So I wanted a copy of the board game Carcassonne as it’s a game I’ve played with friends before and loved. For things like this I (like many others) would gravitate towards Amazon.
But after some research I found that my local board game cafe sells copies of the game cheaper than anywhere online. Yesterday I popped by, grabbed a copy and had a nice chat with the owner about the game and their favourite expansions. This was a significantly better experience than buying the game online from a soulless corporation, and my money has gone to an great local company rather than a billionaire. Why did we give up the joy of shopping locally and in-person for convenience?
Similarly I was looking out for a black denim jacket in my size. Instead of going to a big clothing retailer I checked out some charity shops, and I found exactly what I wanted for a fraction of the price with the money going towards charity.
Going forward I’m going to avoid Amazon and any big American companies wherever possible. Hopefully others will do the same :)
To be fair that’s probably because you were searching for Carcassonne which you can find pretty much everywhere. The problem with local is finding a store that actually sells what you want.
With clothes for example you can look through every shop in a commercial area and still not find what you’re looking for if it’s not currently in fashion in your country. Second hand shops are very good for this and I have many clothes from the UK and czechia this way. But this only really works for clothes.
I guess in that case there are usually specialist independent websites. It might not local, but at least it’s not Amazon.
I am sure the little shops can also bring in things if you ask them. But you do have to talk to them though. For example, in small garden centers, they don’t have everything on display or in stock. But they do have their connections, or propagating centers, and they can bring it in for you.
That works well with bookshops too. On the other hand I haven’t had much luck with local supermarkets/convenience stores.