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Comment by diskcat | Hacker News Reader

>Nice, instead of supporting the PCB business 5 miles away, send it to China.

I don't see why he should support somebody who charges 5x the competitor.

Im not gonna pay $20 for a jar of peanut butter because the factory owner lives 5 miles from me.

Ok, you aren't, but I might. And others too: witness the popularity of otherwise ineconomical farmer's markets, for instance. It supports local industry, which "keeps money in the family" to a large extent (and protects from predatory pricing down the road), and connects with the local industrial community more. You never know when they might know the person that can help you out with whatever glitch. Except when they're on the other side of the world: then you know. You know it won't happen.

Locality matters. Love thy neighbor, because they may reciprocate and their neighbor, surprise, is you.

I would argue that part of the farmer's market is the experience of the setting and the fact that the food is (usually) fresh - much more than anywhere else.

Edit: My point is that I go to farmer's market for the experience, not to support the local farmers. It just so happens that the locals are the best are providing that experience. I do have to admit though that wanting to support the local farmers may have bootstrapped the farmer's market - or it may have survived through the rise of grocery stores.

And even with all that, going to farmer's market is splurging for me.

Would the experience be the same if the people weren't there?

Well, no.

Farmer's markets are popular because the food is higher quality. The reason for this is simple: it's fresher. You're buying it right after it was picked, and it was allowed to ripen fully before being picked. A lot of produce from grocery stores isn't like this: it's produced in other countries, or using methods to artificially ripen it after picking, so that it'll look ripe in the store.

It's simple biology and physics: if you want freshly-picked fruit, you have to get it nearby, unless you're going to pay $$$$ to have someone ship it to you by overnight shipping (and it's not economical to ship food that way).

How is some local farmer going to "help me out with whatever glitch"? He's busy running his farm. He doesn't live next door to me, he lives 20 minutes away. He might as well live across the country. But his food is probably going to be fresher and better quality than food at the supermarket that was shipped in from Central America.

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