this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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[–] kgbbot@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean what's stopping a business from returning to form? Putting customers first could start change.

[–] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The quintessential Walmart dilemma stops it.

You make a hardware store with knowledgable, helpful, well paid staff, ethically sourced quality products, and sell hammers for $20 because that's what your buying power at your scale allows you to turn a reasonable, sustainable profit on.

Walmart pays overseas slavers ro make 10,000 hammers at $1 each and they sell them at the new Walmart that just moved in for $7. Customers need to find it themselves because the employees correctly don't give a shit as they're paid shit.

Sadly, us peasants have proven, given the opportunity and out of necessity, we will support Walmart and their $7 slave labor made, slave labor sold shit hammer, before supporting a local business with ethical business practices selling a $20 hammer, even at higher quality.

Oh and after Walmart has put main street out of business with $7 hammers, they'll raise that price to $18 and pocket the difference, as was the plan.

Integrity costs more to deliver than exploitation, and the less you have the less you can afford to support integrity in business. That's why most of America's main streets are shadows of their former selves, that degradation started far before Amazon and internet shopping started doing to Walmart what Walmart did to honorable entrepreneurs.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The Internet helps with this some. I've found a number of companies, American Giant, American Blanket Company, Trayvax, Liberty Table Top, Awesome Coffee Club, and 360 Cookware that are all from what I can tell, doing it right at the higher price that comes with.

They can stay in business because they don't have to maintain brick and mortar stores and appeal to the lowest bidder to stay in business.

It's definitely hard to convince friends to actually spend the extra money though.