Wastes of energy while shopping

We have long been advocates of shopping locally. In an age (anthropocene) in which we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint, the internet doesn't help as much as it could. In fact, we could accuse some of the manufacturers and local outlets of intentionally providing disinformation under the rubric of "if we can't bedazzle them with our brilliance, we'll befuddle them with our bullshit!"

At first the internet was helpful in our search for a battery-powered, mulching, walk-behind mower to replace the many-years-old, gas-powered, broken-pull-cord model we gave to the Son-In-Law and Daughter Person last year. Popular Mechanics has a very helpful online listing of their recommendations. After that, it all went downhill. The mower we want is available, allegedly, at Home Depot, just not at our nearby store, we think. Instead of being straightforward, the HD website message says "Limited stock at ____", whereas a click on "Check Nearby Stores" informed us that "This store has limited quantity in stock. Please call to confirm availability." while it lists the number in stock at several other stores further away. If they don't have any, why doesn't Home Depot respect its potential customers enough to inform them and save a phone call?

small town Main Street

Photo by J. Harrington

Searching starting at the manufacturers web site enables us to find a list of local dealers, some of which note on their own web site that the item isn't in stock, others list every conceivable model as having an available brochure. We find it exceedingly difficult to support the concept of doing business with local stores that, in this day and age, require either a phone call or a visit to determine if a specific item is in stock.

Back to the befuddlement, out of curiosity we checked Amazon. We entered the specific make and model number in their search bar. Amazon promptly returned a list of everything similar to, but not what, we had requested. We remember the old days when we ended up driving from local store to local store trying to find, and buy, some specific item we thought we needed. That increased our carbon footprint before we knew enough to care about one. It's not clear how we can best persuade merchants it's in their, and our, interest to list their available inventory on line and not simply throw everything on the screen and hope we won't notice we're being scammed. For now, we need to do serious thinking about the extent to which trying to support local merchants is worth  the pain in the patoot it causes to actually shop locally if we don't live next door. The Better Half and I have debated some of these ideas for decades. Remember the druggist, Mr. Gower, in "It's a Wonderful Life." There was no oversight of him in his independent drug store. Are we better off with CVS or Walgreens? How can we tell? Or has the internet just digitized the limitations of local shopping and added to them?

A Shopkeeper’s Story

By Bob Hicok

I sell one bristle brushes. People 

seeking two bristle brushes I send 

to the guy on Amsterdam, who’s in a rush. 

I may have one customer a year 

for my one bristle brushes, a one-eyed 

lover of tanagers, she may have 

one dollar to spend in the moment 

light’s neither day’s or night’s, 

but one’s where infinity begins. Whoever 

she is, she’s always painting barbules, 

I’m always thinking, no one will notice 

that they notice this, that her tanagers 

move, that everything’s alive. We talk 

care and feeding of the one 

bristle brush. Care exists. I thrive.

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