the send it back to the manufacturer and chainsn took it back no questions asked within a number of days.Many mom and op stores would actually accuse you of causing the probolem when it was obvious that it was a flaw, Too much hassle IMO;when you can go to a chain store now days and no peroblem with customer service.
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Old 12-14-2008, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Somewhere out there
18,287 posts, read 23,140,304 times
Reputation: 41179
texdav sorry you had that experience from your mom and pop store. I have never had that happen to me as I have shopped my mom and pop stores for so many years. I guess when I take something back they know it had to be defective when I got it. They have always just given me another one of the item off their shelves. They even would pull it out of the box to make sure it was in good solid shape too.

UW Badgers I know $1.21 difference adds up after buying multi items but that same $1.21 is worth it to me to have a local meat market/grocery store 3 miles from me so I don't have to drive 19 miles to Wally's to save $1.21. I do bulk shopping once a month in town but for other items I run out of or can't buy at the bigger stores I will gladly pay the extra to keep my meat market here. No I don't have disposable income I live on a fixed income.
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Old 12-14-2008, 02:23 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
8,998 posts, read 14,754,452 times
Reputation: 3550
Good Jobs First: Smart Growth for Working Families, Harms of Big-Box Retail (http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/smart_growth/harms_of_bigbox.cfm - broken link)

Quote:
Harm #1: Big-box stores are detrimental to small businesses.
Metropolitan residents with cars may choose to shop at big-box stores because of their low prices and because of the convenience of a large variety of products housed in one building. In this way, big-box retail takes business from local "mom and pop" shops. Worse, big-box stores have the ability to undercut local, homegrown retailers with lower prices because of their sheer size and economies of scale. In many towns across America, big-box retailers moving into a community has been the death knell for local small businesses. A 1997 study by Kenneth Stone of Iowa State University found that the average Iowa consumer spent 42 percent more money in department stores, primarily discount big-box stores, in 1996 than he or she did in 1983. Over the same period, Iowa consumers spent up to 59 percent less in retail establishments of every kind, from grocery stores (11 percent less) to shoe stores (33 percent less) to men's and boy's stores (59 percent less.)
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Old 12-14-2008, 02:31 PM
 
Location: Wishing It Was Wisconsin
534 posts, read 1,591,974 times
Reputation: 879
Jaxson, the HyVee is 3 blocks from our house and I do go there to get little things, milk, ice, veggies, something I might need quick.

WalMart is less then a 5 minute drive, so I'm not wasting my savings on gas by any means. We buy all our meat at the other store we have in town. They have a fantastic meat counter and great sales.

We even buy stuff for my parents who are in Wisconsin and take it to them when we go back to visit, or they will buy stuff here when they come. We are in Iowa so they love the Iowa pork chops. So we do support that store and they are actually cheaper then HyVee, but like I said, they are closed on Sundays. I went to get stuff today because it was 50 degrees this morning and now it's sleeting and will be snowing, so wanted to get out before the storms hit and it gets below zero.
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