4
Buy things at the real store, or else
Browsing online
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: There's a new TV ad that caught our attention. It tells people they should spend their money at the store instead of shopping online. Hmmm. Ashley Milne-Tyte looked into it.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Lee Baldock runs two gift stores in Reno, Nevada. He says consumers don't often consider the trickle-down effect of shopping locally.
Lee Baldock: If you shop with me, I pay my staff, my staff goes to the local restaurant and spends their money. So y'know, the money stays in the neighborhood.
In its ad, The International Council of Shopping Centers prods consumers to think about their local economy.
Ad: With much of local government's revenue generated by sales tax, municipalities are bracing for a shortfall this holiday season.
So the ad suggests it's almost your civic duty to shop -- as long as it's not on the Internet.
Mike Kercheval is the Council's president:
Mike Kercheval: We first of all hope that the guilt of shopping in a way will be absolved a little bit, someone would say, well, I'm doing a good thing for my community.
He says pricking consumers' conscience is a first for his group. But tough times call for innovative tactics.
I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
No, I don't think so.
I cannot see why I would forgo purchasing an item from an online auction to spend more locally AND pay sales tax. My local government gets plenty from me as it is. Furthermore, the economies of scale should allow the store owner to pay less in shipping than I do as an individual. The additional cost of the storefront and overhead would equal the price of the item and individual shipping, but it does not.
I agree with the comment about globalization. Of course, we are already too late for some products like music CDs. It all comes down to the way the industries are regulated, and we haven't seen very much regulation over the past 8 years. It is more sad if the money you are spending isn't even staying in the USA, let alone your local economy. It would be good to hear a little more depth from marketplace on this issue of globalization and the internet, and where we are sending our consumer dollars. There is another layer of jobs that are disappearing for products we buy in the US. There is so much intra-trade between global companies, and none of it gets reported by the media. We are in a global economy with a government and a media reporting statistics that are 10 years outdated.
