I was reading about some local policy changes intended to make running a small business easier and that got me thinking. I go to restaurants and ethnic food stores which are usually small businesses, and maybe some of the gas stations I use are small businesses too. However, everything else I buy comes from big-box stores or the internet. These have replaced a lot of small businesses, but how is it that there are any little shops left at all? Sometimes I walk into a corner store because I don’t want to go all the way to the big box store or wait for delivery but the prices are so much higher (often by over a hundred percent) that I walk right out again unless I need something very urgently.
I’m not making a moral judgement here. I just don’t know how the economics work out.
I live in a city that offers nearly any type of service/shop local to me so nowadays I’ll likely use them here unless what I’m searching for is overly specific.
My mom recently took me to a store selling minerals and fossils, which while not my scene, is quite an interesting place to just walk through.
Realistically I should probably get some of my food from a farming coop but my volume is so low and the supermarket is right in front of my door, to make that the main exception.
Prices sometimes are higher but typically not egregiously so, and for some things i find it within myself to pay that higher price.