Please support small, local businesses!

[Aroura]

Online shopping is more popular than ever, and giants like Amazon and Walmart are eating an even larger size of the pie than they have in the past, while small mom and pop shops struggle to keep their doors open.

Now more than ever, with our food and material supply chains breaking, individual consumers need to make an extra effort to support those businesses, unless we want to live in a dystopian future where Taco Bell wind the restaurant wars, and everything else is either a Walmart or a Whole Foods.

There a benefit for you, the consumer, as well! Many local shops carrying items produced locally actually have things in sick that the big box stores do not. 

Please Google local farmers markets, pop up produce vendors, and small restaurants in your area, and do your best to spend your money there instead of in big box stores. Many are offering online services and curbside pickup!

[Dom]

Apart from being the right thing to do, supporting your locals also will benefit the local economy as well as that of your state.  How important that is will become clear to us all soon as local supplies shrink.

Plus, last not least, it's healthier. The less people handle your food and supplies, the better.

I think that soon there will be local networks popping up, either in the form of online groups and directories with delivery service, or we will have a booming black market.


Yes, search your area online and find groups. I did the other day and, for instance, found that our local farmer's market will take online orders and make deliveries once it opens up for the season, and I plan to take full advantage of it.


It's never been more important to stay local, for health of the people around you, for property values, and last not least, for humanitarian reasons.

[skyking]

I think that peak virus fear added to the online ordering. People just were too afraid of going anywhere extra.
We don't go out for dinner often, but we are doing more if that. Our local italian place was shuttered until recently. We drove by and saw signs of activity the other day. We'll order up dinner the next time they are open. They bring the order out the door so you don't have to handle doors and the like.

[mordant]

It is difficult. In a sane world I would take a couple days off work and get my wife out of the house to somewhere peaceful right about now as she's distraught over some personal shit ATM. But there are no hotels or B&Bs to go TO. We DO order a lot in from various local restaurants, of which there is a bumper crop on Grub Hub, et al, right now. We have purchased masks from local makers even though it's less convenient (had to pick up from someone's front porch 10 miles outside of town). When we put the cat down in a couple of weeks I will donate unused food and litter to the local shelter. But it all feels very weird and remote. It's hard to see local businesses very differently from any other business because there's no direct connection with them anymore. Even home deliveries are generally "touchless" where someone skulks up onto your porch, snaps a pic and texts it to you, maybe hits the doorbell with their elbow and runs off.

This is tougher for this introvert than I thought it would be, not so much because it changes my typical everyday existence, as that it removes most of the choices from it. And for at-risk persons like myself, it will remain a self-imposed isolation that will endure well after society caves to the siren call of commerce and reopens. I'm not coming out of this until there's a vaccine, herd immunity, or both, and even then I will be far more careful than I ever felt the need to be before.

It is definitely a long-term quality-of-life issue.

[Bcat]

I've been trying to do this as much as I can. I've been ordering food from a small local natural foods grocery store and only getting takeout from my favorite mom & pop restaurants (the same ones I used to go to before all of this). I want them to still be there when this is all over.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Aside from the many other benefits, shopping local and patronizing businesses that purvey local goods is better for the environment, generally; less fuel used in transport, less pollution created.

[Bcat]

It is difficult. In a sane world I would take a couple days off work and get my wife out of the house to somewhere peaceful right about now as she's distraught over some personal shit ATM. But there are no hotels or B&Bs to go TO. We DO order a lot in from various local restaurants, of which there is a bumper crop on Grub Hub, et al, right now. We have purchased masks from local makers even though it's less convenient (had to pick up from someone's front porch 10 miles outside of town). When we put the cat down in a couple of weeks I will donate unused food and litter to the local shelter. But it all feels very weird and remote. It's hard to see local businesses very differently from any other business because there's no direct connection with them anymore. Even home deliveries are generally "touchless" where someone skulks up onto your porch, snaps a pic and texts it to you, maybe hits the doorbell with their elbow and runs off.

This is tougher for this introvert than I thought it would be, not so much because it changes my typical everyday existence, as that it removes most of the choices from it. And for at-risk persons like myself, it will remain a self-imposed isolation that will endure well after society caves to the siren call of commerce and reopens. I'm not coming out of this until there's a vaccine, herd immunity, or both, and even then I will be far more careful than I ever felt the need to be before.

It is definitely a long-term quality-of-life issue.

I'm a bit down the middle--I need a balance.  I like going out and being social but I also like alone time to meditate, practice yoga, read.  I feel the same though--that this new way of life removes choices from it.  While I am not in any high risk groups, I don't really see myself going back to my social side of myself any time soon without a vaccine.  This virus is attacking everybody.  I still don't really understand the nonchalance of some people.  The beaches opened here and people flocked to them.  I know it's hot but wtf.  Run through the sprinkler in your backyard.

[mordant]

I feel the same though--that this new way of life removes choices from it.  While I am not in any high risk groups, I don't really see myself going back to my social side of myself any time soon without a vaccine.  This virus is attacking everybody.  I still don't really understand the nonchalance of some people.  The beaches opened here and people flocked to them.  I know it's hot but wtf.  Run through the sprinkler in your backyard.

Evidence is accumulating that Covid is mutating a lot more and having different mixes of symptoms in different areas. One of the more alarming realizations is that it can do relatively extensive covert damage to people who are "asymptomatic". There are tales of covid-positive people who aren't showing respiratory symptoms who nevertheless have "silent hypoxia" -- near-lethal low levels of oxygen in their blood -- because their low-level air sacs simply aren't transferring sufficient oxygen. There seems to be derangement of blood clotting in some people, and they are seeing massive strokes in 40 year olds that they normally see in people in their late 70s. One specialist was removing such a clot from such a person's brain and saw new clots form in real time as he did so. Never saw anything like it before. It attacks multiple organ systems -- intestines, kidneys, heart, brain -- not just lungs. There are many stories of people seemingly fine, then in sudden crisis and dead on arrival at the hospital.

So this is not something to start to relax about. I'm not advocating panic or paranoia but geez louise people, get it through your heads that this is serious shit and isn't going to evaporate in the summer sun!

[Minimalist]

While a laudable idea the pressures on small businesses are going to wreck their business model.  Two examples:

Yesterday I saw a news report from Tennessee which is allowing restaurants to reopen with social distancing rules.  Tables were spaced and booths were taped off.  But the economics of the restaurant business are such that it is a recipe for bankruptcy.  First of all much of the industry's profit comes from selling alcohol and with take-out they lose that.  Second, being unable to utilize half the space in the dining area does not mean they do not have to pay the rent or utility costs associated with that space.  True, they don't have to have as many waiters/waitresses on duty but with what those people are generally paid that doesn't save much and they rely on tips for much of their income - because we are such a "progressive" "first-world" country! - and without the traffic they previously had where are those tips going to come from?  BTW, I saw no actual customers in the restaurant.  Now, it might have been closed at the time and the news crew was just allowed in but they did not say either way.

Second - some Trumptard governor down south (might have been De Santis or Kemp, these fuckers all look and sound alike) was discussing the probable need to stop people from going into grocery stores.  Call in your order and pick it up.  But retail stores have been bitching over that for a couple of years now.  Customers go into Best Buy look at various TVs or appliances, see one they like and then go order it from Amazon.  Brick and mortar stores are dying the death of a thousand cuts and they're going to force shoppers to engage in exactly the kind of activity that is killing the retail industry.

The bigger question is, who is going to jump out and take the risk?  Some people will to be sure.  Hell, some morons drank Lysol because Fuckface said it was a good idea but it seems that most people will be cautious because they know, even if our testicle-less politicians don't, that this thing is not over.

[mordant]

While a laudable idea the pressures on small businesses are going to wreck their business model.  Two examples:

Yesterday I saw a news report from Tennessee which is allowing restaurants to reopen with social distancing rules.  Tables were spaced and booths were taped off.  But the economics of the restaurant business are such that it is a recipe for bankruptcy.  First of all much of the industry's profit comes from selling alcohol and with take-out they lose that.  Second, being unable to utilize half the space in the dining area does not mean they do not have to pay the rent or utility costs associated with that space.  True, they don't have to have as many waiters/waitresses on duty but with what those people are generally paid that doesn't save much and they rely on tips for much of their income - because we are such a "progressive" "first-world" country! - and without the traffic they previously had where are those tips going to come from?  BTW, I saw no actual customers in the restaurant.  Now, it might have been closed at the time and the news crew was just allowed in but they did not say either way.

Second - some Trumptard governor down south (might have been De Santis or Kemp, these fuckers all look and sound alike) was discussing the probable need to stop people from going into grocery stores.  Call in your order and pick it up.  But retail stores have been bitching over that for a couple of years now.  Customers go into Best Buy look at various TVs or appliances, see one they like and then go order it from Amazon.  Brick and mortar stores are dying the death of a thousand cuts and they're going to force shoppers to engage in exactly the kind of activity that is killing the retail industry.

The bigger question is, who is going to jump out and take the risk?  Some people will to be sure.  Hell, some morons drank Lysol because Fuckface said it was a good idea but it seems that most people will be cautious because they know, even if our testicle-less politicians don't, that this thing is not over.

Good analysis but for the vast majority of politicians who are bought and paid for by various big money interests, none of this is of concern. There is no tragedy for captains of industry in any sort of collapse, only opportunity. It is a more "wet work" version of how you buy like crazy when the stock market crashes so you can ride it back up.

I do not expect half the restaurants in my city to be here when this is over. Running a restaurant has never been a stellar way to make money hand over fist, and for all I know half the "me too" bistros around here were just hanging on anyway. To a capitalist that is just survival of the fittest, there is no human cost to it at all.

[Minimalist]

Which is exactly the whole fucking problem with the country.  It is government of the rich, by the rich. and for the rich and the rest of you assholes can go fuck yourselves!

I can't see any remedy.  We are doomed.

[Aroura]

While a laudable idea the pressures on small businesses are going to wreck their business model.  Two examples:

Yesterday I saw a news report from Tennessee which is allowing restaurants to reopen with social distancing rules.  Tables were spaced and booths were taped off.  But the economics of the restaurant business are such that it is a recipe for bankruptcy.  First of all much of the industry's profit comes from selling alcohol and with take-out they lose that.  Second, being unable to utilize half the space in the dining area does not mean they do not have to pay the rent or utility costs associated with that space.  True, they don't have to have as many waiters/waitresses on duty but with what those people are generally paid that doesn't save much and they rely on tips for much of their income - because we are such a "progressive" "first-world" country! - and without the traffic they previously had where are those tips going to come from?  BTW, I saw no actual customers in the restaurant.  Now, it might have been closed at the time and the news crew was just allowed in but they did not say either way.

Second - some Trumptard governor down south (might have been De Santis or Kemp, these fuckers all look and sound alike) was discussing the probable need to stop people from going into grocery stores.  Call in your order and pick it up.  But retail stores have been bitching over that for a couple of years now.  Customers go into Best Buy look at various TVs or appliances, see one they like and then go order it from Amazon.  Brick and mortar stores are dying the death of a thousand cuts and they're going to force shoppers to engage in exactly the kind of activity that is killing the retail industry.

The bigger question is, who is going to jump out and take the risk?  Some people will to be sure.  Hell, some morons drank Lysol because Fuckface said it was a good idea but it seems that most people will be cautious because they know, even if our testicle-less politicians don't, that this thing is not over.

To be clear, I wasn't encouraging people to go sit in crowded restaurants.  Most small restaurants still offer take-out, or you can use a delivery service like grub-hub.  Most small grocery stores and farmers markets and even fruit stands now support ordering online or by phone, and then curbside pick-up.  When it comes to places like gyms and salons, I don't know what to tell people. Certainly don't go unless you feel safe doing so.

There are myriad ways to support local businesses while still maintaining social distancing.  Yesterday, I ordered some fruit from a local produce stand that's getting in a shipment of local berries.  I signed up for their e-mail updates, so I was able to order early.  This afternoon, I'll drive out, and pop my trunk and they'll put my order in there with no contact at all.

Is it a little more work than ordering from Amazon?  Yes.  But that's why I'm saying make the EFFORT.  It's no less safe, and to be honest from what I'm seeing in my town at least, these smaller places are WAY more likely to be following safe guidelines than the big stores with acres of shelves and floors to clean.  like 1/2 the clerks in Safeway are wearing masks, and although they now say they will limit the # of customers in the store, their sign says that limit is 236.  That's laughable!  236 people in that store is going to be insanely crowded.

My local indoor farmers market (The Locavore, it's called) OtOH, has a 5 person limit inside the store. All their employees wear masks, and they are constantly cleaning the surfaces.  In addition, they have plenty of humanely raised eggs and meat, , still have dried goods like rice and beans and locally made pasta, etc.  They also have crafted items like homemade masks for sale.

I'm not sure about other retail, clothes, home and garden, etc.  If it's open, call and see if they deliver.  If they don't deliver, see if you can buy what you need over the phone, and they will load it into your car upon arrival.  I did this at a small local garden center last week.  I needed potting soil and mulch and a few seeds.  I paid over the phone, and they loaded it into my trunk on arrival.  

These places are fighting to survive, and if we all do a little extra to help, they CAN make it.  At least, more of them can.  And the reality is right now, we need local supply chains more than global ones to keep working, because when/if everything breaks down, it's those local ones that will keep food on our tables.

[Aroura]

It is difficult. In a sane world I would take a couple days off work and get my wife out of the house to somewhere peaceful right about now as she's distraught over some personal shit ATM. But there are no hotels or B&Bs to go TO. We DO order a lot in from various local restaurants, of which there is a bumper crop on Grub Hub, et al, right now. We have purchased masks from local makers even though it's less convenient (had to pick up from someone's front porch 10 miles outside of town). When we put the cat down in a couple of weeks I will donate unused food and litter to the local shelter. But it all feels very weird and remote. It's hard to see local businesses very differently from any other business because there's no direct connection with them anymore. Even home deliveries are generally "touchless" where someone skulks up onto your porch, snaps a pic and texts it to you, maybe hits the doorbell with their elbow and runs off.

This is tougher for this introvert than I thought it would be, not so much because it changes my typical everyday existence, as that it removes most of the choices from it. And for at-risk persons like myself, it will remain a self-imposed isolation that will endure well after society caves to the siren call of commerce and reopens. I'm not coming out of this until there's a vaccine, herd immunity, or both, and even then I will be far more careful than I ever felt the need to be before.

It is definitely a long-term quality-of-life issue.

I'm a bit down the middle--I need a balance.  I like going out and being social but I also like alone time to meditate, practice yoga, read.  I feel the same though--that this new way of life removes choices from it.  While I am not in any high risk groups, I don't really see myself going back to my social side of myself any time soon without a vaccine.  This virus is attacking everybody.  I still don't really understand the nonchalance of some people.  The beaches opened here and people flocked to them.  I know it's hot but wtf.  Run through the sprinkler in your backyard.

Has anyone else had the experience of seeing a group of people in a movie or TV show and it making them uncomfortable?  I was watching that new Paul Rudd thing about the clone, and a bunch of people are in a board room for a meeting (I'm already uncomfortable) and at one point he goes up to one woman, gets about 3 inches from her face, and talks about friendship and hometown knowing each other or something.  I was about crawling out of my skin!   Maybe it's just me. 

My own brother isn't taking this seriously at all, and he's morbidly obese, has early stages of diabetes and high blood pressure AND he smokes like a chimney.  He's also talked my mom into not taking it seriously.  I find it utterly baffling (as well as frustrating to the point of tears), but people are going to people, and that menas a lot of people are going to make some REALLY dumb decisions right now.

[Bcat]

It is difficult. In a sane world I would take a couple days off work and get my wife out of the house to somewhere peaceful right about now as she's distraught over some personal shit ATM. But there are no hotels or B&Bs to go TO. We DO order a lot in from various local restaurants, of which there is a bumper crop on Grub Hub, et al, right now. We have purchased masks from local makers even though it's less convenient (had to pick up from someone's front porch 10 miles outside of town). When we put the cat down in a couple of weeks I will donate unused food and litter to the local shelter. But it all feels very weird and remote. It's hard to see local businesses very differently from any other business because there's no direct connection with them anymore. Even home deliveries are generally "touchless" where someone skulks up onto your porch, snaps a pic and texts it to you, maybe hits the doorbell with their elbow and runs off.

This is tougher for this introvert than I thought it would be, not so much because it changes my typical everyday existence, as that it removes most of the choices from it. And for at-risk persons like myself, it will remain a self-imposed isolation that will endure well after society caves to the siren call of commerce and reopens. I'm not coming out of this until there's a vaccine, herd immunity, or both, and even then I will be far more careful than I ever felt the need to be before.

It is definitely a long-term quality-of-life issue.

I'm a bit down the middle--I need a balance.  I like going out and being social but I also like alone time to meditate, practice yoga, read.  I feel the same though--that this new way of life removes choices from it.  While I am not in any high risk groups, I don't really see myself going back to my social side of myself any time soon without a vaccine.  This virus is attacking everybody.  I still don't really understand the nonchalance of some people.  The beaches opened here and people flocked to them.  I know it's hot but wtf.  Run through the sprinkler in your backyard.

Has anyone else had the experience of seeing a group of people in a movie or TV show and it making them uncomfortable?  I was watching that new Paul Rudd thing about the clone, and a bunch of people are in a board room for a meeting (I'm already uncomfortable) and at one point he goes up to one woman, gets about 3 inches from her face, and talks about friendship and hometown knowing each other or something.  I was about crawling out of my skin!   Maybe it's just me. 

My own brother isn't taking this seriously at all, and he's morbidly obese, has early stages of diabetes and high blood pressure AND he smokes like a chimney.  He's also talked my mom into not taking it seriously.  I find it utterly baffling (as well as frustrating to the point of tears), but people are going to people, and that menas a lot of people are going to make some REALLY dumb decisions right now.

I was watching some show on tv where people were at a packed charity event and I just remember thinking that's what life was like before.  It seems surreal watching it now.  I really think life is going to change drastically from here on out and that's going to be reflected in (any) new tv shows or movies if they ever come back at all.

[Minimalist]

These places are fighting to survive, and if we all do a little extra to help, they CAN make it.

I understand what you're saying.  I almost envy your optimism but reality convinced me long ago that optimists are merely people who are not paying close attention!

Economic reality is a tough nut to get over.  The banks want their loan payments.  The utility company wants their bills paid.  The suppliers want their invoices paid.  

This answer, posted at Quora, is instructive.

[/url]
[url=https://www.quora.com/profile/Earl-Vance]Earl Vance, Engr w/ Exp in Nuclear, Food, Consulting, Supply Chain Mngt
Answered Apr 19, 2020 · Author has 2.2k answers and 1.3m answer views

Originally Answered: What is the average markup on restaurant food?
The markup is huge, 5x to 15x the direct cost of food and preparation, but the average restaurant pre-tax profit is small only 10%. Restaurants have large fixed overhead costs that have to be recovered in the cost of food.
Food costs by percentage are often the smallest cost embedded in the menu prices you see in a restaurant.
Right now restaurants that are using delivery services for the first time and offering free delivery are making no profits or are in the red. Such services charge 10–15%, or more based on distance, of the bill back to the restaurant as the delivery charge.

This is not sustainable for any length of time.


For the record I saw a third example the other day.  An airline stewardess was insisting that all passengers wear masks on all flights.  I shook my head and thought "right, genius, exactly what you want to do.... make air travel even more uncomfortable than it already is.  Enjoy the unemployment line."

You can only push people so far.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Which is exactly the whole fucking problem with the country.  It is government of the rich, by the rich. and for the rich and the rest of you assholes can go fuck yourselves!

I can't see any remedy.  We are doomed.

I'm going to get a bunch of drunk-ass methed-out morons with guns and fix what's wrong with this country!

[Minimalist]

I'd expect them to be wearing the stupid, fucking, red hats.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'd expect them to be wearing the stupid, fucking, red hats.

I think those are threaded on.

[mordant]

My own brother isn't taking this seriously at all, and he's morbidly obese, has early stages of diabetes and high blood pressure AND he smokes like a chimney.  He's also talked my mom into not taking it seriously.  I find it utterly baffling (as well as frustrating to the point of tears), but people are going to people, and that means a lot of people are going to make some REALLY dumb decisions right now.

My stepdaughter is right in NYC sheltering in place looking for employment now that she's out of her coding boot camp. Her mother is understandably concerned that she is keeping as safe as possible but the little shit refuses any gifts of masks or sanitizer and claims she isn't going to wear any masks. TBH we think she is just trolling her mother. But I tell my wife, you can't make people do stuff they don't want to do or take stuff they feel, legitimately or not, they don't want to be beholden for, or even give you reasonable assurances that you need. She's telling you every way she can that she doesn't want advice or help and doesn't care how you feel, so you have done your job as her mother and now it's up to her and dumb luck, like it or not.

One of my brothers watches enough Fox News to the exclusion of anything else that he thinks the death rate is a teensy fraction of a percent but at least he's even higher risk than me (14 years older, 3rd stage kidney failure on top of diabetes) and I think his wife forces him to use pretty good practices. Their church is broadcasting services on the Internet, etc. So I think he's going to be about as safe as can be expected given the religitard / republitard influence.

It is what it is. There is so much about this conflagration that produces indirect stress and the first order of business is self care. This has bad implications for, among other things, activism and organizing but (1) we probably all need a breather from that about now and (2) I'm not sure it isn't wasted effort as the system is too broken to even want fixing and it certainly no longer tolerates dissent much less takes it on board.

Self care right now means exercising the only control you have, if you even have that: let the world self-immolate and don't obsess too much about it. Keep you and yours as safe as you're able to. Don't borrow trouble; plenty of it to go around. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Be responsible and kind. The chips will have to fall where they may, just hopefully not on your noggin.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I do not expect half the restaurants in my city to be here when this is over. Running a restaurant has never been a stellar way to make money hand over fist, and for all I know half the "me too" bistros around here were just hanging on anyway. To a capitalist that is just survival of the fittest, there is no human cost to it at all.

I'm certain many will go under.

Once, about ten years ago, I was negotiating a Friday-night residency for a blues band I played bass in. Our asking fee at the time was normally $100/man per gig (three bandmembers, two 50-minute sets a night, $300 payout from the bar.) I was talking with the owner of the bistro when fees came up, and then she said the most she could go was $50/night, and laid out some of the reasons why -- only a couple of years in business so not a huge clientele built up, great location in downtown Ventura which meant high rent for a fairly small space, and she paid her small staff about $10/hr because that's the kind of person she was. Her dollars/square-foot was damned small even to this gas-station manager.

We took the four-week residency at a reduced rate anyway, but it was a surprising look inside that sort of business model, which I've never managed in my management career. Her margins were very slender and I doubt she's still in business now -- and if she still is, she's in for a rough ride as are many others in that and similar businesses.