Woke up excitedly to celebrate a brand new holiday: Buy Nothing Day! And as if on cue, Joey, the lil pup I’m dogsitting, tore apart a dollar bill. Here she is, with her handiwork. I taped the buck back together, but you can see the rip.
Then I checked my email — to discover yet another reason why I don’t subscribe to the LA Times. In a very dubya-like matter, the LAT editorial today celebrates the “United Shoppers of America“: “It’s easy to deride consumerism. Yet the crowds at the stores today and in the weeks to come will not just be grasping for the latest mass-marketed gadgets and gewgaws. They will be taking a leap of faith and making a vote of confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy.”
Idiots. Since when’s buying useless crap a subversive act?
Joey and I went for a walk, and I thought about taking the Starbucks Challenge. The way they’ve been going, I figured my chances of actually getting (and paying for) a fair trade cup o’ joe was pretty slim. After all, the Starbucks in Anaheim near my mom’s place flunked another challenge I took yesterday. The barista said they didn’t have any fair trade coffee in store.
But Joey pulled the other way, so I grabbed a free LA Weekly and we trotted on home. Check out my morning’s toil, to the right.
My mom and sis are on their way up here — We’re gonna watch a movie I borrowed from a friend. All in all, it’ll be a nice day — and I won’t be a penny poorer –
Filed in: buynothingday consumerism money starbuckschallenge starbucks coffee fairtrade crossword dogsitting
November 25th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
Great Blog! I’ll be visiting often!
Bean well,
Jenn
November 25th, 2005 at 9:01 pm
BTW: New stats are up, and the IE problem is fixed. Too lethargic to make full post on my blog ;)
November 26th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Hey jenn — Thanks! Glad to see another 100% fair trade certified store on the web :) Any plans to open a walk-in store soon?
Thanks again for the work on this, Groby :) Now I just need to tag the rest of the October posts –
November 26th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Hey there Siel!
Our first plan was to open our own shop to start, but, well $ got in the way, so the quickest way to get more Organic Fair Trade coffee out to the public was to got web based. We do intend to open our own store within a year or two. We plan to build green from the ground up, which, as you know will be a little more work, but sooo worth it in the end. We do have a retailer in ID who w/b retailing our bagged coffee and offering brewed as a specialty. In the works to provide all her coffee and get her set up 100% organic Fair Trade. Wish us luck with that!Make sure to enter our contest to get some free coffee! http://www.thevirginbean.com Love to know what you think! Still working on the site, and a shopping cart that will make it easier to click and buy. Once I get that up and running, we’ll be offering tea and cocoa as well. Fair Trade Organic of course! Looking forward to reading more and more on your blog! Mind if I link back?
Bean well,
Jenn
December 1st, 2005 at 10:03 pm
Hey Jen — Best of luck with the store, and link away! Hope one day I can visit and say hello :)