How to buy more ethically this holiday
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Leading online merchants they are attractive, with benefits such as a two-day delivery, the opportunity to try it out at home before you pay, and the convenience of buying pajamas. The problem is that these amenities cost people, communities, and the environment. But there is good news: you can do something about it, and you have more control than you think.
The traditional vote — with your vote — is as important as ever, but there is tremendous power to decide where and how you spend your money. Consciously shopping is a way to make small choices that create big changes.
Stay Close to Home
Shopping locally is the best way to help your community. The US Small Business Administration It started National Small Business Week in 1963 and since 2011 has sponsored American Express Small Business Saturday. Small Store, Which includes Small Business Saturday, helped traders in the recession in 2010 and spent $ 200 million promoting small businesses in a pandemic.
He is the co-founder of Bill Brunelle We are independent, developed to celebrate local brands and provide marketing tools that provide infrastructure and support to small businesses. Members receive everything from slogans with slogans like “Buy good things from real people” and social media guidelines to tips on point-of-sale systems. IWS is now a network of more than 10,000 stores, and mobile app to help consumers find stores.
Brunell says there’s an emotional component to shopping near home, and since the pandemic, people have been more motivated than ever. “Keeping more money in the community means better roads, better schools, better parks, higher-paying teachers,” he says, “Your hard-earned dollar goes even further when it’s kept locally.” For additional motivation, IWS provides a list 10 things this happens when you shop locally.
The Andersonville Retail Economics Study, Published in 2004, determined that $ 68 for every $ 100 spent locally is left in the community. When those $ 100 is spent on a national chain, only $ 43 is left in the community. Brunell warns consumers about “local cleaning,” when big stores use “local” in their marketing, but how they define it when it’s vague.
“You know that local power is real when national and international chains like Walmart and Target use the word native in their marketing, because people realize they want to shop locally, “says Brunell. It encourages shoppers to think critically about not being a victim of local cleaning.” A supermarket can advertise products ‘we buy local,’ “says Brunell, could be. You just can’t buy a pineapple grown in Minnesota in January. “
Buy Second Hand
Shopping at locally owned stores is a start, even if there is a note, and it is a hard pill to swallow for many Americans: maybe want new things, you don’t have to need new things. Shopping in garage sales, used stores, real estate sales, second-hand stores and antique stores uses goods in circulation and is a great way to get to know your neighbors.
In Missoula, Montana, where I’ve lived most of my adult life, we have stores like this Winery Door, which uses the hashtag #nothingnewforyou and its mission is to “curate spaces and places with what is already here”, and @pieza, which renovates pieces of wood, leather and rope and modernizes upholstered furniture amusing, funky fabric. There are likely to be second-hand charity shops or similar stores around you, and you don’t always have to go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, even if those are options.
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