How to shop for the holidays in a socially concious way

**Look for links right in the post with more down at the bottom!!**

If the person you are trying to buy a present for has cupboards full of food and didn't make a special request for something, chances are the best present for them isn't at the mall.

Lululemon is but one example of who's at the mall but they were just in the news because they *only* sold about $420 MILLION in the last quarter. They don't need your money. Many small business would be over the moon if they sold $42,000 in that same time-frame.

A quick side note, and this applies to everything from retail to restaurants and to the music and film industries. Every little fish of course wants to be a big fish. The bigger the fish you are the more successful you must be and the more money you should make. The more money you make the more freedom you have blah blah blah. It's a vicious circle and I certainly can't claim to not also wish for success for myself and my little vintage business. I don't hate on business for having been successful, but more so for how it often breeds greed.

That said, you do you think appreciates your support more, the big fish faceless corporation at the mall or the little fish?

It doesn't matter if you want to help people on the other side of the world with micro loans (imagine if a small loan was enough to start your own business and literally stop your family from starving to death) or your local artisan who is now able to put his/her kids in dance classes because of your purchase.

Photo of Danielle from her GoFundMe page

There are also other options that you can give to instead of buying a present at the mall - support a local artist, buy a handmade card (or make it yourself!) and tell them why you thoughtfully chose to support someone like Danielle from my blog post the other day. Danielle lives right here in Winnipeg and she has a brilliant mind but a body that doesn't quite function like most of ours. She needs a wheelchair to get around but the wheelchairs provided by our health care oddly enough aren't designed for Winnipeg winter use. Instead of giving up and sitting at home on disability she volunteers her time to help others. She will undoubtedly help others if she's able to get her law degree - but that's next to impossible if she's housebound because her wheelchair is broken or because she can't get through the snow. Why doesn't she just suck it up and buy herself one then you ask - well, what job do you know of that is going to pay her well enough to buy a $30,000 wheelchair when she can't always make it to work because she's stuck at home waiting for someone to come and fix her unreliable chair? See, another circle.

If children can ask for donations instead of presents for their birthdays (that's a big thing now) surely you can buy a goat (Oxfam), buy a homeless person dinner (Siloam) instead of getting your Aunt Mabel a Walmart gift card (The Oxfam link will take you to their site where you can buy more than just goats, lots of great items)

Buy a goat for someone (image from Oxfam website)

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with presents, but if you're going to give something tangible consider shopping local, as in locally made or sourced not something from the local mall. Remember a $40 present from a local shop or creator puts that money into the hands of someone you know*

*since Winnipeg has probably about 3 degrees of separation at best.



 
You can even shop from 100's of local shops from the comfort of your couch - if you've not yet heard of etsy it's a great place to be impressed by the ingenuity of those around us. They also have a lot of vintage items. Check out this link to search etsy listings just in Winnipeg: https://www.etsy.com/search?q=&order=most_relevant&locationQuery=6183235&page=1

The Scrap Came Back - a local upcycling shop on St. Anne's that says "All of our products are hand-made pieces constructed from hand-picked scrap. Many of our pieces are made from Manitoban artists, many of whom have disabilities. A few of our pieces are made by people overseas; all of these products are strictly fair-trade." http://thescrapcameback.com/

Similar to Oxfam, Plan Canada offers the chance to purchase items to help those in need in other parts of the world. Access to education, clean water, healthcare - all things we typically take for granted.  http://plancanada.ca/giftsofhope/

By no means is my list exhaustive - there are so many ways to give local, shop local and to help those in developing nations.