Do you support local?

[SS-18 ICBM]

I find it more interesting to eat and shop at local places if I have an option aside from the chains.

 

[Borachio]

I support local by not using my VISA when I buy something from them.

How does that help? Paying by cash has a cost for the shop keeper just as much as a credit or debit card. Or maybe there's a marginal difference in favour of debit cards. I can't remember.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Credit cards have transaction fees, cash doesn't...am I unaware of something pertaining to cash transactions?

 

[Borachio]

Yes. You've got to do something with the cash once you've got it. You've got to count it, maintain a float so you can provide change, and store it safely between the shop and the bank, and probably other things. People often think that cash doesn't have a transaction cost, but it clearly does.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Cash transactions offer the merchant an opportunity to not report the income.

 

[El_Machinae]

How does that help? Paying by cash has a cost for the shop keeper just as much as a credit or debit card. Or maybe there's a marginal difference in favour of debit cards. I can't remember.

A rather significant difference between debit cards and credit cards up here. And that money comes straight out of their margin, which are commonly razor thin.

 

[Hygro]

Handling cash also cuts into their margins, though.

 

[Antilogic]

I tend to buy consumer goods over Amazon/other big box retailers but I buy meals at local restaurants as opposed to chains.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

One unreported cash transaction not only adds the sales tax rate to the profit margin on that sale, it adds the value of the goods to the "lost damaged or stolen" expenses and reduces reportable income by a substantial amount. Used judiciously this increases profits substantially at minimal risk.

 

[El_Machinae]

Handling cash also cuts into their margins, though.

I tend to use debit.

But evenso unless they pay a fee to the bank to deposit cash that's more than the VISA costs, it's still LESS, and I'm keeping those costs local.

The study also found that merchants preferred debit cards (53 per cent), followed by cash (39 per cent) and credit cards (five per cent). The reason? Cost.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/card-costs-who-pays-what-to-whom-1.807339

 

[Smellincoffee]

I buy some goods from a drug store across the street where I work, and when the farmer's market is open I buy from there. I get food from a supermarket, Winn-Dixie: the one downtown grocer is in a questionable neighborhood. There are no local clothing stores, and I see no difference in buying clothes from a chain in my city and a chain in another: they forward their revenues to a central office elsewhere, so in neither case is it local. I don't actually buy a lot, come to think of it. Food, toiletries, the odd bottle of motor oil. My major recreational purchase is used books, and I get those from Amazon's marketplace, which supports small businesses in other places while giving the chainbuster its cut, too.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I buy local!

Well, I mean, I eat at Chipotle, and they source as much as they can locally, so that's like the same thing.

Really though I pretty much shop at Vons and Target. I'm living paycheck to paycheck, I can't afford the luxury of bonding with my grocers. I won't shop at Wal-Mart though, mostly because the one near my house is always filled with the worst of the worst white trash hillbillies and I just don't need that in my life. I can shop at Target instead and not have to deal with 500 pound people on scooters and dudes wearing flip flops and wife-beaters screaming at their out of control children.

 

[NovaKart]

I always shop local because that's all they have here. They don't have big chains here except for a few Turkish chains. There's a Hardee's in Erbil and they're planning to build a KFC but that's it and of course those aren't shops.

 

[sophie]

I avoid Target and Wal-Mart like the plague. But I buy the most pointless random crap off of Amazon fairly regularly.

I guess that makes me a terrible person.

 

[Borachio]

Cash transactions offer the merchant an opportunity to not report the income.

That is really just asking for trouble though. The tax authorities aren't daft. You might get away with not declaring cash on a bit of casual gardening, or cleaning jobs, but anything else and they're going to have a really good idea of how much business you're doing and the extent to which you're likely not declaring income. And besides, when it comes to finding additional finance from a lender like a bank, don't you want not to have any undeclared income?

As for money laundering activities (which seem to be related to cash transactions in a way), well... you tell me. It's a major problem for criminal organizations to re-legitimize their income streams and I think it costs them dear. To the extent that it might be worthwhile them considering legitimate businesses in the first place.

Casinos are excellent places for money laundering, btw. Who knows how much money really walks in the door and how much walks out? And who's going to tell anyone?

 

[Josu]

If possible I go to local market where there are several stands of local shops.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I always shop local because that's all they have here. They don't have big chains here except for a few Turkish chains. There's a Hardee's in Erbil and they're planning to build a KFC but that's it and of course those aren't shops.

Hardee's? Why do all the bad American chains get exported...

I avoid Target and Wal-Mart like the plague. But I buy the most pointless random crap off of Amazon fairly regularly.

I guess that makes me a terrible person.

No. Just an inconsistent one, depending upon your reasons.

 

[Cutlass]

Up to a point. My last 2 major purchases were at local single location stores. New eyeglasses, which I really paid too much for, and tires for the car, which I think I got a pretty good deal on. I use a local garage for car repairs rather than the chain stores. I try to use local restaurants over chains, but outside of pizza and Chinese places, that's actually not the easiest thing to do. Sometimes it's hard to find the places. And sometimes I'm just in a hurry, so it's a fast food chain. There isn't a supermarket in the area which isn't a chain, and that's my most common shopping. I almost never go into Walmart of Target. I do shop at Sears, but not that frequently. Mostly tool related stuff. I used to get as much as possible of my hardware stuff from a local store, but that went out of business. So now even more of it comes from Home Depot. There are a couple of places I occasionally buy things from, both called Bob's, even though they are different companies, which are chain stores, but are small regional chains.

The problem is that for many purchases it's hard to find what you're looking for from local retailers, unless you have a lot of time to run around and don't mind spending the extra money.

 

[nc-1701]

Amazon, Target, and Hyvee (a chain grocery store) cover 90% or more of my shopping, I avoid Wal-Mart because it's dirty as hell. Honestly I would try to buy locally if I cared in the slightest about the city I live in or its community.

But all of my income comes from outside anyway, so no loss there.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Up to a point. My last 2 major purchases were at local single location stores. New eyeglasses, which I really paid too much for, and tires for the car, which I think I got a pretty good deal on. I use a local garage for car repairs rather than the chain stores. I try to use local restaurants over chains, but outside of pizza and Chinese places, that's actually not the easiest thing to do. Sometimes it's hard to find the places. And sometimes I'm just in a furry, so it's a fast food chain. There isn't a supermarket in the area which isn't a chain, and that's my most common shopping. I almost never go into Walmart of Target. I do shop at Sears, but not that frequently. Mostly tool related stuff. I used to get as much as possible of my hardware stuff from a local store, but that went out of business. So now even more of it comes from Home Depot. There are a couple of places I occasionally buy things from, both called Bob's, even though they are different companies, which are chain stores, but are small regional chains.

The problem is that for many purchases it's hard to find what you're looking for from local retailers, unless you have a lot of time to run around and don't mind spending the extra money.

(see bolded text)

Yeah, I find that it depends on the product and the situation for me.