How do you know the local independent pet store is not buying their inventory from a business with directors and shareholders sitting on beaches in French Polynesia?
But they are not offering anything worth patronizing. There's no value proposition. The prices are higher, getting the book takes longer, they don't ship it to me, and they never have a good book in stock. Independent book stores exist entirely as a charity-empathy business. They only exist because people feel bad about not shopping there.
i'm not a robot or venture capitalist, so i'm not sure why i need to exclude empathy from my decision-making process.
but, from a purely selfish standpoint: i get way better customer service, i can do trades, i can barter, i get to meet and talk with people, i can see the product before i buy it (no surprise knock-offs, etc.), my money mostly stays local, i find interesting work opportunities and sometimes referrals
You don't have to exclude empathy, but I said it is "a charity-empathy business" and you called that "a sad comment to read" and added that you get a lot of value. That would strongly imply that you disagree with my characterization and/or you get a lot of non-charity-empathy value. That then leads to me asking what that value is.
Personally none of those things you listed are what I want when buying a book, except knockoff protection, but thank you for answering.
i will express my opinion when i want to, thanks though.
if you have a particular issue, email dang and he can swing by and reprimand me. although i would find that weird, considering me and the other participant continued our conversation on just fine.
And I will continue to voice community standards on the community forum. I don't have the power to [dead] your post, but I do have the power to express my disapproval of your violations of the community guidelines.
You made it personal ("I'm not your dad") and you were condescending ("a sad comment"). That behavior is ugly and it doesn't belong on HN.
I have an interest in maintaining HN as a place where intellectually curious people of good faith engage in conversation, including with people they disagree with. I will continue to advocate for HN to remain such a space, and that includes objecting to
behavior that tends to undermine that goal.
Then, how do you know the local business owner isn't, in turn, using that profit to buy stuff from companies with directors and shareholders sitting on beaches in French Polynesia?
If you track the individual dollars, most flows of value eventually, after some number of loops, end up with the French Polynesia sitting people.
That local business owner pays taxes and presumably eats food and uses services from his or her own town. They also pay local people to work in their shop who also presumably spends some of their wages locally.
