Is it really cheaper?

Thanksgiving weekend 2005, my husband did a brave and stupid thing. He ventured to Walmart on Black Friday. Later he would say now he'll never do such a thing again.

The goal? A $25 DVD player. He was successful in his hunt, and came back with said $25 DVD player, and we immediately hooked it up, and popped in a DVD he rented from Hollywood Video.


A month later it broke. For a week or so, it started freezing randomly during a movie, before finally refusing to play any DVDs at all. We only used it a couple times a week.

The cheap piece of junk was summarily hurled into the trash can and we went out and researched DVD models, bought an Emerson model DVD player for about $75, and it still works quite well five years later (as does the VCR I paid $50 for 15 years ago).

You get what you pay for. And no Black Friday deal is worth the traffic, the rudeness, the ultimate cost of something. NOTHING.

In general, we are as a nation, obsessed with getting stuff cheap. Clothes, food, cars, toys, gas. But cheaper isn't necessarily better. Cheaper may be easier on our pocketbooks, but we ignore the greater cost.

We don't even care if it's good - it's CHEAP! Sort of. That cheap good comes at a higher true cost - socially, environmentally, politically, economically (odd, isn't it?). Economically, really? Really really.

I could get my next hose at Walmart or Tractor Supply and pay less for it than what I will when I buy it at the family owned hardware store down the street from my office. But I'll also have to drive farther to get to it. I can walk over to the local place. Walk! No gas! Less money!

And the best part? Supporting a local business, whose profits stay local, and who employs local people. When I buy that hose on Friday, I'm supporting not just a local business, but the local community. And this community's been hit hard by people driving 30-40 minutes away to businesses that aren't even regionally owned, much less local, just because it's "cheaper."

I'm pretty tight with money, but I'm not cheap. I'm thrifty. There's a big difference.

I'm not afraid to pay for quality. It's why we pay $16 for a pound of coffee from local coffee roasteries. It's why we don't regret paying $75 for the DVD player we still have (but do regret paying $25 for the one that busted 30 days after it came home). It's why I'll spend more on fruit & veggies at a farmer's market or CSA, instead of getting it cheaper in a grocery store.

But a paradox does exist... while I'm not afraid to pay for quality, not all things that cost more are better (see the post about the Bread of Life), and some things that are great ARE cheap (like the tacos & burritos at this nifty little Mexican grocery on Louisville's south side).

Like my bread. Though it costs me less than $1 a loaf, I would pay at least twice that I were buying it from someone. Because it's quality.

Or, like my CSA. Every summer, I like to take a box or two, lay out the items, and figure out what it would have cost me at the grocery store. The difference is incredible - even at the cost of a full share. BUT - if the produce in that box weren't very tasty, I wouldn't spend the money on it. AND - if it weren't produced in such a sustainable manner, it wouldn't REALLY be so cheap. It's all about true cost and true value.

But that is another philosophical discussion. :)