I know it's not news, but seriously.

[mrissa]

markgritter and I were at Kohl's buying tights* and a heated mattress pad, and the clerk was friendly and chatty. Conversation turned to Thanksgiving, and she said that she was going to have to be at work at 2:45 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. She has a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 5-year-old. And it's not that she's leaving them alone at 2 a.m., it's that she'll have to be dealing with the three kids after she's been at work since 2:45 a.m. I know this is nothing new. I know this is not news. But it's crap all the same.

In years past I haven't done Buy Nothing Day for the day after Thanksgiving. I've observed Buy Nothing Stupid Day instead--if you're out of milk and you need milk, for heaven's sake buy more milk, but this is not the same as trampling other people to get to the fad toy of the season--for kids or adults. But the stores that make their employees show up in the middle of the night do so because they think they can get more of our money by treating their employees like crap. And the only thing I have to prove them wrong is to avoid giving them my money.

So in the comments here, please tell me of good businesses you know, either online or in brick-and-mortar form. Whether they're individual craftspeople who are doing an awesome job or larger enterprises who treat their employees decently, I want to know the good and interesting stuff that's out there and not feeding into the "haul people out of their beds at 2 a.m. after a major family holiday to use blenders as loss leaders" paradigm. Etsy stores are fine. Traditional stores are fine, although if they're not in the Minneapolis area and don't have a website, they'll mostly be of use to other people reading the comments instead of me. Just--go for it. Tell me what you know that's good. I don't like the word "pimping" in this context. But y'know. If I did and all.

*Thank you, thank you, Vera Wang, for making tights that acknowledge my existence. I am not unduly tall, nor crazy amounts of thin for my height, so I really should not fall between the cracks for makers of hosiery as often as I do. And then the Vera Wang tights are often awesome in concept and wear like cast iron. Hurrah.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

WEll, speaking of milk, my favorite feel-good business is the Happy Cow Creamery (http://www.happycowcreamery.com/), where the small herd of cows is rotated from pasture to pasture, the milk is not homogenized, the cheese is traditional and delicious and reasonably priced. I go there with children of friends, and the cows come up to get milked and let the kids pet them. They truly are happy cows! and the milk is delicious. I'll buy that any day of the year. And my other favorite is the store that sells the milk in my town, Rosewood Market (http://www.rosewoodmarket.com/), is one of those incredible places that has great products and serves as a community center, treating its employees well and still offering wonderful service to customers--natural foods, herbs, well-cooked meals, etc. They've survived almost 40 years in spite of the competition of a major supermarket across the street and a big "natural" foods chain a few blocks away, because Rosewood does business the way it should be done. And the owner's name is Basil, appropriately. (Note: these are in South Carolina where you probably don't have any readers, but just letting people know that what great businesses they are).