Amazon is a formidable competitor for small businesses. The convenience they offer is great. Ordering is simple, and you can find just about anything. But, where is your money really going? How do you filter out the junk? And how does Veritas compare?

Here’s a simple chart to help you think about where you buy. Please consider filling it out.

At Veritas, your purchases help fund the development of new classical curriculum. They help introduce more families to classical education. And, most importantly, they prepare young hearts and minds by introducing them to the whole counsel of God in all of His creation.

I thought you might also enjoy a walk down memory lane of how consumers have purchased things over the last 100 years. In a very short period of time our purchasing habits have changed dramatically. Here’s the history of shopping since 1900:

• 1900 – 1940s – Local corner stores, generally with a single location. Customers would tell the owner what they wanted and the store owner would get it for them from behind a counter. Woolworths changed that by becoming a department store with products on shelves for customers to touch and feel—much like today. Customers became more involved.
• 1940s – 1970s – Cars became a bigger part of life, families moved to the suburbs and air conditioning became a norm. Welcome the climate-controlled shopping mall. The first one was built in 1956. Strip malls became popular then, too.
• 1970s – 1990s – Enter the category killer, a retail chain store dominant in its product category. Stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot and Walmart are familiar examples. With the emergence of these retailers, many “mom and pop” shops had to close their doors.

Now these big chains find themselves in trouble due to online commerce.

• 1990s – Today – E-commerce! Our lives are now filled with e-commerce options. Recurring orders of toilet paper, vitamins and toothpaste show up on schedule any day of the week. We can buy products with the touch of a button and it can show up on a doorstep within hours. The UPS driver might not even knock to leave the box at your door.

I love the convenience of online shopping. We can search for the most obscure item, find it within seconds, buy it and have it the next day. Few of us saw this coming 20 years ago.

Competing is tough in this new marketplace—especially against something like Amazon, the Everything Store. When you are ready to purchase, we would simply ask that you think through the answers to the chart above. We think, together we can be “RESTORING CULTURE TO CHRIST ONE YOUNG HEART AND MIND AT A TIME.” We only ask that you help us help you.

*The chart covering the 20th century shopping patterns comes from this article.