Shopping locally: Episode No. 38

Because I am a farmer, naturally I find myself in places like Tractor Supply. They have stuff that farmers need that some local stores with a partially overlapping inventory don’t carry. That creates temptation to buy items where inventories do overlap from the Tractor Supply type places because you already are in the store for a non-overlapping item.
 
But let’s pause for a moment and think about this again.
 
This morning I pulled out a new belt that I had on hand for the day that my old belt would give out. Apparently, I weigh less today than I thought when I bought this reserve belt. It is too big. I needed a leather hole punch.
 
I have a punch at the farm, but that is 90 miles away. Maybe it is time to have one here in town, I thought. So I got in the pickup and started for the store. Tractor Supply does carry a fair amount of stuff for animals, and with animals, people use stuff made of leather. So, Tractor Supply is likely to carry leather punches, I thought.
 
But then I also thought, when the community was threatened with devastation in the Defenders of Wildlife irrigation lawsuit, it was Johnson’s Hardware & Furniture, and particularly Phil Johnson, who led the defense of our community. The threat certainly was just as great to Tractor Supply as to Johnson’s, but I don’t recall Tractor Supply being visibly involved in defending our community.
 
Issue settled. Johnson’s Hardware it is for my leather punch.
 
The cheery and helpful Keith Osborne was there, and he helped me find the leather punches. They have so much stuff packed into that store that sometimes I need to ask for help.

At the checkout counter, guess what? Johnson’s was giving a 13% discount in celebration of the recent victory for our community in the irrigation case. I saved $1.66 on my leather punch.
 
So, that is Episode No. 38 in shopping locally. Even though both stores are in town, one is more local than the other, and it makes a difference to me where I buy.