The Internet is changing commerce everywhere for everyone.  It's unfortunate
that some very good, old firms, are going to be losing out and losing market
share, we are seeing and going to see a lot of great retailers go out of
business because they can't or won't modify the way they run their
business.  High cost of maintaining inventory can be countered with rapid
response to special orders but that adds a level of complexity (and probably
another person on the payroll) to doing business.  The whole face of 'buy
local' is changing and I'm not sure I like it.

On 6/19/07, Mike Rocket J Squirrel Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>
> Yup. Broken links don't help the local guys, but local retailers often
> lose out because they don't have stock on what I'm looking for. I know
> their buying power is diminished every time I throw in the towel and
> order the goods from the web, but I don't like being limited by what
> they decide to keep on the shelves.
>
> --
>
>