conscience shopping
March 30, 2007
I signed up for Dallas and Chicago emails from DailyCandy, recently. Today’s Dallas version showcased a new-fangled shopping mall called Lifestyle Fashion Terminal (LFT). Of course it’s not for the economically challenged, garage-sale-thrift-store addict, like me. But I find it’s core philosophies quite interesting.
As I read, I started comparing what they want to accomplish in their retail fashion cosmos with what we are trying to do at Coffee Ambassadors and the thoughts I have for The Aylward Community. They mentioned ideas such as building community and relationship, being partners rather than users, being “a relentless catalyst for change” and selling “only brands that have real people behind them.”
On that last point, I suspect they hold to a slightly different shade of meaning than Coffee Ambassadors seeks to promote. I don’t think they are trying to partner designers with individual purchasers, as we hope to partner churches with farmers. But it’s exciting to see them breaking ground for people to step outside their purchasing paradigms.
Maybe the LFT will eventually benefit third world coffee farmers too, if we all learn to shop with the concepts of community, relationship, partnership, change and people in mind.
God, I’m a little slow on this one. My priority in purchasing is always “economic bottom line.” Can you help me alter my paradigm – my thinking and values in this area of my life – even if my financial picture doesn’t change?
