It might be unrealistic to think that buying local will benefit anyone, but I try to buy locally in the city live in (if available). I am hoping by doing so i might be able to keep a few more sales tax dollars in my home town, that would in turn be reinvested locally. I am lucky that I am in a service industry and so far no one has figured out how to "ship" onsite labor. I have customers that purchase repair parts online, at first I resisted installing them, then began installing them. I am not happy about the lost profit but not being willing to install things purchased on the internet would have led to a loss of profit on a larger scale. I am expressing my opinion and not preaching or being hypocritical saying I don't purchase on the internet to get a deal. Fortunately or unfortunately the internet is here to stay. I agree with John C. that it is wrong to go to a store use it as a showroom ask a lot of questions and then go on the internet. I am not trying to give you a hard time Afterburners, I really enjoy seeing other peoples point of view, sometimes it shows me something I had not thought of.
One last thing if there was not any local commerce, then the burden of paying for the infrastructure might shift over to taxes being raised, services being cut back, and a general state of complete disrepair
. I temper my opinion with moderation as opposed to extremes of "everyone, always, never etc. we have choices and have to go with what works for us and if your choice is different from mine it does not make your or my choice wrong.