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Yeah, Amazon (and increasingly, buying direct from brand's own e-shops) keeps winning my business by being better at every aspect of the sale. I’d like to keep money in my community, but it’s really hard when online has better service, better selection, better pricing, and better flexibility.

I could go downtown to buy a pair of shoes during that store's business hours, get to choose between 3-4 different styles, talk to a salesperson who knows less than the online product listing, then find out that my size isn't in stock and won't be restocked this year. Or I can order online at my convenience, see all the relevant information up front, compare prices across all the selection that exists and across multiple retailers, have the product arrive in a couple days, and pay less money. If local retailers want to exist, they need to find something to compete on.

> by being better at every aspect of the sale.

> I’d like to keep money in my community, but ...

It sounds to me like Amazon is not better at every aspect, you've identified one aspect right there. They are competing on, "Would you rather live in a cookie cutter franchise strip mall or a mom and pop commercial area?"

I'm willing to accept some inefficiencies and some frustrations if it means I've got a nice neighborhood of mom and pop stores.

if the only value provided by the "nice neighbourhood of mom and pop stores" is the warm fuzzy feelings, that's not enough value for me.

i don't want to live in what's essentially a theme park full of fake stores that only exist because it makes the neighbourhood seem nicer, or where the shopkeepers are basically paid entertainers present for their aesthetic value. if that's the sort of city we're building, let's skip the inefficiency of paying local retailers to provide the service of existing and go right to universal income.

It's not just aesthetic value. Yes, there is aesthetic value but also there is the value of "People can afford to live and work here." A community that contains some shop owners, some office workers, some landscapers, etc. is a better community in my eyes.

i agree with you that a community where people can afford to live and work is good, but the work needs to actually be productive. if a retail store's only value is unrelated to their retail business, then i think it's fair to call them only aesthetic.

paying people to work in shops that are worse in every way than the alternative except for being local is not productive. no real value is being created. it's a make-work scheme, and paying those workers to not work would be more efficient.

It is productive. My local bike shop sells me bike parts I need, just not as conveniently or efficiently as Amazon.

The ruthless pursuit of efficiency as it's own goal is a trap. Squeezing out every societal optimization is a very engineering centric mindset. There are many, many times where the most efficient solution to a problem isn't the "best" one, and we need to collectively get better at recognizing when that's the case.

That’s the odd thing though: Amazon has several disadvantages compared to your local bike shop (not being local, not being able to see your bike, not having a human who can talk to you, and not being able to hand you the parts right now). That your local bike shop, despite starting with these significant advantages, manages to be less convenient and efficient for you is interesting and unexpected (and does not bode well for them and others like them).

I chose bike shop arbitrarily. I could have said hardware store, cake supply store, game store, toy store, etc.

My annoyance with the local stores is that they don't even try to compete on the only things they can compete on.

They're never going to win on pricing or selection. The Amazons and Walmarts of the world are backed by huge logistics networks and software, with ruthless efficiency.

What they could absolutely thrash the big guys on is service and experience... yet they don't even bother. Disinterested jobsworth sales droids (usually teenagers) who know nothing about what they're selling or where they're selling it don't make for a compelling experience. The times I've had to flag someone down who was either playing on their phone or chitchatting with coworkers who then proceeded to look at me like I'm the one being an asshole in this interaction for interrupting before being absolutely no help at all has placed quite a few local businesses on my "do not shop here" list.

Before Amazon, if I needed a specific electronic component, my options were Radio shack or a specialist hobby shop. Both were incredibly expensive and often didn't have what I need. Ebay and Amazon have been an absolute game changer and I'll be happy if I never have to set foot in a hobby shop again, which anecdotally had grumpy staff that seemed annoyed by my presence.

> I’d be happy to support local merchants, but they have to get the overall value proposition somewhat competitive. For the most part, they aren’t. Maybe it’s pricing, selection, policies, hours of operation, or some combination, but other than grocers and large chains, I’m not even sure they’re trying.

This.

I actively avoid local businesses because with few exceptions they always try to screw you, whether that's prices, low quality service, or something else.

Even something as simple as canceling an order that hasn't yet been paid or shipped I get senseless push back from local businesses.

When it's easier and less stress free for me to return a 1200€ drone to Amazon 3 times, than it is for me to cancel a 80€ chestnut order that hasn't been paid or shipped from a local business, the problem isn't Amazon and the solution is obvious.

“They always try to screw you”. Wow. Wow. Wow.

That’s how we end up with monopolistic companies. Instead of actually making an effort to look for great small business in your city, you’ve just going to spend all your money on Amazon and when you get called on it your answer is they “always try to screw me”. I don’t know if you believe it or you just want the moral high ground for your bad consumer behaviours.

Prioritizing the things that provide value to me, and avoiding sellers that do not is the opposite of "bad consumer behavior".

In fact, letting bad business practices slide when it comes to small businesses is a great way of ensuring those businesses will never improve their practices and will continuously fall behind.

Show me the incentives and I will show you the results.

I’m forgiving on pricing with locals.

They don’t have the volume of an Amazon or the logistics.

And as such they can’t normalize prices or take a loss on a higher volume item to draw in bigger items etc.

Even Amazon leverages USPS and pays below market for shipping. A SMB simply can’t, even if drop shipping.

So I’m lenient on price, but the other things generally need to be above average. Especially service.

It’ll keep being a piece of cake until you buy something from a scammer amazon merchant with no one to appeal.

One of the best things I like about my local small businesses is that I don’t need to worry about choices. I just show up with a problem and they will always solve it for me costing me way less than I had budgeted.

That’s why some of those have been operating for almost 100 years.

I specifically avoid local businesses because I've never had a good experience. Not only are they more expensive, but the quality of the products are usually worse and returns are a hassle. The local businesses usually have a very limited or no return policy. Just because a business is local doesn't make it better.