Small Business Cyber Monday you say, what the devil is this? Isn’t Cyber Monday about those giant evil internet companies out to make a quick buck and put all of the little guys out of business?

Fringe Fans Click Here

At least that’s what the whole “shop local” crowd try to tell you anyway, in my honest opinion the ones who most often spew this particular bullshit are the ones who, have poor customer service, product selection, and often pricing. The local merchants who are doing it right have nothing to fear. Let me give you an interesting example that happened to me recently. I visited a local agricultural supply store to pick up a 3 point hitch drawbar  for my tractor like the one shown here.

So checked out their website and sure enough they had one listed just like this for the exact some price as that “giant evil corporation” that supports this blog and a large number of other bloggers like me. Plus it was on my way home from work so why not stop in. They did not have the one that was advertised for 89 bucks, they were out of stock, and the clerk said they had no idea when they would get any more but they had in the stock an identical product by a different company for $129. Seriously, What the fuck are they thinking? Nobody in their right mind is going to pay $40 more for a virtually identical product of the same quality. So I asked if I could special order it, because even after this I was willing to spend my time & fuel to make a second trip to the store, you know to support the local guy, and was told that it could be special ordered for home delivery and that I would have to pay the shipping. Needless to say Amazon.com got my business on that day. If your customer is willing to take more time (time is more valuable than money to me) and spend more money and you still can’t supply him or her with the products you advertise then you really don’t deserve to be in business.

The other thing to consider is most bloggers really are small businesses, some are serious pro bloggers who write for a living and don’t do anything else, while others are part timing it on the weekends, and the wee hours of the night trying to make a go of it, and some are really serious hobbyist’s trying to recoup some expenses. Yes I know what you are thinking, domain names are cheap and so is hosting, but quality content is often very expensive to obtain, and as I said earlier time is valuable.

So by all means I hope you have been supporting your good local merchants and continue to do so throughout this holiday season but I know that you will sooner or later turn to the internet to find that otherwise unobtainable gift for that special someone, and when you do please think of that other small business person, your favorite blogger(s). Instead of going directly to that merchants website, stop off at an independent blog, and click on an ad or two, check out their webstores, and shop through them to make your purchases. That way you can continue to support those fantastic large companies that can bring you the best of all that the world has to offer at the best possible prices, & often with fast free delivery, while you still help out the little person toiling away alone in the dark to try to bring a little bit of information, happiness, or perhaps even both into your life. Then it really can be small business cyber Monday!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

‘Psyco