It's a complex subject and I'm not sure there is any "Right
" answer.
I grew up in an era before the transportation system we see today. Banana boats still docked down at Pratt Street and the stevedores carried the bananas down the ramp to where dockworkers sorted them. (of course all us kids were there to get the tarantulas and snakes that made the voyage). The foods we got were locally grown and depended on the season. When in-season you gorged because it would be 12 months before that item returned.
But cheap transportation, chain stores and demand led to sourcing foods from all over the world and "It's always in-season somewhere". That in turn led to produce designed to ship well and last above the taste.
The family farm and the neighborhood grocery disappeared.
Many folk never even noticed. Many today never experienced neighborhood stores, never tasted fresh ripe produce, never knew the joy and expectations of the season and so cannot miss what they never knew existed.
Cheap ubiquitous transportation and currency convertibility is a fact.
Folk like the Goulets and the folk at Classic Pens and Richard and so many others have provided us with fantastic resources, helped preserve and distribute institutional knowledge and wisdom. That costs. It costs time, energy, money, resources, care, emotion ...
When I go to buy a new pen, even many not all that new pens, I look first to known individuals where the transaction helps both of us; next to those brick and mortar stores and long term fountain pen folk who over time have given so much back to this whole community. If there is no way I can get what I seek from one of those sources then I look at non-US based brick and mortar stores.
But I don't buy simply because "I can get it cheaper over there". I first ask myself if I can just wait a little longer, save up a little more money and buy from one of those sources mentioned above. In almost every case the answer to that question has been "Sure, I can do that."
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