I won't get started on the sadness of this truth, but sometimes it feels like our dollars are some of the most powerful things we have. When we purchase products we cast silent, but telling, votes about what we find beautiful, what we put value in, and perhaps most importantly, what we support. When I lived in Africa, people back in the US asked me all the time how we shopped and how we dealt with "the market thing." It was a hard question to answer, and one that greatly evolved as I found myself making a different continent home for a few years. Transitions were huge, and our purchasing power and consumption changed greatly.
But Africa unintentionally reminded me in new ways about my previous life living next to conveyor belts in US stores. In Africa, I could go to the market and chat with vendors about their process and goods. I could kindly negotiate, and I was reminded repeatedly that a dollar does make a huge difference to someone who is supporting their entire family with one small business. The small market thing was more personal; I had to say no to someone’s face instead of to a numb MegaMart shelf. There was inherently more guilt associated. But I came to understand that there was also more humanity.
The MegaMart shelf is eternally more comfortable; there is a price and you take it or leave it while throwing packaged products into a pile in your non-judgmental cart. But what we forget when we shop like that is that there is still a little man or woman making the item. He/she’s just a few more steps removed, so the potential guilt at knowing someone is being paid pennies for their hour of work is farther away from our conscious thought. And remembering the gallons of petroleum used to ship our mass-produced items across oceans? Those silent things are even easier to ignore when it's just us and our cart. The Mega-Mart shelf is certainly the easier option. Thank goodness Africa reminded me, though, that not only is there something very powerful about the human interactions and learning that come from the process of purchasing face to face, but the quality of handmade items is often far superior. Shoes are a great example. In the time I wore out twelve pairs of cheap shoes (always purchased in clutch MegaMart moments when I felt I should not spend money on a higher quality pair), I could have worn through one high quality hand-made pair. Not only would money have been saved in the long run, but so would landfill space, supplies, and petroleum to ship my many pairs of shoes to my MegaMart. When we buy super cheaply mass-produced items from far-away factories we must remember: while one item is cheap, we often have to purchase it over and over to get the same wear out of it as if we would have just bought the slightly more expensive product in the first place. It has taken me years to understand this... and thirty pairs of shoes!
Wanting to represent your family’s budget smartly in contrast with wanting to give a small local vendor their fair share can feel challenging, but I am starting to understand that buying local quality items the first time means less consumption and smarter spending power in the long run. Better yet, I'm able to cast my silent votes these days towards what I really want to support.
