Nate Houge Fixes the Economy
The thing is, I may be in the camp that says, €œLet the economy burn.€ I think that the macro-economics that this glutenous country of ours are obsessed with are antithetical to a healthy community.
Here’s what got the finite hamsters in my head running. (In the interest of full disclosure I should point out it was more of a jog.)
I heard a guy on the radio (Wow Nate, way to kick things off with a credible source!) saying that a consequence of shopping locally is that you will drive the prices up. He was a professor of economics and so I’m guessing on paper he’s right. And I’ve seen this to be true. I can buy a drill bit at Menards for a buck or I can go to my old employer at S & S hardware and get the same drill bit for $1.69. S & S isn’t buying them by the gross, maybe not even by the dozen. They don’t get the discounts. And so because we hold the success of our economy over the success of our community we go to Menards. We drive further, we walk around forever, we ask where the drill bits have been moved to since our last visit, and we save our .69 cents. It only took an extra 45 minutes of our time and an extra four miles of driving. We didn’t see anybody we knew, though after 10 years of home ownership I admit I do recognize a couple faces back in the lumber department. But you get where I’m going with this. When I walk into S & S chances are Mark will be working there. He’ll talk about the glorious Republican party to which his allegiance is sworn and then talk religion. I mean football. He’s a Packers fan so you understand it’s a blurry line. Once when I was working there on a slow winter night a guy came in with some gas line questions. My coworker went to his house and helped him connect his new stove. Nobody at Menards is going to do that. That .69 cents is worth it to me.
Although I will admit, I’m more likely to go to Mitch’s Hardware Hank. It’s a few blocks closer and I can pick up a two pack of 3/32€ bits for $1.59.