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Comment by alt227 | Hacker News Reader

Why not go down to your local independent pet store, keep your money local and support your neighbours instead of giving it to directors and shareholders sitting on beaches in French Polynesia?

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That sounds virtuous, but there's no real way to know that the way you're spending your money is ending up the way that you're describing.

How do you know the local independent pet store is not buying their inventory from a business with directors and shareholders sitting on beaches in French Polynesia?

even if that's the case, the local independent book store is still being supported by your patronage.

But they are not offering anything worth patronizing. There's no value proposition. The prices are higher, getting the book takes longer, they don't ship it to me, and they never have a good book in stock. Independent book stores exist entirely as a charity-empathy business. They only exist because people feel bad about not shopping there.

im not your dad, so im not going to tell you how to spend your money. if you prefer to support amazon, go for it. save your $1.25 or whatever.

but wow, i found this a sad comment to read. i find a lot of value in shopping local.

What is the value you find excluding charity or empathy feelings?

i'm not a robot or venture capitalist, so i'm not sure why i need to exclude empathy from my decision-making process.

but, from a purely selfish standpoint: i get way better customer service, i can do trades, i can barter, i get to meet and talk with people, i can see the product before i buy it (no surprise knock-offs, etc.), my money mostly stays local, i find interesting work opportunities and sometimes referrals

You don't have to exclude empathy, but I said it is "a charity-empathy business" and you called that "a sad comment to read" and added that you get a lot of value. That would strongly imply that you disagree with my characterization and/or you get a lot of non-charity-empathy value. That then leads to me asking what that value is.

Personally none of those things you listed are what I want when buying a book, except knockoff protection, but thank you for answering.

Don't do this here.

i will express my opinion when i want to, thanks though.

if you have a particular issue, email dang and he can swing by and reprimand me. although i would find that weird, considering me and the other participant continued our conversation on just fine.

And I will continue to voice community standards on the community forum. I don't have the power to [dead] your post, but I do have the power to express my disapproval of your violations of the community guidelines.

You made it personal ("I'm not your dad") and you were condescending ("a sad comment"). That behavior is ugly and it doesn't belong on HN.

I have an interest in maintaining HN as a place where intellectually curious people of good faith engage in conversation, including with people they disagree with. I will continue to advocate for HN to remain such a space, and that includes objecting to behavior that tends to undermine that goal.

great, we're in agreement then. i'll do me, and you do you.

The local business owner is still getting the profit not Amazon

Then, how do you know the local business owner isn't, in turn, using that profit to buy stuff from companies with directors and shareholders sitting on beaches in French Polynesia?

If you track the individual dollars, most flows of value eventually, after some number of loops, end up with the French Polynesia sitting people.

That local business owner pays taxes and presumably eats food and uses services from his or her own town. They also pay local people to work in their shop who also presumably spends some of their wages locally.

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