28: Shop Small
For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to shop small. Think about the brands and businesses you support and how they contribute to financial disparity.
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk in politics and the media about billionaires. Having extreme wealth affords powers, privileges and influence that may be detrimental to many (e.g. buying politicians or spending millions on the spread of climate denial information). But actions of billionaires can also do good (e.g. via philanthropy). In any case, wealth disparity is increasing. The world’s 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 50%, and this can cause all sorts of perverse outcomes for society. Companies run by the mega-rich, by and large, have long-supply chains and to varying extents, exploit nature and people.
Climate change itself contributes to economic inequality. Poorer, hotter countries are less well-off than if global warming had not occurred. So, tackling climate change will rely on addressing financial and human inequalities. We must be careful that our actions on climate change do not worsen wealth inequality. An increased wealth gap limits positive action on climate change because fewer people (esp. in poorer, hotter, harder-hit countries) have the means to take climate action or make decisions to reduce their ecological footprint.
One of the ways to tackle wealth inequality is by removing support for businesses that increase financial inequality. That’s why, for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to shop small. Think about the brands and businesses you support. Consider whether your dollars help or hinder financial equality, and therefore help or hinder positive action on climate. By supporting small, independent shops, you are more likely to avoid feeding billionaire-owned companies such as Amazon, Nestle, H&M, Costco, Nike and the like. You can both boycott the harmful mega-rich and support local businesses at the same time!
Many small shops (including those who support low-waste living) have been doing it tough through the past few years and would benefit from our support. Online retail for food and all products has almost doubled since 2019, as people have reduced small and local spending habits through the pandemic. Shopping from local, small business supports community resilience and allows people to abstain from the dominant economic systems that increase financial disparities. It also means you can have face-to-face conversations with the people supplying your food and other products, which makes it easier to know exactly what systems you’re supporting. It means you have more say in the systems you want and get to normalise them. So, let the local charm of small businesses shine!
On a personal note, we can say that it’s been seven years since we last did all our shopping at a large supermarket and we avoid the large chainstores wherever possible. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our food bill has stayed roughly the same as before, despite shopping at small, local suppliers. It’s still well below what the average family of five spends on food. We’ve shifted what we buy slightly, but our diet hasn’t changed too much, and we don’t spend hours preparing food from scratch each day. Our biggest shift in going waste-free was shopping small and local. And we’re just as surprised and were just as skeptical as everyone else, before we tried it. We wandered into a supermarket recently, for the first time in a couple of years, and realised that it’s very hard to see options beyond that paradigm when you’re in the habit of supporting it each week. But it’s well worth taking the leap and normalise shopping small. We’re so glad we did.
Storytime...
Imagine a town with a small row of shops at its heart, down the main street. There's a green grocer, a butcher, a baker, a grocer to buy dry goods, a hardware shop... you get the picture.
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