A locally owned Ace Hardware store about 5 miles from my house is also within 5 miles of 2 Home Depots and 2 Lowes. It has been in business for over 40 years and is thriving. Very heavy on service and prices are competitive. Many of the staple items are high quality, not the cheap Chinese junk at the big boxes. It demonstrates a small business can compete if the owner truly understands the customer.
In contrast my builder chose a local small business as the sub to install the gutters on my house. Five years later the paint on the surface is splotchy because he scratched up the surface during the install, spray painted the scratches, and the spray paint has faded to a different shade than the original surface. The gutter installer and the contractor refuse to fix the problem even though I have a written 15 year warranty on the paint not fading and the installation. I suspect if I’d contracted the job to HD or Lowes and the same thing happened the big boxes would have replaced it. By the way my attorney says it will cost as much as the potential compensation is worth to sue them, if I can collect should I win. No doubt they are aware of the high cost of litigation and are correctly betting I’ll not sue.
Quite frankly it has been my experience the consumer is more likely to be cheated by small business people than big retailers. Particularly small business people who sell infrequently purchased products. The gutter guy and the contractor know I’ll never use them again so the perceived cost of not backing their work is low.
You make some great points, and they all show that economic liberty - the freedom to run a small business or work for a big one - the freedom to shop with a small one or a big one - is the answer. There are a lot of great small businesses - but a lot of awful ones also. Many times, it’s that awfulness that keeps them small. Many times not. Every big business, unless it’s a crony solyndra or something, started off small and they became big because they were the best of all the smalls at one time. Bernie and his founders did not, and could not, have forseen the stance the new HD would take on social issues nor could they have anticipated how immigration problems would have played out over 40 years.
They had a dream. Took a big chance. And won more than they lost....day by day. And took hundreds of thousands of others with them to the American dream. Meanwhile, many small businesses thrive and are fantastic fourty years later too...staying small. It’s all good.....its’ called liberty.
There are two ACE Hardware franchises in my neighbourhood. One is thriving, the other just surviving. However, all the lumberyards selling inexpensive lumber have closed. (HD’s lumber is pricey.) There is one big lumberyard and builder supply store that is very expensive and is used by contractors (Mexican day laborers standing on corners near it and 2-3 blocks from it, city providing porta-johnnys for them), who I suppose just charge their clients for that overpriced lumber. For my hardware needs I always go to ACE, where I can get excellent service and advice. Advice @ an HD? From who? An affirmative action hiree? (Oh, and the ACE, which has been around for decades, employs the handicapped.)