Our dryer died on Tuesday. It just stopped running in the middle of the cycle. My brother came over to see if he could fix it. He's a whiz with anything mechanical and had previously replaced the drum belt about 8 years ago.
Even though he went in and out the basement door and had no contact with my mom or I, he still wore a mask and gloves. He was concerned about being an asymptomatic carrier and exposing my mom and I to the virus because he works with a bunch of people who don't wear masks and think either the virus has been blown out of proportion or that it's all a hoax/conspiracy. Honestly, I don't know how someone can claim it's a hoax given the number of deaths there have been in the US alone, but I suppose that's a post for another day.
Once he examined the dryer, he went out to his car and called me to tell me the bad news. The dryer motor was dead and there was no resurrecting it. I can't complain though, the dryer is about 20 years old. I spent Wednesday after work shopping online for a reasonably priced dryer. As long as it dried the clothes, I didn't care if it had 12 drying cycles or not. We didn't need the "will periodically come on and fluff your clothes up to 8 hours after the drying cycle is complete" option. (Who leaves their clothes in the dryer that long after it shuts off?)
We settled on a dryer at Home Depot that was also sold by a locally owned appliance/furniture store. I've purchased furniture from the locally owned store in the past so I was familiar with their service. Home Depot offered free delivery and installation and would remove the old dryer. The locally owned store charges $50 for delivery and $20 for installation and removal of the old dryer. While I try to support locally owned businesses as much as I can, I didn't want to pay an extra $70 on top of the hundreds I was spending for the dryer itself. Needless to say, I grabbed my mask and headed out to Home Depot Wednesday after dinner. They had the dryer in stock but are not scheduling any deliveries until after June 20th. I did not buy the dryer. I can't go that long without one. I left and called the local appliance/furniture store from my car.
I explained that I was interested in a certain dryer and wanted to ensure they had it in stock and what the estimated delivery would be. They had it, but are selling items by appointment only. Estimated delivery would be in approximately a week. I made an appointment for yesterday after work. I ended up purchasing a different dryer than the one we were originally interested in. The one I bought is the same make and nearly the same model as the dryer we had and was only a few dollars more than the one I planned on purchasing. To thank me for my business, the store owner (he took care of me himself) gave me free delivery instead of charging the $50 and it's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow morning.
I felt good about supporting a local business. He was happy to have my business and I was happy I didn't have to pay for delivery after all. So I guess the gist of this whole post is to support your locally owned businesses if you can.
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