The "Blitsy" Question...what do you think?

If you are not familiar with Blitsy then let me fill you in. It's a huge online store that has amazing sales and prices. My point is not to promote it but to raise a dilemma:
assuming you have a craft store where you live where would you buy your supplies, in your local craft store where the prices might be higher or online where the prices might be cheaper?

On a first glance there is no question right? I would buy my craft supplies where it's cheap! But...if we all buy craft supplies online where it's cheap what will happen to the brick and mortar craft stores? they'll have to close for lack of sufficient income. When the number of stores decline, companies sell less of their products and they eventually close too. This starts a snow ball where the end result is the reduction of the entire craft industry.

We've all seen it during the last few years. of course there were other reasons like over saturated market, and online stores are stores which sell companies' products. However, When supplies are only bought online, something of the experience gets lost. When there is no brick and mortar store around, there is no community, no classes or crop nights. It's true that online communities are flourishing and so does online classes but the market is changing and shrinking. too many companies and websites have closed recently...

So back to my original question...would you buy at your local store where you might need to spend more on one hand but support the store on the other, or would you buy cheaper supplies online and let the market work out these things and what happens happens? Share yout thoughts in the comments.

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