With Coronavirus rampant in our country, many of us are turning to online retailers like Amazon for our shopping needs. Someone even forwarded me a list of links to Amazon products that one can easily purchase if they are making Pesach for the first time, as many of us are being forced to do this year. This list contains hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, from mixers, hot water urns, silverware, pots, cooking equipment, and just about anything else one may need for Pesach preparations.
While resorting to making huge purchases from Amazon may be smart “social distancing” practice, it can have a devastating impact on our local economy at a time when many businesses are suffering terribly. Sending such huge amounts of money to huge corporations will suck the business out of local stores, and will force many Lakewood stores to Ch’v have to close their doors, leaving many jobless.
No, I am not advocating for anyone to put themselves and their families in danger by venturing out needlessly to shop. However, many local stores have made ample arrangements for safe shopping that is no more dangerous than ordering online. Many storeowners have begun to offer free delivery, and most offer curbside pickup. Almost all stores, especially those that have been hit by this financial downturn, are willing to do almost anything the customer wants in order to keep their business afloat.
So, before you load up a heavy online shopping cart and send desperately needed local money out, pick up the phone and call your local storeowner. You may be able to safely get what you need while keeping your brother afloat.
(Note: this author of this does not own a local business and will not benefit personally from this message.)
DB electronics even offers price matching from Amazon
May the mitzva of supporting each other in this way be a much needed zchus for rachamei Shamayim.
Thank you for bringing this up!
does anyone know of a toy store here that would deliver??
Spent 20 min trying to reach a local store. The one time I actually got through disconnected Midway through the call. There was no update website no email and no texting for immediate response. I ended up spending an extra $15 on Amazon and having to wait until next week which I really would rather have not done!
Great point! I never thought of it that way.
Just pointing out that many from our community sell on Amazon so ‘out’ is really ‘in’ why should we disenfranchise them beacause they dont have a store front? They also need parnassah and risk losing their business.
Amazon sellers make a much smaller percentage, but they make it up in volume. We should get the most bang for our buck and let local stores take a much larger cut of our money.
Business is a two way street it’s time the local stores stop treating their customers like they are doing them a favor by selling to them and stop the ridiculous or in some cases non existent return policies and start treating their customers the way Amazon and frankly most other retailers do then we can have this conversation.
curbside delivery is perfectly safe and every store will do it for you. You wont even have to wait for Amazon
If you are in quarantine search the scoop site. There is a group of people willing to do your errands for you