It may seem oxymoronic, but we hope you DON'T use this site... well, we hope you think VERY carefully when you do. You see, we are big supporters of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. We believe that consumerism has run rampant in America and that it is a travesty that we have made the transition from a nation of producers to a nation of consumers... that we're in the post-Ford era, when it was considered proper that the employees of a corporation were paid enough to purchase the goods they were producing. We're not pining away for some idealized small-town America, but we think it would be better for everyone if a decent product were purchased for a reasonable price and that the purchase price, whenever possible, were kept in the local economy.

We now have multinational corporations bent on profit at all cost, exploiting slave labor with which no developed-nation workforce can compete. The result is that small-town America, family-owned stores, are dying while the employees of big box stores cannot afford to shop anywhere else BUT a big box, while being completely unable to afford health insurance or retirement savings, and at the same time, the corporate executives make 500 times more and live a life of luxury... a life made possible by cheap, slave labor, and poorly paid domestic employees.

At the same time, we're realists. While we try to shop local stores to keep the money from our purchases in our community, and buy locally-made products, there often is no choice. Consumer electronics and clothing, for instance, are almost wholly made by foreign slave labor. Our ultimate goal is to change that. For the short term, our immediate goal is to engender a generation of conscious consumers and green shoppers. If, as Reverend Billy preaches, we cannot stop shopping, at least we can curb it somewhat.

Our goal in presenting these stores to you is not to simply "greenwash" their activities and try to cast them in a better light. We've shopped a good number of them ourselves and are looking for suggestions of others to add (or delete!) from you. We know there are goods you really need. We also know that not everyone can walk to their neighborhood stores, and thus, online shopping is often more efficient and better for the environment than driving to a store on your own. We hope that you will ask yourself "do I really need this?" and "where will I put it?" and "what will I do with it when it's worn out?" or "what will I do with the thing it's going to replace?" and make a conscious, informed choice.

We CAN vote with our wallets. Wal-Mart was FORMERLY a force for buying local, but once the company's founder died and his offspring saw that there was more profit to be made by exploiting foreign labor and decimating local economies, they became the largest consumer goods provider on the planet, and every other provider moved to cash in on that business model, hopeful that consumers would simply NOT think, and be motivated to buy at the lowest cost, regardless of the harm done. That business model is not sustainable. We cannot believe that our fellow man is that insensitive and that unthinking.

Ask where your products are made. Ask what the conditions are in that factory. We know you cannot stop consuming. So consume consciously. As a conscious consumer and green shopper, you can protect our planet and its inhabitants.

Thank you.