09-21-2007, 05:00 AM
for me the big box verse mom and pop issue has always been a question of quality. when the big boxes started showing up I was all for the lower prices and ease of shopping etc., but very quickly I gave up on them.
long before all the recalls, I heard a piece on npr about how walmart makes their vendors sign agreements where they would provide them with goods that would drop in price by 5% per year. the article focused on levi jeans, showing that in order to make the walmart model work levi (instead of providing walmart with their standard jean) went to china, set up a new factory, and made their own cheap knock-offs in order to provide walmart with a jean that has the levi branding but is cheap enough to meet the strict walmart pricing model. in other words walmart is not only inexpensive, it is crap that will fall apart way earlier than what we are used to. I believe the walmart model is flawed and will not succeed over the long run.
when home depot came to the island I was building my home, and yes I looked to them to be a great alternative to hpm etc. I bought all my plumbing fixtures from them, and when I got to installing them I found 1/3 of the stuff I bought to be defective. I literally had to remove a toilet after the plumber installed it, because of gross defects. when I investigated this I found that home depot has a policy where by they knowingly allow their suppliers to flush a percentage of their defective goods through them in exchange for home depot paying lower prices on the whole lot.
also, I do not believe the big box model is healthy in an island economy. currently we depend on tourism to bring in fresh dollars while we turn around and spend those dollars at suppliers that immediately take that money off island. this has never made sense to me, especially in light of the fact that nobody seems especially happy about being so dependent on the the tourism industry. All told I believe that spending money locally, when what I want/need is available from a local merchant, is by far the better bargain.
long before all the recalls, I heard a piece on npr about how walmart makes their vendors sign agreements where they would provide them with goods that would drop in price by 5% per year. the article focused on levi jeans, showing that in order to make the walmart model work levi (instead of providing walmart with their standard jean) went to china, set up a new factory, and made their own cheap knock-offs in order to provide walmart with a jean that has the levi branding but is cheap enough to meet the strict walmart pricing model. in other words walmart is not only inexpensive, it is crap that will fall apart way earlier than what we are used to. I believe the walmart model is flawed and will not succeed over the long run.
when home depot came to the island I was building my home, and yes I looked to them to be a great alternative to hpm etc. I bought all my plumbing fixtures from them, and when I got to installing them I found 1/3 of the stuff I bought to be defective. I literally had to remove a toilet after the plumber installed it, because of gross defects. when I investigated this I found that home depot has a policy where by they knowingly allow their suppliers to flush a percentage of their defective goods through them in exchange for home depot paying lower prices on the whole lot.
also, I do not believe the big box model is healthy in an island economy. currently we depend on tourism to bring in fresh dollars while we turn around and spend those dollars at suppliers that immediately take that money off island. this has never made sense to me, especially in light of the fact that nobody seems especially happy about being so dependent on the the tourism industry. All told I believe that spending money locally, when what I want/need is available from a local merchant, is by far the better bargain.