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Skipping Black Friday for Giving Tuesday

It's easy to get distracted by great deals, once-in-a-lifetime savings on products you've been wanting to buy, and cool things you think your friend, family member or loved one would love to receive for Christmas. 

I get it, this is the time to give, which makes it harder to resist seemingly great deals. We're not necessarily fans of offering unbeatable Black Friday Deals for the sake of getting the most dollars of our customers and here is why:

  1. We don't want to encourage overconsumption.
  2. We don't think that companies that can offer 50-70% discounts are built on ethical business practices (there might be exceptions, of course).
  3. Being flooded with promotions and constant psychological tricks leading pushing us to buy makes is not good for our well-being.
  4. This is personal: I'm getting tired of seeing more advertisements on my feeds and inbox than everything else combined 😆.

I've recently had to reschedule a few of my workshops due to difficulty with the location I was hosting, which resulted in some participants not being able to come. 

Among them, a daughter and mom, who got the workshop from the family dad as a gift for the daughter's birthday. I felt terrible because they checked in with me before to make sure the timing of the workshop works out.

I wanted to refund the ticket for the daughter's birthday and, instead of politely receiving the discount, the dad said that he rather supports my cause and would like to pass on the money to either our adult workers at PASS or to make a donation of my choice.

We don't usually make donations but instead blend ethical hiring and employment for marginalized community members into our business so that social change can sustain by being integrated directly into the benefits of economic activity.

However, this encouraged me to write about an organization I've been supporting privately for years now with donations and signatures for causes that mean something to me.

I believe that 'Good Business' means supporting and practicing ethical and sustainable business in my private and professional life but also DISCOURAGING bad business when coming across it. The organization SumOfUs- fighting for people over profits, makes this pretty easy.

So, in the name of The Good Chocolatier, of skipping Black Friday for Giving Tuesday, a girl's birthday, and in the support and fight for Good Business without compassion for harmful business, we're supporting this year.

Take a look at some meaningful campaigns:

1. Ferrero's dirty secret and a little excerpt for context:

"Kids as young as ten are forced to work grueling 12-hour shifts to harvest palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. Exhaustion, injuries, heavy loads, and worst of all: rape and trafficking. These palm oil plantations are a nightmare for these kids. (...)"This is also tied to girls scout cookies.

2. Nestle's dumping of plastic and chemical waste into France's water territory:

"Every year, more than 1.5 billion plastic bottles leave the NestlĂ© Waters factories around Vittel. With 245 million euros in sales and 900 jobs, NestlĂ© feels almighty. The powerful multinational doesn't care about laws, the environment, or the people. Since 2014 and the discovery of the first illegal plastic dump, NestlĂ© hasn't done anything -- well, it did try to cover up this scandal."

What I love about SumofUs is that they don't push to donate right away, even signatures can move mountains if they collect many, as they've proven in the past. 

I hope this encourages some to shop fair trade chocolate this year (whenever possible!) and not fall for cheaper, non-fair trade chocolate.

It goes without saying that affordability can be a massive concern and that one cannot always shop fair trade even if that is desired. I hear you, and yet, I see it as my duty to sometimes write about the ethics, harm, and the wonderful things of my industry.

Let's try to just introduce ONE new person to fair trade chocolate who perhaps will never be able to afford fair-trade products themselves.  

Happy shopping ♄

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