I made the critical mistake of going to McDonald’s for lunch in a hurry the other day. I was so dumbfounded by my experience I thought I should write about it here, but eventually my McRage subsided and I just don’t have the energy anymore. Needless to say, when a food establishment whose only real selling point is speed puts in designated “I’m waiting for my friggin’ food” parking spaces...FIVE of them...you’ve got issues to deal with. And, oh yeah, if you don’t plan on actually giving me my sauces with my food, please don’t ask if I want them in the first place.

And finally he’s done venting, On to more important things... I am as guilty as anyone when looking online for the best deals, especially when I’m buying the big-ticket items. We just purchased new digital cameras at 365 and we looked all over Dubuque to find anyone close to the price we found online. No one came within $65 of the $295 online price. We bought online. It’s a Canon digital camera that no one locally can service and is the same camera no matter where you buy it. I’m sleeping just fine after my non-local purchase. But there are times when I think it imperative that we look local first and last when making informed buying decisions, as my friend Ralph would say.

There are just some things in our lives that need maintaining and a little TLC now and again. These items are also available online and the temptation is there. But buyer beware. My friend Ben Graham at Graham’s Style Store for Men in downtown Dubuque has signs in his dressing rooms that say, “The sting of poor quality lasts long after the of joy low price is forgotten.” Graham’s is not the cheapest men’s store in town. But there is a reason for that. It’s a quaity thing. But I think, really, it’s much more than that. It’s all about service. Like nearly all of his regular customers, Ben knows my size and tastes. He knows what I already have and lets me know when new stuff that he thinks I’d like comes in. That’s proactive marketing on his part. But for me, that’s just plain good customer service.

Another 365ink advertiser, Rondinelli Music, is a similar case. I am a lifelong musician and got my first guitar, one which I still gig with, at George Rondinelli’s store when I was 11 years old. (It’s over 22 years old now and works great.) With the rise of the Internet and catalogs, George feels the pinch of low-price offers. But what most people don’t know is that George can match about any catalog price you find out there and can also find about any product you want within a couple of days. The huge difference, in my mind, comes in not when I buy the guitar, but when I break it, which happens. George, like Graham’s, services what he sells. I can get my suit and my guitar fixed in Dubuque by people I know and trust. So can you.

But if we keep buying these sensitive items from a warehouse in New Jersey, George and Ben will not be open in ten years just to fix the stuff we bought from the big box e-retailers. We will lose our customer service in our effort to save a buck. Not every local store can match the online prices. And there’s a painfully fine line between what you might wish to always have local access to for service and what you don’t need.

But we must choose: what is the “tax,” the markup we’re willing to pay to retain our local options, our ability to talk to a real person face to face about the things we care about? If the answer is that you’re not willing to pay more, you cannot complain when the day comes that you rip the ass out of your J.C. Penney (or Jacque Pennay, as my father lovingly says) and you can’t run down and get an emergency repair while you wait from a friend. The rub is if you don’t care, then the choice is made for the rest of us as well. We all lose.

What products and services are important to you? Treasure them, support them, champion them. Certainly there are some ways we shop that will continue to be changed by “progress.” But for the ones that affect our daily quality of life, we are the only ones who can determine if it’s still there tomorrow. Choose wisely.