What is holiday shopping to an environmentalist and entrepreneur?
Small Business Blues
While I was working on my November social media content calendar, I learned that Black Friday was being counterattacked with “Buy Nothing” Day, and I smiled at the idea. Yet, the business owner in me thought of other small business owners who use the start of the holiday shopping season as a push to meet their year-end goals. One day couldn’t possibly hurt sales, right? Well, not exactly, but for small business owners, these past 18 months have been a non-stop series of unfortunate events with very few opportunities to recover. Last year’s expanded unemployment benefits helped stimulate the economy and encouraged consumers to shop at small businesses that usually have higher price points, yet when the federal government pulled benefits, shoppers started to become more cautious with their money, and folks still didn’t go back to work. Small businesses were left short-staffed, and then the rusty supply chain fell apart, which left several shelves empty. After trying to keep a business open through a pandemic and economic recession, entrepreneurs have the right to take a moment to scream and pull their hair out when they see there’s an entire “Buy Nothing” movement. Even if it is just for a day.
But did I say all of this to say the Buy Nothing Movement is a detriment to small businesses? No! In fact, I feel that any movement that encourages us to rethink our consumption is a good one. While typing this, I have received several emails from businesses both large and small with their Black Friday deals. Admittedly, I have been tempted to open them and window shop, but I already have a list that I’m working on, and I intend to stick to it. Instead, I changed my philosophy towards gift-giving altogether. I love to spoil my friends and give them multiple gifts, which only results in high credit card bills and an uneven amount of gifts for some friends who were easier to shop for, but what if I just gave one thing to each person? I even encouraged my friends to make and share wishlists, so I can budget for their gifts. I also take this as an opportunity to educate my friends on where to shop small and sustainable. Unfortunately, shopping small does not equate to a green purchase. Etsy offsets transportation emissions for orders, yet companies may still have wasteful supply chains and packaging. We can do better by asking for less packaging with our orders or no invoices.
The Businesswoman Perspective
While I sit and type up ways to for more folks to shop sustainably for the holidays, I look inwards as a businesswoman. As much as I would love to pay off my student loans with Joforia Jewels, I can’t reconcile with pushing people to consume beyond their means. I would rather folks buy pieces because they love my art, and not because it was so cheap, they couldn’t pass it up. I never intended for Joforia Jewels to be a national name in Big Box retailers because it was just a way for me to take control of my financial destiny, which is what small businesses mean to a lot of entrepreneurs. If we go back to the Triple Bottom Line, there are so many ways that supporting small businesses help sustain human ecosystems. We help marginalized groups improve their quality of life and their communities. Thanks to Joforia, I have been able to donate to mutual aid projects and collaborate with other Black entrepreneurs. Once I started to earn more money, I was able to invest in recyclable packaging. I learned to get creative with repurposing found objects for vendor displays and product staging.
The most important thing is that I look at the true cost of my jewelry. I am working towards sourcing my materials from green businesses where I can trace the supply chain back to the original mines. I am also trying to make jewelry from found objects instead of using only gemstones and glass beads. It takes baby steps and a lot of research, but I’m excited by how much I can change with my little business. The next step is transparency because my customers deserve to know where their jewelry comes from. They might not be supply chain nerds like me, but we all have a conscious and want to know how our purchases impact the planet.
Our Next Steps
We think that it’s more expensive to shop small, but you can afford to support small businesses when you buy less.
Back in the olden days, folks got one new dress for Easter and Christmas. Their Christmas gifts might include fruit and one new pair of shoes. We don’t have to go back to gifting oranges and ducks for holidays, but think about how meaningful one thoughtful gift is to several meaningless gifts that just collect dust or get re-gifted. Most times we think of only physical gifts when intangible gifts that don’t require packaging and still support small businesses are available. Think about someone’s love languages and build your holiday shopping lists around that. Here are some examples below:
Quality Time: Going out to eat
Physical Touch: Massages
Words of Affirmation: Positivity Workshops
Acts of Service: Pedicures or Manicures
I will share more about my sustainable business and holiday shopping journey as I learn more. I am willing to acknowledge that I don’t know everything and will make mistakes. This has been a learning experience for me, and I want to share with my community, so we don’t have to change the world alone.
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