According to a new Funding Circle survey, 76% of Amazon Prime members in the US – and 77% of all consumers – “are willing to go out of their way and pay more for a holiday purchase at an independent, small local business than buy from Amazon.” Another 60% of those surveyed “said they are willing to pay 10% or more because they like the idea of supporting a local business and its local jobs, and keeping the money within their communities.” 
 
24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of the 25 most innovative cities in the United States based on the metropolitan areas with the highest number of patents issued per 100,000 city residents. Corvallis, home of Oregon State University was number 10 on the list.
 
U.S. grain farmers are plowing under crops, leaving them to rot or piling them on the ground, in hopes of better prices next year. It's one of the results, they say, of the Trump administration's trade war with China. (Reuters)
 
Kroger, owner of Fred Meyer and Food4Less in Oregon, is building its first robotic warehouse in Cincinnati. It is the first of around 20 such warehouses they will build. (LI)
 
With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor I am Troy Reinhart.