A shout out, movie review, and life update

3 for the price of one!

The other day Jason over at SCREAM to be GREEN posted about the SnagFilms.com website in which there are 250 full length documentaries available for FREE. The only snag is that the movie is interrupted at different points to play commercials like the Oreo 100 calorie snak pak, (just like NBC does when you watch their shows online) which in itself is kind of ironic…And we had to restart the movie a few times because it got stuck, and we had to plug in our laptop to the cable modem because it didn't like the wireless router, but I digress... I saw a free documentary movie that I've wanted to see for a while.

My sights were immediately set on watching What Would Jesus Buy? The story of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, 2 chartered buses, a full choir and 7 piece band, and a cross country tour in the weeks before Christmas to get people to buy less stuff. I don’t want to say much here because I would give the movie away, but it’s worth an hour of your time to watch it. For us, it was like preaching to the choir.

On March 20 of this year, I declared that I would not set foot in a big box store again, and I have upheld my word. No Target, no Home Depot, no Lowe’s. [I’ve never spent a penny at Walmart, and for that I am immensely proud and feel as though I have the right to stand on a pedestal and scream to the rafters to all who will listen.]

Here’s my secret to giving up big box stores: IT’S EASY - JUST DO IT. Really!

And here is how our consumption breaks down:

FOOD
We visit our local BelAir grocery store chain, family-owned since 1935. They have a fairly decent organic/natural section, and it’s easy to find produce within a 100 mile radius. The even have bulk bins of organic flour from Giusto’s, a San Francisco-based flour company. That’s within 100 miles! We buy Strauss dairy products (you return the glass bottle for a deposit).
Weekly we visit our farmer’s market to purchase items from the local organic growers. There is also a stand that sells raw cheeses! ....Local olive oil, mushrooms, fruit, you name it.

Tea/coffee: Chris drinks chai tea, I drink black tea and coffee every so often. While we understand these items aren’t local, we’ve found a great tea company (Rishi Tea) that offers fair trade, organic teas. Yes, they are expensive, but we feel as though we’re actually paying the fair price for them. Once the coffee stores I have are gone, we plan on purchasing fair trade shade grown coffee from our local company Java City. When we eat out we tend to go to Chipotle, which is a fairly sustainable eatery, and all of their chicken, beef, and pork products are sustainably-raised.

HOME IMPROVEMENT
For those of you not lucky enough to live in California (snicker!), we have this great little hardware store chain called OSH – Orchard Supply Hardware. I just found out last week it is a California company with 85 stores. They carry everything we’ve ever needed (except that one bolt Chris needed for his car, and we went to ACE Hardware over the river). The people who work there are friendly, and very helpful. I can walk through the store and have 3 people ask me if I need help finding something. And one of the guys that works there knows that store inside and out. I love it when he asks if I need help. And I love my local OSH.

ENTERTAINMENT
Library, used book stores, batting cages, local zoo, local state park, biking, collecting plums, camping… We tend to stay locally for our fun!

NOT PERFECT
Before I go on and on about this and how well we’ve done, there are some things I would like to do better on, such as:

Taiko Sushi is our favorite restaurant, but it isn’t sustainable (even if it is local). Limit visits to the restaurant.

There is no locally-owned camera store in my area, so we ended up going to Ritz Camera (national chain) to look at some new lenses, only to find them a couple HUNDRED dollars cheaper through Amazon. So we went with Amazon. We used to buy an incredible amount of stuff through Amazon, but not as much anymore. We look for locally-available options first.

I haven’t been to Goodwill for a few months. I need to go back. Need a random kitchen appliance? Goodwill probably has that quesadilla maker you’ve been looking for. Chris and I are shedding our plastic cups and would like to replace them with glass ones. I think Goodwill is a good place to do this. We’ll keep you posted.

What about you? Have you looked into shopping more locally or for used items? How does your local area fare?

Wow, lots of link love in this post!