"Brick-and-mortar retailers are being taken out the back and shot."

[HereSince1628]

8. I try to avoid buying things that can't be fixed

The last thing that I bought in a Wal-Mart was a frying pan imported from Brazil, back in 2001. I still use it. Almost everyday. It's been an exception to most of the stuff I write below...

The problem with the stuff from most of the discount big-boxes is they sell stuff that doesn't make economic sense to fix.

My experience with the big boxes, including Wal-Mart, is they don't sell much that can be fixed. And the throw-away economy that their cheap stuff encourages, runs the folks that fix things right outta town.

But much of the stuff that's so cheap to buy that it can be shipped around the world and still beat the price of repairing the broken stuff you've got is mostly junk.

I'll admit that some stuff, especially electronic stuff is built of basically irreparable components too costly to replace when they fail components. So, if you want that stuff, you've got to accept that it's basically junk waiting to happen which is to say when a piece of silicon inside fails.

As a nation we've come to greatly appreciate being consumers of junk and retailers gladly sell it to us. If you need or want something that's going to be more easily replaced than fixed, the big box stores are where to go.