[Gerry Zagorski]

Seems like a lot of these small Mom and Pop places are going under. Hard for them to compete with the big box and interweb companies. They have a lot less buying power, can only spend so much on advertising, need to have and maintain a storefront, economies of scale favor larger companies etc.

Bottom line is most have to charge more to make a decent living so the only thing they can compete on is their knowledge and service.... Not sure about the rest of you but that's worth something to me...

Think about it this way....... Lets say you're going to spend $20 more on a $200 reel at your favorite local tackle place. Instead you decide to buy it from BigBox Company X or nostorefront.com and save the $20. Now you're on your way fishing driving down the road at 6:00 AM and need to stop for bait or have a last minute rod tip put on and the place has a sign on it, OUT OF BUSINESS.

Sucks right??

If we want them to be there for small repairs, bait, personalized service and local knowledge, we need to support them on our other purchases as well albeit for a few dollars more...

Shop local, shop small business and especially shop our sponsors when you can. Don't let a few dollars be your deciding factor because at the end of the day it's not worth the trade off.