Consumer Power

The market functions according to the purely rational pursuit of profit, adjusts according to supply and demand: taken alone it is amoral - only people can give it a moral character by acting according to moral principles.

Personally, I've always been attracted to the idea matching my spending habits to my principles (admittedly I've not made much effort to this end - yet). Thus, I'd would like to make this thread one in which we can bring together information and suggestions on brands/ products/ services that, for whatever reason, should be avoided, or, conversely, are recommended.

So, perhaps you've read that brand x exploits its workers or uses child labour?
Maybe there is a business model you particularly approve of?
A company which treats animals inhumanely?
One which does a lot for charity?
Factories which pollute nearby water supplies?
Sustainable production/ energy?
Price fixing/ tax dodging/ monopolistic practices...?
A news organisation which routinely obscures the facts?
Or one which is notably objective?
You support buying local?
Disapprove of the actions of this government or that and choose to avoid that country's exports?
Dietry - brands which are are particularly unhealthy, maybe there are better alternatives?
Poor products?
Poor customer service...?

Websites, news articles, opinions, whatever...

Note: I suggest that in any posts the brand/ product and/ or the ethical issue are stated in bold to make things clearer.

So:

Fish - sustainability. The marine conservation society has a website which rates fish species according to their sustainabilty so you can avoid any which are in danger because of overfishing. It includes summaries on the situation for each species and also includes better alternatives. So, bye bye Cod - either Pollock or Haddock from now on.
This is the link to their consumer guide: http://www.goodfishguide.co.uk/search-results

Buying British. We are a free market economy so many of the brands/ products on our shelves as well as the companies operating here are foreign made/ owned. It's not only blind patriotism to support British companies: the profits stay here, the wages and tax are paid here (probably... perhaps).
Here's a website listing brands which are British/ manufacture here: http://www.buybritish.com/

Amazon. I've been trying to wean myself off Amazon for a while now, having come to view them as too large - and since it's come out that they don't pay corporate tax in the UK there's all the more reason. Initially for books I was using thebookdepository, which is very good and British based, but they've since been bought up by Amazon (abebooks are also owned by Amazon) - so now I'm using good old waterstones. Dvds are proving much more of a problem - especially now that HMV have collapsed (apparently they were using a tax loophole to avoid tax too - but at least they're British). Zavvi is allegedly terrible, others seem to lack an extensive product range.
Any help - preferrably a British seller?

For classical and jazz CDs and DVDs you could try Harold Moores Records in Great Marlborough Street in Soho - one of the shrinking band of independent record stores. ( www.hmrecords.co.uk ). For film DVDs I can't help.

Well there's Foyles or http://www.localbookshops.co.uk. Haven't tried the latter though.

http://www.hive.co.uk/books/books/01/

you can buy books and dvds from this website and have them delivered to your local bookshop - if you have one anymore! or to yourself. Often matching amazon prices so it's worth a look, and you can redeem booktokens online through them too

I'd suggest ethicalconsumer.com for a regularly updated sense of what works for you. YOu can adjust their weightings to suit your sense of worth.

It's tricky to do yourself because some well regarded brands are owned behind the scenes by the same corporate giants as all the rest.

#2: I try to buy books form our local Waterstones (Inverness) and our only bookshop apart from s/hand shops. I often end up going to Amazon for the simple reason Waterstones is a poor bookshop which doesn't stock the books I want and if I'm going to have to order a book I'd rather do so from a company which has a very functional website and efficient service. Also in recent weeks I've got fed up with people banging on about Amazon's tax avoidance. I expect many of these people have an ISA - a device for avoiding tax on interest from savings. Amazon is acting within the law and perhaps we need to tighten up and change. Of course Amazon saves more than the odd few quids but then like the woman who wouldn't drop her knickers for sixpence it's a matter of price not principle.
PS: Edited to say I'm writing from UK - perhaps the reference not clear elsewhere.

#5. WHY have I not heard of hive before!? I've only browsed it briefly but it looks like the ideal website - wide range, well priced, and supports local shops too! Thank you VERY much for introducing me to them!

Everyone, http://www.hive.co.uk/ !!!

I'm not sure if this isn't all a bit quixotic. I've looked into it in the past and found it terribly complicated.

Take Amazon, for instance. What about all the small-scale, British entrepreneurs that deal through them? Do we want to boycott them?

Some weeks, I'm finding ethically eating at least one piece of oily fish and one piece of white fish a near impossibility.

And I haven't had a piece of pork for weeks because my local Sainsbury for some reason has stopped stocking 'outdoor reared' (as opposed to 'outdoor bred', which sounds pretty evil to me - 'factory farm 'em but first let's teach 'em what they'll be missing'.) Of course, I could buy a bigger freezer and buy all my meat online - properly outdoor and free-range reared and slaughtered on the farm. Then I could worry about the carbon footprint of the delivery.

#9. I understand what you're saying. Regarding Amazon, pretty much everything I've ever bought on there comes from Amazon itself, and not smaller companies selling through Amazon - regardless, if you're boycotting Amazon you're still buying the things you want, only somewhere else (i.e. from different small sellers). Using hive.co.uk I am supporting local sellers: I'm having all my orders delivered to my local bookshop, rather than my home, so they get a cut of the sale (it costs me no more to do so - unless you count the calories burnt walking there to collect my order). If you buy through Amazon then Amazon is the marketplace whichever seller you buy from on the site, if you buy through hive.co.uk then the marketplace is your local highstreet - the only issue is price: the DVDs I've bought on hive.co.uk are both £1 more than on Amazon, but I'm prepared to pay more to support the local/ national economy (I should add, however, that I found other things I'm after equally or lower priced than on Amazon).

Of course, you can't be a purely ethical consumer, if you try to be you'll soon find yourself retreating from the modern world entirely, living in a forest somewhere, apologising to the bushes you pick berries from and shivering your way through winter beccause you'd feel guilty for lighting a fire and damaging the atmosphere - you have to pick and choose your preferences and do the best you can when you spend your £££s (it's a good intellectual exercise, once your start thinking it through, though, isn't it?).

Anyway, I consider myself to be fairly politically engaged, and have come to view it as a major contradiction that I have charged, hour long, politcal debates, which expend significant emotional energy, but am so apolitcal when spending my money - which actually has a real world effect (if here you say it has 'no real effect', then you're entirely missing the point - arguing with your ideological opposites has no real effect; voting has no real effect: where I live is a safe Labour seat - ugh! - and whoever you vote for the managers of the free market economy win every time anyway).

Remember, money is power.

Which is why we should be boycotting remakes at the cinema. ;) I hadn't heard of hive.co.UK. Will look into it.

I use my local library as much as possible; I recommend working out how to use the online service (you'll need your PIN number) so you can search for books available across the county and perhaps further afield. Then you can reserve them and they should be at your local library within the week, or longer if they're hidden in storage somewhere. If you can't find a book you can request it so your library will order it from another county or buy one to add to the library stock. I've had no reply to any of my requests though so I think that service doesn't work properly online! I also keep a wishlist on there of things I've found so I can quickly add them to my reservations basket.

Of course sometimes I'm tempted to buy something from the local charity shops or second hand bookshop. Other times I want something specific to keep or I need to buy a present - on those occasions I search oxfam.org.uk/shop/books and alibris.co.uk Alibris is a way to buy from independent bookshops, I hope it isn't Amazon-related.

I'm pretty sure that Alibris are not Amazon related. I can find *anything* from them.

Thanks for letting us know about the Hive website!I had good look yesterday, and their CDs of 'world music' are amazing. Since HMV nose-dived, I have been (reluctantly) buying world music CDs from Amazon.I have to admit that ethical shopping is very complex - and often I give in to the lure of reduced prices...

I had a look at the Hive website yesterday and found the page very busy! Couldn't work out how to get to any useful information. I'll have to try again.

I tried their search facility but they didn't have any entries for the author names I tried.

I've come to the conclusion that ethical retailers just don't have the stock.

Libraries, however, will order things in for a tiny fee.

Hear, hear! Use your local libraries, I say, at least once a week!