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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (5077)	11/8/2005 11:08:19 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541428

Target treats its employees better, and I like its community service record (just one example- Target underwrites "Concerts for Families"- at Davies Hall in SF). I agree with you that they both tend to kill little stores- but Target does not (at least as far as I know) use the same ruthless tactics of screwing suppliers that Walmart does. When it comes to hardware we go to our local hardware store, and if they don't have it, we go to Home Depot (which also treats its employees pretty well.)

To: Ilaine who wrote (5077)	11/8/2005 11:58:20 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541428

Big box stores with cheap prices that kill all the little stores. I don't think it has to be that way. A Barnes and Nobles opened within walking distance from my house and I thought we were going to lose all our little book stores. Some of the little book stores in fact closed in anticipation of Barnes and Nobles opening up. Funny thing happened. There are now more little book stores near Barnes and Nobles than we had before they opened. Most of these little stores found different little niches. One sells used books. You can buy a used book and when you are finished you can sell it back to them. Others are mom and pop stores with owner operators who love to read. You can go in and discuss books all day long with them. They recommend books to you and they find out of print books for you. Similarly with hardware stores. Home Depot and Lowes opened nearby not that long ago, but my local hardware store is still in business doing more business than ever. It is amazing what they packs into their 1000 sq ft store front. You may not see it, but you ask them them and they will sometime crawl into their basement and pull out almost anything. I have never seen the basement, but I am sure it is no bigger than their store front. It only seems like he pulls out stuff from a 50,000 sq ft of space. This store is owned and run by a family. The father died not that long ago, but the wife and kids (four grown sons) all work there. They are more than just a hardware store. The kids act almost like consultants. You go in there looking for something to fix and they give solutions sometimes that you never thought of. I pay a little more, but I get a lot more in services. BTW, Barnes and Nobles has a Starbucks coffee shop inside (they are usally packed), but within walking distance there are four or five coffee shops, including a stand alone Starbucks, but right outside of Barnes and Nobles there is a coffee kiosk (privately owned) where there are always people on line waiting to be served.