The Importance of Buying Local part one

Keith: [00:00:20] Good morning, Keith Ramsey with garden supply company. Today,  we were going to talk a little bit about buying local and all the benefits of buying local. People always talk about the financial benefits or the environmental benefits, to me, one of the most important benefits is the relationship that you have, to be able to walk into a podcast facility that's

[00:00:55]owned by a local individual and that makes a difference in the community. Seeing somebody that, on a regular basis and most of the business that I do, I try to do that way. And it's not based on, financial benefit but it just feels good.

[00:01:08] It's a smaller scenario. The service is always higher. Yeah, service is something that Over the last few years I think is, has just about been eliminated for most businesses. 

[00:01:19] Joe: [00:01:19] It seems like if you're cutting corners, it doesn't seem to be the logical one to cut, but it feels like from the chain stores, it is one of the things on the list that seems to go down in quality for sure.

[00:01:29] And it could just be that it's harder to manage. I'm sure they're not purposely neglecting it, but 

[00:01:33] Keith: [00:01:33] still I don't know. It's years ago somebody told me there's a there are three things on a triangle. There's price, there's quality, and their service any great business can probably provide two of those pretty well.

[00:01:45]You have to pick two, you got to pick two, you either have to reduce the quality. The reduce the service or reduce or increase the price. So there's a balance there, and sometimes you pay a little bit more with our business in particular. The thing that I find about service is that the service is what creates the value,  it's a science-based business and it's heavy and science and design.

[00:02:07]I've got to have be pretty creative, I've got to be able to put together textures and colors and different things like that. And then I got to have the science to know that, that something's going to grow in wet or dry or sun or shade. I'm providing that customer with all that information for them to be successful.

[00:02:21]That just creates a ton of value. I expect the same thing out of bond brothers. When I go down to bond brothers, I've been to a lot of local breweries where the beer isn't really necessarily that great. They're trying their best, but they haven't perfected it.

[00:02:35]When I walk in there, the atmosphere is amazing. I see people that I know that are local in the community. And I know that, that it's individually owned and, and so partner and, It wouldn't have the same 

[00:02:46] Joe: [00:02:46] vibe if you were going down to the Miller Lite brewery.

[00:02:49] Keith: [00:02:49] Yeah. And so you're, people that are from the community, the guys at bond brothers are all plant people. We do a lot of partnering with them.  We just partnered with them on a living wall and their new location on Chatham street.  I know they like plants, they know I like beer. It's a good partnership.

[00:03:04] Joe: [00:03:04] It creates character in your neighborhood, as well as like you were saying, everybody like the rising tide floats all boats. If absoluteness for everybody, when you've got local business owners that are interested in what each other are doing and find ways to work together.

[00:03:16] Keith: [00:03:16]  Sure. Flower, cupboards small company that I've done business with for 25 years. John, when I go in there, he's going to have the best flowers that you can source, they're not aged out. They weren't cheap. They're going to be a little bit more expensive.

[00:03:31]But they last three times as long as anything else that I buy. It's a better value, he knows his trade. I grew up in a florist and. My mom had a florist. And to me, it going into a small florist means something me, but the quality and the value that, that I get out of John's flowers are pretty amazing.

[00:03:46]Joe: [00:03:46] When I go to a small business where they're passionate about what they do and you're dealing sometimes with the owner or somebody that the owner is training to be passionate about something that they're passionate about. You feel like you matter more? Absolutely.  They really want to help you solve your problem.

[00:04:02] That's the, sometimes when you're in a larger maybe box store type of scenario, they're trying to, yeah. They're trying to either just get done with their job. And they don't really care if you solve your problem because they're not really incentivized to or passionate about helping you 

[00:04:18] Keith: [00:04:18] solve your problem.

[00:04:18] When you talk about the box stores, I'll watch Lowe's, which is a local company. 

[00:04:22] Joe: [00:04:22] Lowe's the home improvement, not the food store. 

[00:04:25] Keith: [00:04:25] Yep. It Lowe's home improvements. So local store, so yeah. They're a local North Carolina big box store.

[00:04:30]I've watched them over the years. Perfect. The garden industry, which is pretty interesting. They've slimmed it down, dumbed it down and they do a really good job with a mixed pot or hanging basket, a throwaway plant. They charge more for it than you actually would think it's, but it's nice.

[00:04:45] It's in a, it's in a shiny pot. And they figured out a little niche that works for them. But when it comes to selecting plants if you went in there and ask somebody for advice on a plant, you're probably going to fail. They just, they weren't able to do that.

[00:04:57] They were never able to do that. And so they figured out a different scenario that works for them. But you're not going to get the advice. You're not going to get that enthusiastic person that knows plants. And that really wants to point you in the right direction.

[00:05:09]We partner with a couple of garden centers that are in the area garden hut, Nelsa's in Fuquay. When you, when I walk into Nelsa's place, I can always find something that I like and I own a garden center. Last year I was in there and they had fresh homegrown tomatoes and I left with tomatoes in a plant that I didn't have.

[00:05:28]But you can expect that kind of thing. Logan's trading is another one, downtown Raleigh very similar to our business. But totally different in a lot of ways, and a lot of our customers shop all three of those places. Yeah. And 

[00:05:39] Joe: [00:05:39] even when investing in garden supplies from what might be your competition, at least you feel like your money is going into the local economy.

[00:05:47] Absolutely. Whereas when you're going to a box store, it's not helping your city. 

[00:05:51] Keith: [00:05:51] No, not at all. 

[00:05:52] Joe: [00:05:52] So it's and they pay some employees and that's great for. Local 

[00:05:56] Keith: [00:05:56] stuff, but right. So when a target comes to an area they won't come until basically, our tax base pays for their building.

[00:06:03]They won't put a building up until it's free. So they get enough tax, incentives to get that started that their building is paid for. And we sure as heck didn't get that, we've paid ou...