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What's the Difference?
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Monday, April 12, 2010
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 By Al Seckinger, Retail Division Manager, 507-639-7114, aseckinger@nuwaycoop.com
Which Coke® can is the best value: the one you buy from a national chain or the one you buy from a locally owned business like a NuMart Convenience Store?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bashing the idea of saving a nickel here and a quarter there. I’m as cost-conscious as the next person in these tough economic times. But value is determined by a lot more than price, and the decision to buy from a national chain verses a locally owned business may have hidden costs.
Here’s my thinking. Each year, more and more chains displace unique, locally owned businesses that employ our friends and neighbors. That’s a hidden cost. I understand the argument that these chains create employment, too—for the first couple of years anyway. Studies show that many of these new jobs disappear after the excitement wears off. By contrast, tenure at locally owned businesses is usually more stable. (Our tenure at NuMart Convenience Stores is excellent.)
It’s not just employees of local retailers who are displaced when a big box store arrives in town—it’s all the local vendors, too. In the case of a local convenience store, it’s all the Old Dutch and Frito Lay® trucks running up and down the road that are displaced by semis delivering inventory from out of state. That’s a hidden cost.
The displacement caused by national chains also threatens the livelihood of service companies and individuals who supported those local businesses, like the cleaner, the plumber, and the accountant. Another hidden cost.
Now, it would be one thing if profits earned by a national chain would cycle back into the neighborhood, turning two, three, or four times as they filter through the hands of local businesses. But a national chain sends its profits out of state to be squirreled away by their stockholders or invested in projects hundreds and thousands of miles away.
Meanwhile, it’s the locally owned businesses—the ones that are left—that invest their profits in the neighborhood. It’s customer-owned businesses, like NuWay Cooperative and NuMart Convenience Stores, where you can walk in and suggest a new product or service, and we’ll do everything in our power to make it happen. (Just try making those suggestions to a big
box store.)
And like I’ve pointed out before, locally owned businesses are the ones who provide steady employment to our neighbors and friends, while supporting local vendors and service providers who are also part of our community.
So, yes, there may be a huge difference in value between a Coke can sitting on the shelf of a national chain and a Coke can
sitting on the shelf of a locally owned store. This value may have little to do with the price tag and more to do with the hidden
costs involved in doing business with the national chain. My next question is this, “When you own a company like NuWay Cooperative or NuMart Convenience Stores, why would you do business anywhere else?”
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