Putting your money where your mouth is

[Zukini]

Do you intentionally seek out companies who have shown themselves to be responsible and trustworthy, or whose values match yours? As part of the coverage of the Paula Deen lawsuit / racial slur issue this week, the media outlets have indicated there has been a surge in demand for her cookbooks and for her themed cruise vacations despite major corporations dropping their business relations with her. I'm glad that we live somewhere where we can exercise this type of freedom of choice. So I was wondering how much do folks actually pay attention or really research? Especially in the 140-character limit world we currently live in. Do news events and coverage like this increase your scrutiny of a business' values / operations or change your spending behavior with them?

For me, the coverage of poor working conditions in foreign clothing factories has made me very wary of super cheap clothing and the place of manufacture listed on labels. For our home, I'm selecting a fridge manufactured by Whirlpool here in the US vs some very appealing foreign imports. I do not shop at Walmart because of their treatment of employees (poor scheduling, no guarantee of hours) and vendors (squeezing margins to the cheap, cheap, cheapest). I try to support local small businesses as I feel they are creating jobs in the community and keep the tax revenues local (for both big and small items where the temptation to order online from Amazon or other commercial behemoths is very tempting). I like companies like Costco and In N Out because they pay higher starting wages (Costco's highest paid employee does not make more than 20x their lowest paid...). Publix grocery store in the southeastern states is employee-owned, has excellent customer service, and hires many marginally educated folks, many older workers and also employees with varying abilities onto their teams. I know of two people with only a high school education who are now Assistant and Store Managers at Publix with only a high school education and are now doing really, really well for themselves.

These things are important to me, but I sometimes wonder when I see folks trailing their kids into stores like Abercrombie and Fitch (hyper-sexualization of children; employee discrimination allegations) whether they just are not aware or just could not be bothered to take a stand in how/where they spend their money? Does it make a difference to you? And are there any corporations/brands that you patronize that you believe are actually trying to do the right thing? Are you willing to pay a little more for this (even though we honestly shouldn't have to!)?

[ahisma]

Yes, but it's hard! We found a locally made water heater recently, it was a hassle but we were very happy when we found one.

I do find that I have to draw the line sometimes though. I can't screen all of the kids' clothes, although we try to avoid the biggies (no Wal-Mart, ditching H&M now, etc.). I buy most of my work dresses at a local fair trade clothing shop, which means that I have a super small wardrobe. That's fine for me but I can't afford it for growing kids.

At the end of the day, I do as much as I can within the confines of my budget and time restraints. Food is a really big issue for us, I'm proud to say that a good 70% of our diet is local now. That took years and years of work though.

On a certain level, I think it's easier for us because we have a small house. There's just only so much that we even can bring in. That makes it easier to be selective, I think.