Ethical Holiday shopping choices for parents: Attached Moms

Welcome to the October 2012 Natural Living Blog Carnival: Ethical Shopping Choices

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month members are writing posts about how they make purchasing choices.

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We are bombarded with advertisements of low cost, quick shipping, freebies and more, but how often do we see signs and advertisements of:

• Sweatshop Free!
• Mom-owned business!
• Vegan products!
• We use ethics and would love your business support?

A company may start out wanting to do good, but often, the bottom line has to drive business decision making. So, what makes money is often sold, luckily, though, we can sometimes find small (and large) businesses that may forego some of their profits to do the right thing. Some business do the right thing.

In the realm of a green family, I consider the following characteristics

• close shipping
• manufactured/created near the source
• No unnecessary animal testing

Often, I will search sites such as www.etsy.com and www.hyenacart.com to find mom-owned businesses to support. Finding even just mom-owned businesses also helps keep dollars local and employ local labor. Many small shops are more flexible with their mom workers. 

In addition, shopping local is also a way to help minimize our shopping's impact on the environment. Buying used is also a great option. 

Locally, Hissyfits is a two-location store that offers moms the chance to find unique items, most of which are second hand. Buying used is green! 

Plus Hissyfits offers great events to get used toys like black Friday toy reveal and the Hullabaloo which features local artisans. Everything at Hullabaloo is hand made! Hint, Hullabaloo is coming November 11, 2012 to the Phoenix area! :)

If you live somewhere else, check online (or the yellow pages!) for second hand shops and consignment stores.

Online, especially easy for moms of more than one and shopping in person is hard, there are places like www.flipsize.com which offer families the opportunity to send in their gently used items and receive credit toward "new to you" items or toward gift cards.

In the end, the idea of shopping, especially for the holidays can easily slip away. We see all the advertisements. We want someone to be happy, but really, THINGS do not buy happiness. Find something heart-felt and not only will you have a present that means something, you may also have a store that stays in business and a happy shop-keeper!

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Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival! Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed: