This was kind of an interesting topic that came up. I guess we all know that for the most part that shopping at big chain stores versus a small local business can usually be cheaper for things such as groceries. So if your intent was to save money then realistically you could probably save a lot by making your way down to say a large supermarket of some sort. Now most people usually know what happens to the small guys when a big company moves in for things like these as people will naturally want to save every penny that they can and since the small businesses don’t have the buying power as the big companies to make prices as low as their competitors, they are forced to sell products at a loss to remain competitive and usually that means the business will be forced to close down.
I know around here in Vancouver Walmart was denied in being able to build a new store for those types of reasons before. Everyone has heard of Whistler here in BC I’m assuming right? An interesting event that is happening in the Whistler Village Center area right now is that here in Canada there is a chain store called London Drugs which sells a wide variety of items ranging from personal care products to electronics. London Drug’s application to build a store in that area has also been denied for similar reasons which prompted some residence of that area to create a site petition at londondrugsyes.com that talks in their point of view on why the store would be good for the community as oppose to bad.
This is kind of a tricky topic in some ways as yes most people want the lowest prices and convenience in finding a lot of their buying needs in one place, but at the same time you don’t want it in the long run where one company is virtually monopolizing the community where it is almost like the economy revolves around this one store. If I was to play the devil’s advocate role, at the same time this may not be the most popular answer but if you are a small business that is going against a large company, in some ways I guess saying that a large company will drive smaller businesses out of business as a reason to deny one from being built is kind of unfair too as it’s all about competition and the best surviving. If you can’t compete with price, then you have to find some other way to remain competitive. I always keep in mind a saying that I heard before that goes something like in business if you don’t offer something unique then you are competing against price and convenience. If you offer something unique, then people must go to you to get those services. Just thinking off the top my head for example, maybe if you were going against say a larger chain store then maybe having a personal shopper service can make your business stand out.
I guess it comes down to how vulnerable a community thinks it is and how protective they are in maintaining its current living standards. When it comes to shopping at large chain stores rather than supporting a local small business, in the long run technically it should be better to support a local business if you are looking at it from an economic point of view I suppose if the intent was to keep things from drastically changing. In the end for most though, it really comes down to service and value in deciding which one to support.