Comments on: Big Green Purse: Shopping power = shopping less?

By: meli

meli — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:03:18 +0000

I disagree with your nice idea of renaming the book to ‘think before you shop’ given that we as consumers don’t like being told directly what or how to shop around.
I’m a very minimalistic shopper, more of a quality versus quantity mantra follower, so I’d be definitely interested in the perspective this book is written and how I can see influencing a new generation of hopefully, more conscious shopper.

By: Becky

Becky — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:44:58 +0000

Maybe this book would help me cut down on my shopping.

By: Lisa Everitt

Lisa Everitt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:10:55 +0000

I like the idea of this book. In our culture, you can’t NOT shop — most of us aren’t in the position of growing our own food, making our clothes and so on. Every once in a while I read some earnest person’s blog about how we can all feed ourselves, and I look at my tiny backyard and my two brave tomato plants and laugh. It’s much more achievable to get (some) people to think about what they buy and what they throw away.

By: Mire

Mire — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:51:36 +0000

This is so in line with how I do my shopping. As an environmentalist, an organic shopper and a non supporter of factory farmed animals for meat, I have seen the market change because the demand changes. 20 years ago Whole Foods was not what it was today and you couldn’t get the alternatives that you can find today at the market. The consciousness shifts slowly too. It’s cool to watch it unfold (albeit a little slow). I do all my clothes, gifts, books and electronic shopping online now through, http://www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com site this way every time I shop for work, a GREEN gift or for books or software, I get to actually give at the same time to my favorite nonprofit group. I choose the group Ndebele Art Africa, who works with a village of 500 people in Zimbabwe. I really like having not only the power of my shopping choices matter but also the power of a percent of every purchase going towards a group that needs the money that I otherwise wouldn’t have to give them.

By: Beth Sethi

Beth Sethi — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:24:17 +0000

This book sounds excellent. Consuming less is definitely the best option for the sake of our planet but the reality is we are all going to have to buy some things. I started my company (Bambootique) to provide an alternative option to mass-produced sweatshop products when shopping for jewelry, handbags, etc as gifts or for personal use. Even as a business owner I encourage my customers to not buy anything at all if they can, but when they are going to buy to choose the most eco-friendly and people-friendly products they can find. I’m looking forward to tracking down a copy and see what all the author suggests.

By: Cindi

Cindi — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:03:29 +0000

Very interesting! Cindi