Use Your Consumer Power for Good
Photo Credit: Annie Spratt @anniespratt
“We will not cross the line,” our dad told my brother and me when we asked why we couldn’t go into the grocery store where we’d bought groceries just the week before. “People are striking for better work conditions and better compensation for their work,” he explained, “and one way we can support them is by not shopping in that store until their demands are met.” A young child then, I didn’t realize that my dad was teaching me several important lessons in that moment, two of them being
Unions matter.
Consumer choices matter.
Had we and other community members continued to shop at the grocery store, spending our finite consumer dollars there, we would have commuicated to the company owners that they did not need to meet their employees’ demands; the company owners would have understood that it was fine with the community in which they operated their business for them to continue to earn profits without making any changes in how they treated and compensated their employees. But by supporting those on strike by not crossing the picket line to shop in the store, we prioritized human rights and worker rights over convenience. By choosing not to cross the picket line, we also let the grocery store’s owners and management know that we prioritize human rights and worker rights over convenience. And our actions simultaneously let the store’s employees themselves know that we support their rights over our convenience. We made a choice that impacted the entire societal ecosystem.
Growing up, I naively believed that everyone’s parents taught them these lessons. When I realized that this was not the case, I began to actively encourage people to use their consumer dollars as one way to support the creation of the world they want to see. “What difference does it make, if I’m just one consumer?” some would ask. But that’s the whole point: When one of us does something, it makes little difference; but when a majority of us—or even a sizeable enough portion of us to impact the status quo—does something, it changes things. Things may only change a little bit at a time, but they change. We don’t see rocks diminish in size because of the single droplets of water slipping over them, but over time we can see the impact that a cascade of water—gazillions of droplets of water united into one enormous body of water—have on huge boulders and mountainsides. It is when we take action as a collective that we make the difference we want to see in the world.
I recently saw this quotation
“It’s great seeing people realize that where they shop can be another form of activism, that it’s a way to put your money where your mouth is,” said Randy Williams, founder of Talley & Twine, a Black-owned watch company in Portsmouth, Virginia. “You’re helping Black businesses become self-sustaining, and that helps the whole ecosystem.”
in this news article (thank you, Dave Pell!) about Black-owned businesses seeing a surge in business after the summer 2020 protests of George Floyd’s murder by police. I was surprised and saddened when I read this. I realized that many people still don’t think of their consumer dollars as a way to influence the world they inhabit. If it took George Floyd’s murder being filmed and proliferated throughout the world—and millions of people worldwide peacefully protesting in support of Black lives mattering—for some people to have this realization, then at least Mr. Floyd will not have died in vain.
Let’s use our consumer dollars as tools. Let’s purchase from those who produce, distribute, and sell things in the ways we want to see them produced, distributed, and sold. Let’s purchase from those who need our support the most, those who are disrupting capitalistic norms, those who have traditionally not held much power in this society. We may not be able to be 100% perfect in our efforts, but if we perpetually strive to improve our practices, we may eventually reach 95% of where we’d like to be. And making purchases that, over time, are 95% aligned with our values is a whole lot better than giving up before we align even 1% of our consumer habits with our values. You don’t have to have taken a single math class after elementary school to know that.
Your consumer dollars can help communicate to corporations that you
don’t want products tested on animals.
don’t want any part of an animal to be an “ingredient” in the products you use.
don’t want toxic chemicals in any household products.
don’t want pesticides, herbicides, and other poisons on the food you eat (or in the air, in the water, and in the soil, since that’s where the residue goes).
don’t want products you buy to be packed in packaging that cannot be reused, recycled, or repurposed.
want your foods packaged in glass or metal, not plastic.
want Black-owned, Indigenous-owned, women-owned, LGBTQ-owned businesses to thrive.
want workers to be paid not just a decent but a good wage (no less than 1/5th of what the owners and management of the company are paid). —> Notice the language: “workers,” “owners,” and “management”— this alone tells you a lot about our problematic capitalistic structures, but as Ben and Jerry demonstrated capitalism does not need to equal massive wage disparity.
… and so on and so forth.
NOTE: If you’d like help in this endeavor, reach out to me. I will help you.
The best part about using your consumer dollars as a tool to co-create the world and help it become one that is kinder and more just? You can start now! With your next purchase! You don’t have to sign up for a challenge, you don’t have to pay a coach, you don’t have to read a book or watch a documentary or take a class. You can START NOW. Want to use your money as a tool to help you co-create a kinder, more just world? Ask yourself these two multi-part questions before making your next purchase:
How, where, by whom, and using which materials was this product made?
Who will make a profit—and what impact will it have on our local or global economy—if I purchase this product?
If you don’t know the answers to those questions, you can call the individual or company selling the product and ask. It may take a few minutes to determine whether or not purchasing the product would align with your values, but each time you find an individual or company whose products and distribution and employment practices align with your values, it makes your next purchase that much easier and quicker to make.
You can do this. A few minutes of your time can make a big difference in the world. Just start. Start now.
HINT: Buying from Amazon will almost never align with your values and will almost never help you co-create a world that’s good for everyone.