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Shopping for a Change...or Not

As we finished out 2017 an article in The New York Times caught my eye and secured part of my 10 free articles for the month. Anne Patchett wrote about her year of no shopping.

This wasn't anything new to me - I've heard about no shopping or reduced shopping efforts before. For some reason, though, this article resonated with me - maybe because we had read one of her works for my book club this past year. Maybe because she is a book store owner, and therefore earns a special place in my heart.

I read the piece and then saved it as a PDF to my desktop. The point of the piece is simple. The writing is well done and conveys her experience. What would a year without shopping look like? Even more, what does that even mean? What can I buy? What can't I buy? Why?

She writes a compelling piece - no wonder, she's a compelling author. Part of what attracted me was that she first encountered the idea in 2009 and it took her 7 years later in 2016 to engage fully with the life experiment. She was writing as she wound down her year. Which brought her to an interesting intersection - keep going or return to shopping as before?

I printed the article and shared it with the kids over Shabbat. We talked about what it meant and if it was something we might want to try doing. Initially Tamar was very against it - give up shopping? Are you nuts?! The boys actually took to the idea nicely, although with a bit of hesitation. Perhaps it was a result of our countless conversations about not buying the cheap crap at the stores here and instead waiting for an opportunity to buy nicer items at a more reasonable price (Legos and Playmobil are twice the price here for no good reason!) instead of just buying cheap crap. Well, they've drunk the Kool-aid I was pouring!

After Shabbat ended we sat down as a family and made some decisions.
  • Food and consumables are allowed at the grocery or pharmacy
  • Eating out is okay
  • Presents should be in the form of a donation, book, activity, or homemade treasure
  • Office and school supplies are to be bought only as needed and only what is needed
  • Furniture and permanent items (in particular for our new house): only after we evaluate what we have and what we can source either free or second hand
  • Souvenirs are to be magnets, one per place for the whole family (that's easy - it's what we've typically done)
  • Electronics on a case-by-case basis for replacement or the new house
  • Try to buy small and local
The main point we came to was that this year would be about reducing consumption, consumerism, and waste. We want to focus on shifting the conversation from want to need, and recognizing what we already have. So far, two weeks in, we're doing okay! Check back with us in a few more months.

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  1. UnknownJanuary 15, 2018 at 8:39 PM

    I love how you made it a family discussion, and came up with a compromise everyone could agree to.

    ReplyDelete

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