When you spend your hard-earned dollars at a family-owned business in your area, you stimulate your local economy by providing that business with the means to pay their employees and purchase wares from other businesses in your area. When you shop online at a small business, you are also helping them by providing them the means to continue to hire and keep employees.
Big-box home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowes lure customers into the store with the promise of saving money by buying in bulk. But do they really pay off if you are seeking specialty products used by professionals, or can you get better deals by shopping at smaller stores and local shops? In other words, is shopping big worth it for you for specialty construction materials such as surface protection? Here are some pros and cons to consider.
Price
Price is often the biggest factor when choosing where to shop. Big box stores targeted to homeowners don’t carry most surface protection or dust control products required by professional builders. The small inventory they do sell is often marked higher than your surface protection specialty store. Although you may save hundreds of dollars on electronics, appliances, and other major purchases at a big-box retailer, if you need specialty products, shop small.
Selection
Big-box stores typically carry items in large sizes or quantities. Discounts are for large purchases such as multiple pallets of the same product. Smaller stores can offer discounts on mixed pallets of many different products shipped to the same address or purchased at the same time. Small surface protection companies purchase from a large variety of vendors and carry a much larger number of protection products. For example, Big Box stores carry only paper-based floor protection products that have a very short useful life. Protecting a wood floor with these products can result in disastrous and expensive damage as the protection does not hold up well to construction traffic and must be secured with tape. A small surface protection supplier may offer 12 or more floor protection products including those specifically designed to protect wood floors for the duration of the construction or remodeling project. These small retailers can also have products drop shipped to you directly from manufacturers or distributors to save you shipping costs.
The Shopping Experience
Big-box stores attract large crowds during peak shopping hours, which can mean long checkout lines and mobbed parking lots. Sending a construction superintendent to a large box store with the hope of saving a dollar or two on surface protection doesn’t make sense. Consider what paying an employee to stand in a long line will cost in time and money.
Customer Service
When it comes to customer interaction, big-box stores can be very different from your typical local shop, retailer or on-line retailer. You may need to walk through 4 or 5 large aisles before you can find someone to ask a basic question. The big box store employee may not have the expertise to guide you on how to best protect your interior home finishes from damage. Visitors to small stores can expect helpful and knowledgeable staff that can describe what products will work best based on the customers’ needs. Ask yourself which you prefer, anonymity or up-close and personal attention. Your small specialty store can also order products with your logo and company information in order to help you advertise your business.
A big-box chain doesn’t have the same commitment to customer satisfaction that a family-owned business does; if one of their customers isn’t happy, they still have a million other customers in other cities and states to fill their coffers. A company owned by someone in your community depends on the business they receive from their friends and neighbors.
Conclusion
When you spend your hard-earned dollars at a family-owned business in your area, you stimulate your local economy by providing that business with the means to pay their employees and purchase wares from other businesses in your area. When you shop online at a small business, you are also helping them by providing them the means to continue to hire and keep employees. Your money won’t be spent on a millionaire’s golden parachute.
If you are looking for the most selection, helpful customer service personnel and great pricing, purchase your surface protection and dust control supplies from a specialized small business either in person or on-line.
