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I was a bit surprised by that statement as well. When someone says "small business," the first thing I think of is a mom and pop shop.
I'm not sure about 'online small business' either. Most of the ones that are not actual corporations are selling via Amazon or eBay or Etsy, so you're still supporting megacorporations. If you're lucky, your town still has small businesses you can support with prices you can afford.
And that last part is a big part of the problem. The person above says you might not get very price competitive products. When so many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, you have no choice but to get the most price competitive products.
Consumers should not be shouldering the blame here.
I agree with you. Also, even small local businesses often support the systems that are at the root of the problem. I'm not going out of my way to shop at the local grocery store when the owners are actively harming my community by expressing and supporting all manner of bigotry.
At the farmers' market in a nearby town, there's a big to-do because a white supremacist farm opened a stall there and the farmers' market is allowing it. It even resulted in a second farmers market forming. It's ridiculous. They should kick the Nazis the fuck out of their farmers' market.
It's a really hard concept for some people that by inviting people like Nazis to the table, they are de facto excluding marginalized groups. For people not in one of these groups, I think it takes an effort to understand why that is.
i'm pretty much exclusively ordering stuff from "smaller" online shops that aren't "mainstream". i mainly find their products through an amazon link on duckduckgo, but order it on their website. it's often way cheaper too.
stuff like filament from esun's store
keychron keyboards on their own website instead of some reseller
and occasionally a reseller, but then it's usually otto, coolblue, notebooksbilliger, or similar websites. whichever have decent prices.
buying stuff locally is literally impossible in most cases. many stores went insolvent long ago, and the ones still remaining have a 2x markup most of the time. if they even have it in stock.
hobbyist shops might be possible to buy raw materials from, but (my niche of) PC accessories and 3d printing stuff ar hard to come by locally.