this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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No, I wouldn't support someone's family. I would support a large national or international chain. Where I live, family-owned stores have disappeared way over a decade ago. I'll gladly spend a bit more to support a small store but if I have the choice between three different soulless and faceless corporations, I'll put my own financial interests first. There's exactly two things that I can still buy from independent stores: vinyl records and board games. In the game store I'm a regular to the point where the owners greet me by name and offer me a drink as soon as I walk through the door.
I think you misunderstood. I didn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to support family-owned businesses.
I would LOVE to support small businesses. But there are almost none left where I live and the few that are still there are so important to me that I‘m basically friends with the owners.
The only real choice I have left for most things is between Amazon, the German Amazon equivalent Otto and a few big chains like Müller, Kaufland and MediaMarkt-Saturn. Neither of them are small businesses by any definition. Between those and only those I pick the cheapest because in those cases my wallet matters more than which rich asshole I dislike the most.
And no, that’s not because I ruined small businesses. For the longest time I’ve made an effort to buy as much from small businesses as I could. But that option is gone.