And thank you for your support …

Remember the Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler ads? I think that was the first time I ever heard that phrase, and the first time the idea of “supporting” a business entered into my consciousness.

Now, the idea of supporting a business, of being loyal to a business, has become commonplace. Some businesses make a point to thank you for your support during the normal course of things, but it seems all too common to hear this for the first time when they are closing their doors.

This kitchen store in Keene was a nice place to walk through, and we have bought a few gadgets there. However, the $200 frying pans, $500 coffee makers, and so on that seemed to make up the majority of their inventory are not things we buy often, if ever.

On the one hand, seeing our local retail shops close leaves me with a sense of guilt… Each failed business, each retirement without a sale, hastens the economic decline that seems inevitable and inexorable in the region. If only I’d spent more money there…

But on the other hand, it leaves me with a sense of anger… each time these business owners failed to support their community by providing what people wanted, at a price they were willing and able to pay, left another opening for the Walmart and Amazon takeover that has surely doomed many small towns before ours.

Of course, neither my guilt nor my anger will slow the great economic forces created by the magic of the Internet and the magic of global supply-chain management. Small stores who sell the same goods as the giants simply can’t compete, and nor can those who delude themselves with higher priced “handmade” goods typically of lower quality. For the sake of the people I live near, for the sake of my property value, and just in general, I hope the remaining business owners, and the next generation, find some way to make a living that doesn’t rely on me “supporting” them out of either guilt or anger…