What's a reasonable "support local independent sellers" penalty?

[rhu]

Given that just about anything costs less at Amazon.com, but that it's a good thing to support local independent sellers, how does one balance the two? How much extra is reasonable to spend to support the locals?

Yesterday, we went to the New England Mobile Book Fair and bought a bunch of stuff for about 5% more than the same things cost at Amazon. That seemed reasonable.

But I just comparison-shopped Settlers of Catan (which I first saw played over Shabbat and now want to learn) at Amazon ($33) and at Eureka ($42); that's about 27% more at Eureka. (Yes, Eureka would give me back a percentage against purchases next quarter, but I don't shop there often enough that I'm certain I'd use that before it expired.) That's a much steeper penalty.

In halacha (Jewish law), over- or under-charging becomes actionable when it's one-sixth. Does a 16% penalty for buying local seem a reasonable cutoff?

I'm curious what tradeoffs others consider reasonable for supporting local small businesses.

Comments

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I think this might be a situation in which ancient law doesn't apply to present-day conditions. Nobody a few hundred years ago could have anticipated how the Internet and world marketplace would affect today's economy. Because of these crazy times in which we live, the letter of the law (1/6) isn't necessarily applicable -- although by all means, the spirit of the law does and is worth thinking about.

And again, I don't mean to argue the point (we'd be talking past each other) -- just saying it's a very interesting question that you ask.