Shopping Your Conscience

We don’t get TV here on Goose Creek (going on four years now, by choice) so I only know about Bill O’Reilly by reputation that spills over onto the web. And that’s where I read that some think he’s gone too far. Some people are shifting their support towards Big Box stores who have dumped his show on FOX (Lowes) and away from one that continues to think his stand is just fine (specifically, Home Depot.)

I’m going to follow this story. We have both these stores in Christiansburg, and even though I’ve been a regular at Home Depot, I’d certainly shift my spending towards Lowes–sending a letter or email to both stores telling them why I made this kind of decision.

Here are a couple of links from Americablog and Daily Kos describing current events on this topic.

Actually, Ann and I tend avoid supporting chain hardware stores (and grocery stores) in general if possible, and buy what we need as much as we can at Farmers Hardware in Floyd. You may pay a few more cents on some things, but if you figure in 48 cents a mile travel cost from home to C’burg and back, paying an extra dollar is more than offset by the $12 of operating expenses to make a special trip to “save” at either of these mega-stores–where most of the dollars you spend will leave the valley.

But if you can’t buy local and have to make a choice between one of the two superstores and the political statements of Mr. O’Reilly don’t mesh with your sense of charity, civility and rational judgment, you might consider shopping your conscience.