I had a very candid and shocking conversation with a partner/officer operator of the grow store. He was absolutely charismatic with his words. The main topic was about related systems (such as aquaculture) and product availability. The first thing out if his mouth was:
"Don't buy eBay or amazon crap, buy from us. Those two places almost killed this business. We will not compete with them, and we sell the same or better products. We do not serve the bottom feeders who would put us out. I have oodles of catalogs in the back office we can look through and set you up a grow space that will do better than the other guy, but if you want my support, you have to support me too."
Long story short, I left with a lot more than the twenty dollars worth of goods I purchased. A couple catalogs, a maximum yield magazine, some nutrients sample vials, and a new perspective on yet another industry trying to be crushed by the internet.
Moral of the story: support your local businesses. They are fighting for your business and their own existence every day.
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