Buying local

We have the great pleasure of having family visiting this week. It is always nice to bring a little bit of home to Zurich, and even to have the one-on-one time with people that is so hard to get when you do a crazy-fast yearly Christmas visit to the US.

One of the topics that came up at breakfast with my nephew was buying humanely-raised meat. And how much easier that choice is here in Switzerland than in middle America (although it didn't used to be, in the age of the small family farm). This topic easily shifts to the other conscious choices we all make at some point or another, to live a life that is more....something. More humane to animals, or to humans, to not buy "Made in China" or to only buy local. No one can do it all, and we each have the sacrifices we choose to make.

For a while, I tried buying on Etsy, but the communication issues and difficulty (for me) of returning things hasn't solved my buy-small issues. At the other end of the spectrum is buying from Amazon.com. Or Gap.com, or Zappos.com. Earlier this week I read an article that a friend had posted on Facebook about working conditions for low-wage, part-time employees that are hired to fill orders in this free-shipping, get-it-yesterday on-line shopping world. Today I found this article. The conditions were horrible - very short breaks, very fast pace, substantial electrical shocks when filling book orders from poorly grounded shelves (really? How is that ok?), draconian rules about bringing your belongings with you and no place to keep a cell-phone with which to call your kids to check in during your 12 hour shift so you leave it in the break room and hope no one steals is, having to decide between eating and going to the bathroom, getting fired for missing a day of work when "his woman gave birth", etc, etc. People staying in these jobs because there is no other work.

So until I hear about some significant changes over there, I'm off of Amazon.com. I'll continue to download Kindle books, but I'll probably cancel my Prime Membership. And unsubscribe to Gap.com emails. And hopefully have a chance to write, in each case, to the company, why I am leaving. I can do without. I can do with less. I can wait to get it next week.