Ethical Shopping Fever

After months of frugality, I had a sudden need to shop yesterday. It was seventy degrees outside and the snow banks were rapidly melting after Monday's blizzard. Everyone was outside. Traffic was backed up for blocks coming into Huntington, NY. There wasn't a parking space close to the village center anywhere in sight. Even the "secret" lot, above the village, was pretty much full, although I found a spot there.

There was a certain amount of money in my wallet that I decided I wanted to spend. My contribution to the economy. The question was how to become a shopper again, making the money effective, not just in stretching dollars for my own benefit, but for jump starting the economy ethically. I wanted to keep the money local, let it recirculate through the community a few times before it left for other places.

Shop local.

My first stop was Messina Bros, a local jewelry store owned and operated by a gifted jeweler. Peter Messina is one of the few craftspeople who offers customers manufactured jewelry as well as hand crafted, custom designed work. In a different era, Peter designed a ring for me, made with a topaz taken from one of my father's cuff links. He has fixed jewelry for me, and remembers my name and my husband's. I started my shopping day in Peters's store looking for a gift for my daughter.

He told me that if it weren't for the custom work, which is considerable and he's backed up, that he wouldn't be able to keep the shop open. He gave me a fabulous deal on a pair of gold stud earrings, placed them in a navy suede case, and even asked if I wanted the box gift wrapped.

Then I met Ginger at Fox's. Maybe we could get some fashion discards, which is what Fox's sells in a series of shops in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Florida. Fox's is like Loehmann's, or like what Loehmann's used to be: overstocked current fashions sold at discounted prices, sometimes with labels in, sometimes with them cut off. Locally owned and home grown. Great deals, usually, but not for us today. The clothing was mostly for women much younger than we are, and mostly made in China. Although I adore the manager, Shari, I couldn't see paying $30 for a cheaply made blouse with a high priced label sewn in. That purchase would do nothing to recreate the world into something more sustainable, more ethical.

So Ginger and I drove to Cold Spring Harbor where Sumati Vij owns an amazing shop called Global Treasures. Ginger discovered the shop several years ago; Sumati has been there for four years. Ginger bought me a scarf there, knowing that I wouldn't like it, just so that I would go back to the shop to exchange it and fall in love myself. This was the first time we came together. (Neither Ginger nor I ordinarily shop together. We like to go to theater and film together, and eat!)

Sumati negotiates for hand woven, hand embroidered, hand crafted artifacts from around South Asian, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The work that she brings into the country is extraordinary. Much of it will no longer be available in another five years as machine embroidery becomes more common. Ginger bought a jacket totally covered in embroidered paisleys that took six months to complete. It fit her beautifully and has a rainbow of pastel colors to get her through the spring. It wasn't the first jacket she tried on. Between the two of us, we tried on every embroidered jacket she had in the shop.

I focused on scarves and ended up buying two: one is hand woven from yak wool, soft and intricately patterned. But the treasure was the embroidered silk shawl that was made in the city of the Dalai Lama's exile: Dharamsala in the Indian state of Himachal.

We spent over an hour with Sumativ who told us that for the first time in four years, she was late with her rent. She offered to host events in the shop, which is filled with global treasures, mostly crafted by women, to support local charities while introducing women to her location. We agreed to pass on the suggestion to some local women's groups.

We said goodbye and later met up again at my house with our spouses for dinner and a movie. My husband smoked a duck and roasted brussel sprouts. I made a salad with spring asparagus and toasted pinoli nuts. And Stu and Ginger brought dessert. We watched a disappointing film, Two Lovers, with Gwyeneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix, purchased "on demand."