To buy or not to buy ...
Several years ago a very enthusiastic young man opened a men's store here.
I went in a couple of times and looked around.
But, guys don't need many things, when you get right down to it -- a few ties, a blue blazer, some grey pants, some khaki pans, two suits for funerals and weddings, a pair of black shoes and a pair of burgundy shoes, sock, underwear and a couple of belts that match the shoes.
And guys, in general, aren't shoppers. I need a white shirt, I just go buy a white shirt. I got a hole in my grey socks, I go buy a pair of grey socks.
Then the enthusiastic young man found out that he wasn't going to make it in the menswear business and he had a big sale.
I'd never bought anything in his store, so I didn't go to the sale.
Thus an ethical conundrum I've never found a solution for.
After 50 years, the Cow Lot out on East Scott is going out of business. For all those years, Nat Fleming has run the place.
Now he's having a big sale. He wants to clear everything out from wall to wall, and he's not bringing in a bunch of those ringers like so many businesses do when they turn their "going-out-of-business" sale over to a bunch of rag dealers from the Bronx.
Here's the ethical issue:
I have never set foot in the Cow Lot. Never bought one thing.
Is it ethical for me now to go in and take advantage of the situation by buying things at prices lower than I'd have paid before he was going out of business? Is this fair, since I never supported the man during good times?
But, on the other hand, if I don't, am I doing him a disservice by not helping him get rid of his inventory?
I don't know, but my default position is the first. If I didn't buy anything there when he was offering goods at regular price, I have no right to go in and take advantage of him when he's put everything on sale to go out of business.
Interestingly, I face no such ethical dilemma when it comes to one of the leech stores in the mall. These are the stores that come and go and employ gum-chewing teens and never support the community and never buy an ad.
I never go into one of them, but if they have a going-out-of-business sale, I plan to help them with godspeed.
