What are your dislikes of small business retail

[katlupe]

I miss the small hardware store where the owner knew all the products in their store and all you had to do was explain your problem and they would bring you the right solution.

There's a small hardware store within driving distance but its part of a chain. Often they don't have what I need.

In the next town over from me there is still a hardware store like that. Before I moved here, I was a regular customer there. Could get all my canning needs, gardening products, tools & pet and horse feed, etc. in one place. Yes, it cost more but it was only 6 miles from my house and I liked the owners and employees.

 

[OldFeller]

In the next town over from me there is still a hardware store like that. Before I moved here, I was a regular customer there. Could get all my canning needs, gardening products, tools & pet and horse feed, etc. in one place. Yes, it cost more but it was only 6 miles from my house and I liked the owners and employees.

Small privately owned business depends upon good customer service.
Large chain stores suck at that along with making you walk 5 city blocks to pick up what you need.
They need robots with a screen on them where you select what you need and the robot goes and retrieves the items for you.

 

[Mitch86]

ALL the products small stores carry as well as big block stores are carried by Amazon. All of us here can reach Amazon on our desktop computers. Thus, for many years I have never left my house to buy anything. I just go to the Amazon web site and post what I am looking for even if I do not know the name of the product and Amazon always has it. I even buy all my groceries from sites on the web like Amazon Whole Foods and Stop & Shop.

I heard that Amazon is doing a large layoff of employees since Artificial Intelligence Robots will soon be answering our calls and taking our orders.

 

[jimintoronto]

ALL the products small stores carry as well as big block stores are carried by Amazon. All of us here can reach Amazon on our desktop computers. Thus, for many years I have never left my house to buy anything. I just go to the Amazon web site and post what I am looking for even if I do not know the name of the product and Amazon always has it. I even buy all my groceries from sites on the web like Amazon Whole Foods and Stop & Shop.

I heard that Amazon is doing a large layoff of employees since Artificial Intelligence Robots will soon be answering our calls and taking our orders.

Here in Canada many Canadians have stopped buying from Amazon, based on their anti union labor practices here. Amazon built 3 large distribution centers in the Montreal area a couple of years ago, and hired about 4 ,000 people to work in them, and a further 3500 route drivers to deliver in the greater Montreal metropolitan area.

In Canada, workers have a legal right to join a union to protect them. Amazon Canada workers in the Montreal area voted to join a Canadian labor union by a 90 percent vote. Amazon Canada's reaction was to threaten to close the warehouses, and lay off all of the employees. The company closed the whole Quebec area operation, and laid off all of the employees.

The Quebec Provincial Government has begun a civil trial of Amazon Canada, to force the company to rehire the employees. The case is in the courts now. JIM.