Editor:

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who wants work done on their homes that whenever they call a contractor to bid out a job, they are looking at a decently sized bill. And if it is an emergency call, you might as well sell your first born in order to pay for it.

As a child, I worked for my uncle, being nothing more than a tool runner or the kid who had to carry concrete, but I worked nonetheless for five dollars an hour. To this day, I don’t know how much he charged but I always knew he had money to spare — even with his large family — in case of an emergency.

When I got older, however, I started learning about how bids work and how homeowners would get several bids in order to make sure they had the work they wanted for the price they wanted.

In a recent phone call with a friend of mine who lives in a neighboring state, he was telling me about his company and how he was doing a drywall job. I started asking him about how much it would cost for him to do that here in Evanston if I needed it done on my home. He told me he would have to almost double the price to make profit.

At that point I was somewhat baffled but I asked him why.

He said, “Well, I would have to drive almost an hour to get all the materials I need at a price that is still profitable.” 

He told me nearly everything you need to build a wall is twice the price that it would be at a Home Depot or Lowe’s, and contractors in Evanston oftentimes have to charge more because of this.

Now, I believe as a contractor and also as an Evanstonian that we should shop local whenever we can. I do business with The Lumberyard and with Cazin’s/Ace quite frequently. But thinking about the economics of this, would bringing in a Home Depot or Lowe’s be the worst thing to happen in Evanston? After all, we are the central hub for anything within 45 minutes of us. 

Well, what would happen to our local businesses that provide these types of materials? It’s quite simple, really; they would be forced to compete.

Competition in the marketplace is always a good thing; after all, why would a homeowner want several bids from contractors instead of just one? It forces the price to go down and the consumer to get the best goods at the best price.

I for one want the best price for the product I am buying. I also understand that economically it would allow for people to have employment where there is none right now.

In essence, what I am trying to get across is that large corporations charging less can be just as bad for an economy as small companies charging more.

Patrick Ballinger

Evanston