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For the Love of Nature, Please Shop Consciously this Holiday Season
Want to really surprise your loved ones?
’Tis the season to be mindful
If you’d like to shop consciously this holiday season and not disappoint your loved ones, you’re in the right place!
But before I start, let’s talk about why I’m writing this article.
The biggest shopping days of the year are approaching: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
According to blackfriday.com, the highest recorded amount at $6 billion was spent on Cyber Monday in 2018.
On Black Friday, it was $4.8 billion and even on Thanksgiving when people could be spending quality time with their families, sales were at $3.4 billion.
That’s a lot of stuff being bought! Just on those three days! And only in the states!
The holiday spend in 2018 in the US was forecast at $719.17 billion!
And get this: According to Optoro, nearly $70 billion worth of holiday purchases were returned in 2014. I couldn’t find their stats on returns in 2018, but I guarantee they were similar.
Newsweek goes on to explain that the Daily Mail reported that 42% of women returned holiday gifts from their husbands, 17% planned to donate a gift, 13% planned to regift one item and 10% just throw their ‘bad gift’ away!
Send a gift away to landfill? Oh, NO!!!
And what about the quiet folks who put a smile on their faces and pack that unwanted gift in the basement never to see the light of day again? I sadly admit, I’ve done that more than once in my lifetime.
Not all gifts find the right homes.
Who needs all this stuff anyway?
Anything that’s produced causes some kind of damage to people, animals and/or our environment.
But let’s face it, we still need stuff. We can’t walk around naked.
We need clothes, electronics, age-appropriate toys, household items, etc.
We just don’t live in a society where we can ‘live’ without all these products.
