Dear editor,

I was raised in Wisconsin Rapids and went to all the formative schools graduating in 1966 from Lincoln High School. I started working as a paper delivery boy at the age of 12 with no less than 120 customers on my route.

So having said that, I would buy local during those days as I earned my own money so to speak for the things I wanted that I could afford. The price of most stuff, if not, all was based on procurement costs, overhead costs, and a fair return on in investment mostly around 20 to 25 percent of cost. Now after entering retirement age and trying to live on a fixed income, I have noticed most pricing in stores is pegged at what they can get based on need and the median income in the community.

Example, why is one pound of butter priced at $2.99 at Kwik Trip and $5.64 at Quality Foods, now granted they are not the same brand but for me butter is butter it is made the same packaged the same and has relatively the same shelf life.

I remember buying a 10 pack of Hershey’s Candy bars at the local food store when I was growing up and it cost me .39 cents and it didn’t matter which store I chose to buy it as they were all selling it for the same price or a few pennies less but never more than that. 50 based on inflation and the cost of living. The price for a 10 pack of regular sized Hershey’s Candy Bars assuming you can find them, which you can NOT, would or should cost about $4.50 today. But, Patrick you can’t buy one candy bar for less than $2.00, unless you go to Sam’s Club and buy a case of Candy Bars for about $30 or so.

So my conclusion to this matter is I will continue to buy from Amazon and am proud of it as the LOCAL merchants have done this to themselves in the interest of GREED. I don’t necessarily want to see Jeff Bezos get any richer either but until the local merchants get their respective act together and start selling their stuff at or near what it should sell for, then I have NO OTHER CHOICE but to buy from him. It is the same thing with restaurants. I used to own one, not here, but in another liberal state and the local health department applied the double standard and forced me out of business almost before I got started.

The Wal-Mart principle in the 1970s also broke up the so called price fixing in the communities they targeted with their stores and to this day have caused a major disruption in the so called mom and pop stores, as they can under sell all their products at below cost until such time as the competition closes its doors for good. I am still surprised the Copp’s and Aldi’s are still in business but there is a certain client that refuses to support Wal-Mart period. Maybe someday that will spin off to Amazon products as well. Meanwhile the UPS driver and the FedEx driver and the USPS folks are happy delivering my products door to door.

Kenneth L. Seif, Sr.
Wisconsin Rapids