If we can get the same thing for less, we feel smarter with our money and we can splash out on things that we wouldn’t otherwise have the capacity to buy.

But the short-term gain comes at a price, which has become clear during the past week.

A changing consumer climate as more people buy goods online materialised on Friday when Myer announced it was closing its Orange store.

But shopping habits are also having a devastating effect on a completely unrelated industry: dairying.

A dollar a litre is certainly attractive, but for a farmer, that means getting up at the crack of dawn, milking the cows two or three times a day and all the associated maintenance for a return below what the milk costs to produce.

Dairy farmers are making headway in the amount of milk they can sell though milking practices and the type of feed they use.

But unlike other farmers, who can keep their produce until prices improve, dairy farmers are hamstrung by their product - it can only be stored for a short period of time, refrigeration itself is costly and the cows must be milked every day.

Fewer returns mean children are less willing to take over the family farm and the laws of supply and demand dictate when supply falls, prices will eventually rise.

The encouraging part is people are voting with their feet and for the sake of a few cents extra a week, we have the ability to make a world of difference.