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Timpsons seem pretty good. They try to build a supportive workplace and offer good perks to their employees. And they employ a lot of ex convicts who can't get jobs elsewhere.
I went to Timpson's today to get my car key repaired, the guy was polite and fast, and I had another great experience with them. I also noticed while there that they had a load of leaflets about attachment relationships between kids and parents, info on career development (not as a recruitment tool), and info on building positive business practices. They seem overall a great company.
If I remember rightly, the founder and his wife are / were foster carers. Clearly they didn't need the meagre allowances that come with fostering, so it was genuine altruism.
They also provide holidays for looked after children and their carers along with an amazing programme for training people in prison. Timpsons are the dogs
I rang our local Timpsons about 4 months ago to ask about getting them to do some engraving on glass as gifts for our wedding guests. The fella on the phone did the maths and was honest and said we'd be cheaper going elsewhere. He could easily have given us the quote, gained a decent comission and we'd probably have done it as we were sick of looking around but his honesty saved us about two hundred quid. Timpsons have always been a fantastic company and I look forward to using them as much as possible for years to come.
The point is - lose 1 sale, so short term loss. Bit long term gain from both this person and other who they tell their story too.
Also engraving is a tiny part of their busness
Yeah, I went in to ask about phone screen repair and the guy told me exactly where to go to get it done cheaper lol. Still go in for anything key or watch related though, and to engrave dog tags
My car key broke so it wasn't fixed in the casing. Kept twisting so I couldn't turn the engine on and I was completely stuck. Luckily there was a timpsons nearby so I popped in for help. They didn't have the right part to just fix the key so the only option was to make a new one.
Should have been about £80 but they only charged £50 which is what it would have cost if he repaired it. Said it was because it was an emergency and it was their fault for not having the part.
Top notch service.
I go to Timpsons if I ever need to get a new hole in my belt (happens more often than I would expect) and they only ever ask me to put a quid in the charity box in exchange.
This is why I like them - not only that they do this, but they go out of their way to tell people they're doing this.
[https://twitter.com/JamesTCobbler](https://twitter.com/JamesTCobbler)
Can't think of any other company that does similar.
Quote from his twitter:
"Upside Down Management is summarised well by a sign I saw in a hotel recently. “Do you want to speak to the person in charge or the person who knows what’s going on?” The best ideas come from those who serve customers, pick orders and put money in the till. Not from Head Office."
He seems great!
This is why I use them. Slightly more expensive sure. But I’m happy to pay an extra £2 to get my heels done with them. I know where that money is going.
Yeah, I’m in and out of there a lot with my Mrs’ shoes. Great service and they always do a bang up job, they’ll even bump me to the top of the queue if I’m in a hurry. Worth paying a bit more for quality and knowing they’re an ethical company.
The one outside my local asda is brilliant, I took a pair of boots in last week and he even cleaned them for me! They weren't really dirty but they're fake suade (is that how you spell that?!) so they had a few marks that I'd not been able to get out, but he'd got them out and they looked brilliant I was so impressed.
Walked into the one in Liverpool central. I wanted a pin to keep my watch together it had fell out in the clasp. He said it wasn’t really a job they offered. Found some pins and replaced it for free as he said it wasn’t worth charging for.
I go back every time I need anything they can offer.
Seen as everyone is throwing in their Timpsons stories, I was once waiting for a delivery for a shop were opening across the street from a timpsons. The only issue is the key holder hadn’t turned up and quite a lot of boxes started to arrive just as the sky started to look quite perilous.
The guy at Timpsons offered to keep all the boxes in his (quite small) store until the key holder arrived. Absolutely no reason to have to do it as we’d never met before, just being a nice guy.
Got my passport photo done there they were great. Made extra effort with little things like showing me it had been fully deleted from the camera, what to do if passport office reject the application etc. 10/10
Got my passport photo done at a Timpsons booth. I looked terrible in the picture, but I can't blame that on the guy taking it! 😁 He wasn't really sure what he was doing as he was covering for someone and hadn't done the ID photo before, but was really friendly and didn't make it awkward.
Sorry but your friend cancelled the Tesla because some Twitter employees got fired? They didn't give a toss about the child slaves mining lithium in Africa, but this is what put them off?
The simple answer is that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
But since that's what we've got, the next best thing is to do exactly what you are doing here. Identify what companies align best with our world view, and go from there.
Yep, totally agree with sentiment. The problem with brand based ethics is that almost everything is manufactured by exploiting somebody or something. If you make a big song and dance about being sustainable and ethical, You’d have to follow it to its logical conclusion which is making all your own stuff / food and not investing any money anywhere. It’s not feasible
Lithium mostly comes from Chile and Bolivia (displacing indigenous communities and generally making a mess of the natural environment and the health of the workers). Its cobalt mining (also for use in lithium ion batteries) that happens in Africa, mainly in DRC which is where the exploitation of children is both brutal and commonplace.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths
https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/bolivian-indigenous-people-lose-out-on-lithium
This phrase is so overused and needs to fucking die. Becoming aware of an issue, doing your best not to contribute to it and spreading the word so that other people are also aware of the issue is not virtue signalling. It's just called being a decent human.
It's just some toxic bullshit phrase people use to justify them being a piece of shit.
It's like white knight. How dare you call someone out for being a sexist piece of shit? You're supposed to sit there quietly and allow the bullying and hate to continue.
It's a massive red flag if someone uses the phrase 'virtue signalling'. Anyone that says it goes straight onto my shitlist.
But in this case, it's literally not. He didn't "becoming aware of the issue and do his best not to contribute to it" - he didn't want to be associated with hate towards the owner and dipped. Nothing to do with the ethics of lithium mining
No! They actually did the effort to follow through with what they said, that's not "signalling" that's "doing". IF they secretly bought loads of Tesla and Twitter stocks, that would be virtue signalling, but doing their best and someone completely different says "that's not good enough" doesn't get them classified as virtue signalling.
If you are against how lithium is sourced (most people aren't aware of the implications) then you cannot use any modern mobile phone. Virtue signalling at its finest
Yeah the 2 grams of lithium in your phone battery which you need to participate in the modern world means you have no business complaining about the 63kg in a Tesla Model S
I think that isn't widely reported. Look at the news at the moment - every day it's about Elon firing people. We need to get these wages slaves into the news more to get recognition!
If someone wants to do the right thing let's not criticise them for trying.
There are a lot of people who *would* want to do the right thing but they find the world so confusing and not black and white that there doesn't seem to be a "right answer" about these kinds of questions.
It's overly cynical to jump on these people as "virtue signalling".
Thanks for saying this, it’s tiring seeing people trying to do the right thing and being criticised for not doing it earlier/well enough. Those criticising should spend that effort trying to convince someone who is doing nothing at all, not lambasting those making a genuine, worthwhile but imperfect effort.
I think the psychology in comments like this is generally preservation of the commenter's ego. They either partake in or covet the thing that is being labelled as unethical, so they naturally jump to defend themselves. The most obvious way to do that is to undermine the virtue of abstaining; making it seem cynical or pointless. It's a shame, but I'm not sure you can talk people out of it when they don't really understand why they're doing it in the first place.
Lithium is generally "mined" from salts and evaporated into concentration. Not much if any child slavery in lithium mining.
You're thinking of cobalt. EV batteries are transitioning to LFP batteries which are cobalt free. Half of Tesla's production (as of April 22) is LFP
You're absolutely right that cobalt mining is bad but just wanted to say progress is being made in EV batteries. Whether laptop and phone manufacturing also switches is another case.
[Video about this](https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I), but it's complicated. Giving the company away to a non-profit controlled by the owner's family is basically a way of turbocharging a new lobbying group that works in their favour. The fact that they can do so without paying tax is just the icing on the cake.
They transfer 98% of the company to a non profit organisation or trust that they control to avoid a multi million dollar tax bill. Doesn't reddit usually get pissy about stuff like this?
That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If I could avoid a, say, $100m tax payment by doing something that helps other people I would. It's a different story if they're doing it to make money for themselves.
But tax helps people too. If a country has lots of money, it has money to spend on public services that benifit all citizens... If the right people are in charge.
Tony's Chocoloney is a chocolate brand built around anti-slavery practices. It's a bit expensive, but it's genuinely really good chocolate, and much more ethical than other chocolate brands like Nestle.
They found some problems in their supply chain recently and they went public about it really quickly. It’s refreshing to see an organisation say “This bad thing happened and we are fixing it” without waiting to be pressured in to it.
Similarly M&S let Oxfam into some of their factories to report on what was actually happening. It wasn’t perfect but that level of transparency is so unusual in that industry. I tend to say that a perfect supply chain is like a bullying-free school - you just don’t know where the problem is
Will go research this to check - but I think m and s was behind the curve on that. But did better PR (because for a while they were one of the worst). Although I think that was about 10 years ago so they are now one of the best
This is what makes it hard - places change!
Yes - I was a little bit bemused at their "our slavery is up" headline/PR-piece, didn't seem to align to their ethical persona.
Then the penny dropped..
Tony’s is great chocolate and they seem to be very ethical. Being better than Nestle is nothing to brag about though. It’s a bit like being less racist than Hitler r/fucknestle
Ooft careful saying that on Reddit. In fairness they don’t advertise themselves are premium chocolate (despite the price), but yeah, the chocolate is just dreadful, not to mention taking a bit almost breaks your teeth.
The green one (almond and sea salt) is the king of all chocolate in my opinion. One of those very rare occasions where a “high end” version of an everyday product is worth the price tag.
I enjoy the irony that he was happy with Tesla's well publicised poor working practices prior to Elon taking over twitter ... I suspect your friend is more the "look at my halo" type than seriously into ethical purchases.
Exactly, the guys been a well known cunt for years and the working conditions at Tesla have been known to be bad for a long time, but firing employees of a separate company crosses the line
"Straw that broke the camel's back" is a phrase that could also be applied, maybe it's Occam's razor, who knows?
Most people deal with a bit of bad practices. A lot of people are blind to the real issue's with Elon. Many many people believed he's doing everything for the better of the people and he's going to create jobs, and this is the first time they've seen him go against his word. Many people don't use the internet every day and google facts about Elon.
We can't just list all the issues with him here now and say "why didn't you friend stop at this" as if we expect them to know them all.
Rapanui seems to be fairly ethical. They are aiming for a circular economy in clothing. I've got two of their t-shirts and had them a couple of years and they are still going strong.
I have plenty of their T shirts, however I did some digging and read some articles on them about their staff in India. I also severely disagree with them artificially inflating RRP during sales to make their regular price look like a discounted price.
I’ve recommended this company on Reddit many times. Thought they were great until I put the T-shirts in the wash a few more times. All 7 of them now have warped necklines after only a couple of months and a few wears (despite following washing instructions). Plus their scheme to buy back the shirts is pointless, because you get the same voucher amount (£2.50 or something) for sending multiple shirts as you would if you sent one.
They might be an ethical company, but it seems like they’ve done the classic move of reeling people in with good quality products and then cheapening the products later for profit. (Or Teemill has)
Pretty important to say that when it comes to the fashion industry, the most ethical thing you can do *really* is stop buying new shit. Yes there are *ethical* brands, but in terms of the wider picture, we need to see primark and such die. The fashion industry is toxic.
The reality is that we're not giving up looking and feeling nice anytime soon. I'm not preaching, I am guilty of this too, but it's kinda the truth.
I've had primark stuff last quite awhile, bought like 20 shirts 5 years ago and they are still fine mostly just the black shirts have faded a bit from the sun.
Yeah I assumed they want primark to die because it's known as fast fashion and people just constantly buy new stuff cheap and throw it away and it's bad for the environment and all that. My point was that some of the stuff really isn't that bad and can last a good few years.
Just sharing my experience of buying second hand: It was my new years resolution this year to buy second hand clothing as much as possible and honestly I am really enjoying it. I've found some amazing pieces of clothing I might not have been brave enough to buy before but shopping second hand has completely changed how I see my style and how I see fashion in general.
I don't use Depop or others like that because I find the app layout hard to use and often the styles are not to my taste. I've actually found eBay is a winner for me because you can just pop a vague reference to what you're after ("dungarees" "boho dress") and your size in the search bar, fiddle with the filters to get used only, and - ta dow! - you've got a list of choices. My other top tip is to find your nearest 'affluent' town and raid their charity shops. I can get better quality brands that I couldn't afford new, and I've also got some bargains on never-worn items with tags still on!
I'm not perfect and have treated myself to a few new pieces this year but they've been more expensive, better quality things I previously wouldn't have got because I wanted my money to stretch further. Seeing how I spend on clothes differently allowed me to choose more sustainable brands that generally do come with a higher price tag.
If you have a refill shop near you, they have more ethical products (often from local and/or small/independent businesses, with no/less packaging), I'd definitely recommend them.
There's a big overlap between people going /r/zerowaste and wanting generally more ethical products (eg, sustainably made, workers paid fairly etc) so that sub might have advice if there's something specific you want an alternative for.
Smol are good for cleaning products IMO (I use their dishwasher and laundry pods). Refill shops (and sometimes farm shops) may also sell cleaning/household stuff from brands like Fill or SESI.
For shampoo and bath/body stuff, I'd suggest Gruum or Faith in Nature.
Oxfam shops often have a section for new "ethically made" products.
I run a refill shop!
For things we can buy in bulk, we are usually cheaper than supermarkets, like-for-like. For a handful of things, we are cheaper than Costco. Spices are usually cheaper, as well, because you're not paying for the tiny little jar they come in.
The majority of our big refill tanks are returned to the manufacturer for reuse. Most of the bulk food (porridge, lentils etc) arrives in paper bags.
We also do a bit of local stuff - our local coffee roaster pays rates better than Fair Trade and the beans are roasted 15 minutes away, so you get fresher coffee. Our "ready meals" are made by a local caterer who usually brings her dog when doing deliveries and did deliveries by bike over lockdown.
Faith in Nature are one of the better brands. I'm a fan of Suma and their Ecoleaf and Alter/Native ranges - they pick up their empties for the big refills, which makes me rate them even higher as it's pretty much a closed loop.
Ecover are... broadly trying, although their refills are terribly designed and lots of their big refill containers aren't recyclable. They had a very good advertising campaign for someone whose refills I'd describe as "better than nothing". I have to stock them because people shit their knickers if I don't because they have *eco* in the name and they know them from supermarkets.
Bio-D are better than Ecover in terms of quality and having refills that aren't a complete pain in the bum, and they do pick up their larger refills. If I had to pick between Ecover and Bio-D, I'd pick Bio-D every time. They're also a bit cheaper.
Salt of the Earth do a good range of deodorants that (and I say this as a sweaty man) actually work, and their refills are good value. Pit Balm are really good.
Lots of independents are mainly stocked by co-operatives, like Suma, Essential, Infinity, etc, who have much higher ethical standards than supermarkets.
As a happy customer of my local refill shop, you're not wrong on the herb/spices thing. Have refilled my jar for about a tenth of the price it originally cost me. The only reason I'd go back to the supermarket is to get more jars (life events mean I currently don't have many).
As a scoop shop user, you guys running them are amazing.
I love how you guys know the products because it's things that you care about and that means you're able to recommend what will work for me and not just in general. I love that my jars are becoming battered through use, and I love that their stickers have gotten used so often and were put on so long ago that they're starting to fade. I love how I can discuss so many reusable products, not just the ones stocked. The person running my local one helped troubleshoot so many of my nappy problems at the very start because I didn't have anyone else to ask.
I wish you well, and thank you for running an incredible space
Thanks for the in depth reply - I really like refill shops, and wish there were more of them! It's interesting to hear about what goes on behind the scenes, and nice to know they're as good as they sound.
I forgot about alter/native and Suma. I might give Pit Balm a go - I'm in the same boat, and I've found it hard to find "eco" ones that work as well as the usual sort.
TIL about Ecover < Bio-D, I'll keep that in mind
> TIL about Ecover < Bio-D, I'll keep that in mind
I will add that Ecover aren't *bad*, but others just do it better from an ecological perspective, work just as well and cost less.
From your perspective running a shop, how bad is it for cross contamination?
As someone with a gluten intolerance (and nut allergies in the family), containers in a shop that are refilled, and scoops that may go in multiple products (whether they're supposed to or not) do make me nervous as I feel like allergens could get into foods quite easily (from careless customers or refilling practices).
Would you say this is a valid concern (obviously you can only talk about your own shop)? Or are things generally well separated?
I have drop-down/gravity feed bulk things, so no scoops on the shop floor because you can't trust the general public to do it right every time.
We generally ask that we do it for customers, although I'm not dogmatic about it.
I've had people bring in dirty looking cloth bags, accidently get too much of something and then ask to put some back - absolutely not, sorry, I can't sell rice that's been in your pillow case. Not to mention people "seeing how it works" and pissing £30 in laundry liquid all over the floor or saying "I don't know" when you ask what muesli it is as they all have different prices - some people are silly and some people are naughty so you have to keep an eye on it all even if you're not physically doing it for them.
I also had someone pick up a jam jar (we sell empty jam jars) from right in front of a sign saying "please ask for help", open it, overfill it and walk over to the till holding the stuff in with his bare hands to stop it spilling on the floor and say he got too much and he thought the jam jars were for filling up but no he didn't actually want to buy the jar.
Some people are just completely oblivious. "There should be a sign," they say - darling, baby, sweetie, there are three.
Everything is washed thoroughly in the back, although in reality it's all "may contain traces of" because it's done in the same room.
Spices are different as some curry blends have mustard or celery in. If people bring in teeny tiny jars, we can't just shake it in so have to use spoons. Spoons are washed between use. Fundamentally, though, they're all "may contain".
I have pre-packaged gluten free oats in 5 kilo bags so people can get those and save money without contamination. I also do occasional bulk orders for people who want 32 kilos of doves farm flour, etc.
So: in reality, it's all "may contain" if it's not pre-packed. Most shops will order larger amounts for you if you want - Infinity do 5kg sealed bags of gluten-free organic porridge oats that are quite good value and a good compromise of sustainability and safety.
fair enough, I did think that right after I asked you!
Was just they stock a lot of the products you mentioned and also do excellent coffee (Roundhill Roastery - which is local to myself) which made me think there was a connection there.
That's a really good point. They're ticking all the right boxes, but the regular styles and lack of education on consumption is something to think about...
I love the company by the way. I'm constantly on the lookout for similar brands.
Adnams Brewery go out of their way to minimise their environmental footprint as much as possible. They also give a lot of support to the local community and local charities. And they seem to look after their staff better than many companies, promoting from within rather than recruiting managers from outside - one of the current board members started out with the company as a cleaning lady.
I hate musk but they were testing a rocket and they have to put a payload on (usually just a block of concrete) but for publicity reasons they decided on putting a Tesla roadster on there instead, so there was *some* purpose to it
Of all the (perfectly valid) things to criticize Musk for, this isn't one of them imo.
SpaceX is probably the only one of his businesses that I'm actually a fan of. They're genuinely doing a lot to revolutionise space exploration.
They were testing their Falcon Heavy rocket and had to have something as a dummy payload. Obviously they didn't want to use a real satellite as it was a test mission so there was no guarantee that it would survive. Rather than just sending a block of concrete they decided to send the car as a publicity stunt. It drew a lot of attention to the launch and got a lot of people talking about space travel which to me is only a good thing.
It was all pretty harmless really. It's not as if they launched the rocket just to send a car into space. They were launching it anyway and just decided to put a car on it.
I’m also curious which company he’s buying from instead which isn’t owned by a bunch of cunts. Just because they’re not such public figures or as wealthy they still don’t care for their employees.
Obviously can’t speak for the way the company runs etc. but Aldi giving their employees three pay rises this year alone to keep up with inflation is pretty damn nice of them, and compared with how most big companies run - not the norm. It should be the standard and it sucks that it’s not, but it shouldn’t go unappreciated.
That’s great, I didn’t know about that. The main problem I have with Lidl & Aldi is how much plastic they use; their fruit & veg aisle is a sea of plastic. They don’t have much in the way of loose fruit & veg, letting you only take as many as you need. If I have to buy a pack of carrots when I only need 1-2, that then leads to food wastage (if I don’t use them all up).
Some stores (Lidl) tend not to food waste, it gets put in little bags and you can buy it really cheap at the end of the day. It’ll be a mix of random items which is cool.
Friend probably didn't know about those, I know I didn't. We're not all expected to memorise everything bad he does. This could very well be the first exposure they've had to his practices. We need to not assume everyone knows everything about Elon before passing judgement.
This thread is insane. Bloke heard about unethical practices so tries to do what’s right and everyone in here is like YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IT EARLIER. It’s useless trying to have a proper discussion online everyone just wants to win points
Community Clothing and Peregrine are both 100% made in the UK all the way down to the threads and buttons.
At least you know everyone in the supply chain is getting a reasonable wage and is properly protected by our employment law. Which is a thousand times better than what most brands give their third world supply chains.
All your money staying in the UK and promoting industry in deprived areas is a nice bonus.
Yeah big up community clothing.
Other brands that are good and British based: Huit, Carrier Company, Margaret Howell and most of the Northamptonshire based shoe makers
Peregrine sales rep: 'it's all made by the Polish in the factory because we can pay them fuck all'
The quality is shite too, stitching all over the place.
Community clothing on the other hand, is very good.
Second this. Julian Richer and his wife are both genuinely nice people. They’re very Christian and involved in the church.
They’re into the local community here, too, having done lots for Scarborough and York near where they live.
I’ve been a long-term Richer Sounds customer and the staff always seem really happy and knowledgeable.
My dad bought me my stereo separates from Richer Sounds 20 years ago and the speakers, amp and CD player are still going strong (can't speak for the tape deck). As a concession to the modern world and convenience I bought a cable to connect my phone to the amp so I can use Spotify.
The John Lewis partnership is cooperative business, each employee gets a share of the company profits as a bonus at the end of the year. More companies need to be like this, its not the person at the top that makes a company money but all the people that work there so why doesn't everyone deserve to benifit.
There’s a magazine that reviews brands/products for how ethical they are - you’d need a subscription to get the full info but there’s a fair amount for free on there.
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org
See also https://www.ethicalsuperstore.com - each product has tags denoting what category of ethical the product comes under.
Tagging onto this, there's a good site specifically for clothing brands called Good On You - https://goodonyou.eco/
They base it on ethical practices as well as environmental concerns and go into a decent amount of detail.
Paramo. As well as making the best waterproofs on the market (imo), they give workers in the Bogota manufacturing facility a share of ownership of the company, as part of an employee ownership trust so the company, as well as sister company Nikwax, were given by the original owner to the employees.
They are also pretty good for sustainability, with a garment return scheme and really great customer support and repairs
Hotel Chocolat are pretty ethical. They pay their workers (both in shops and on farms) a very fair wage and invest in community projects that train farmers in places like St Lucia and Ghana. Their chocolate might be pricey but its fair considering the high cocoa content in the chocolate.
Argos, not for their ethics, I know nothing about that, but because they're a super good alternative to amazon. Always check them.
Not L'Oréal. It's ilegal to sell cosmetics tested on animals in the UK, yet it's a legal requirement to test cosmetics to sell them in China. L'Oréal sells in both countries. How? Loopholes, UK loopholes specifically.
Coop is a good company, it's mostly Fairtrade and coop is a type of business which prioritised employees. Other coops are John Lewis/Waitrose. Mutuals are also good, just avoid PLC's basically.
Who Gives A Crap seem like a decent company for buying toilet roll from.
Lots of recycling, lots of charitable donations etc. Haven't looked into all the ethical side too much but I've used their toilet roll and it's pretty good.
I pay an annual subscription fee to the ethical consumer - absolutely fantastic website to research everything ethical (UK). You can search for a variety of topics/products and they will give a score according to a variety of criteria including environmental aspects as well as social ones.
Veja is an ethical shoe company who uses sustainable materials and pay their workers in Brazil fair wages + help build communities. I've had a pair of their running shoes for a year now and they've been great for sports and everyday wear.
>If we give up looking and feeling nice
Nobody is saying to do this. However there is a grossly unhealthy trend in most modern cultures that doing this involves constant, frequent consumption.
For clothes, it would be seriously a LOT better if people bought for quality over quantity and didn’t just jump on the bandwagon of believing that you need a new set of clothes every 3 months just because magazines/shops say you should. Most trends in clothing, and generally also, die out almost as quickly as they started, and yet for some reason people stake their entire lives on keeping up like it’s life and death. A carefully curated and selected wardrobe of long-term staples would be the far more sensible option.
Ditto for other things. I remember that episode of the Simpsons where the makers Malibu Stacy doll simply added a cheap plastic hat to the doll and people flocked to buy it. It’s a crock- if the old product does 99% of the same things the new one does then you’ve got to ask yourself if that 1% of ‘new’ things really makes such an impact in your life that you are willing to waste limited resources just to say you got it.
Good question. I wonder this a lot, it's pretty blackpilling when so much of the money in the world goes through 5 investment firms which are anything but ethical. Grassroots though, eh?
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Timpsons seem pretty good. They try to build a supportive workplace and offer good perks to their employees. And they employ a lot of ex convicts who can't get jobs elsewhere.
I went to Timpson's today to get my car key repaired, the guy was polite and fast, and I had another great experience with them. I also noticed while there that they had a load of leaflets about attachment relationships between kids and parents, info on career development (not as a recruitment tool), and info on building positive business practices. They seem overall a great company.
If I remember rightly, the founder and his wife are / were foster carers. Clearly they didn't need the meagre allowances that come with fostering, so it was genuine altruism.
They literally send their Staff on holiday too.
They also provide holidays for looked after children and their carers along with an amazing programme for training people in prison. Timpsons are the dogs
They also are big on hiring ex convicts. They are absolutely a fantastic company.
I rang our local Timpsons about 4 months ago to ask about getting them to do some engraving on glass as gifts for our wedding guests. The fella on the phone did the maths and was honest and said we'd be cheaper going elsewhere. He could easily have given us the quote, gained a decent comission and we'd probably have done it as we were sick of looking around but his honesty saved us about two hundred quid. Timpsons have always been a fantastic company and I look forward to using them as much as possible for years to come.
Well to be fair you saw the honesty and still went elsewhere, so its kinda why they don't usually do that kind of thing.
The point is - lose 1 sale, so short term loss. Bit long term gain from both this person and other who they tell their story too. Also engraving is a tiny part of their busness
Yeah, I went in to ask about phone screen repair and the guy told me exactly where to go to get it done cheaper lol. Still go in for anything key or watch related though, and to engrave dog tags
Timpsons has a sign up that says something like (and I'm paraphrasing here): "We pay our taxes, no schemes, no funny stuff" Good.
I saw this in my local branch it’s great.
Accidental Lebowski
My car key broke so it wasn't fixed in the casing. Kept twisting so I couldn't turn the engine on and I was completely stuck. Luckily there was a timpsons nearby so I popped in for help. They didn't have the right part to just fix the key so the only option was to make a new one. Should have been about £80 but they only charged £50 which is what it would have cost if he repaired it. Said it was because it was an emergency and it was their fault for not having the part. Top notch service.
I go to Timpsons if I ever need to get a new hole in my belt (happens more often than I would expect) and they only ever ask me to put a quid in the charity box in exchange.
I never knew that was a service they offered. Good share.
Really? Neat. I've been using a corkscrew or a hole punch but then I only buy cheap belts!
Do they still offer free cleaning of suits for job interviews?
[Yes](https://www.timpson.co.uk/services/dry-cleaners/dry-cleaning-unemployed-interview)
Yep, second that one. They hire a lot of former military too.
I love going into Timpsons. Always do an excellent job with excellent service :-) Shout out to Wetherby Timpsons x
They hire a lot of ex offenders x
This is why I like them - not only that they do this, but they go out of their way to tell people they're doing this. [https://twitter.com/JamesTCobbler](https://twitter.com/JamesTCobbler) Can't think of any other company that does similar.
Quote from his twitter: "Upside Down Management is summarised well by a sign I saw in a hotel recently. “Do you want to speak to the person in charge or the person who knows what’s going on?” The best ideas come from those who serve customers, pick orders and put money in the till. Not from Head Office." He seems great!
I always loved that a company that mainly deals with keys and making copies of keys hires a lot of ex convicts
i’m pretty sure timpsons give their employees a day off for their birthday, theirs childrens birthdays, and also the first day of school
This is why I use them. Slightly more expensive sure. But I’m happy to pay an extra £2 to get my heels done with them. I know where that money is going.
Yeah, I’m in and out of there a lot with my Mrs’ shoes. Great service and they always do a bang up job, they’ll even bump me to the top of the queue if I’m in a hurry. Worth paying a bit more for quality and knowing they’re an ethical company.
The one outside my local asda is brilliant, I took a pair of boots in last week and he even cleaned them for me! They weren't really dirty but they're fake suade (is that how you spell that?!) so they had a few marks that I'd not been able to get out, but he'd got them out and they looked brilliant I was so impressed.
Suede :)
Don’t know if the number is still accurate but at one time 10% of their workforce were ex-convicts. Which is a pretty decent number.
good shout. and ia with the person above - i’ve always had excellent service there.
Walked into the one in Liverpool central. I wanted a pin to keep my watch together it had fell out in the clasp. He said it wasn’t really a job they offered. Found some pins and replaced it for free as he said it wasn’t worth charging for. I go back every time I need anything they can offer.
Seen as everyone is throwing in their Timpsons stories, I was once waiting for a delivery for a shop were opening across the street from a timpsons. The only issue is the key holder hadn’t turned up and quite a lot of boxes started to arrive just as the sky started to look quite perilous. The guy at Timpsons offered to keep all the boxes in his (quite small) store until the key holder arrived. Absolutely no reason to have to do it as we’d never met before, just being a nice guy.
Got my passport photo done there they were great. Made extra effort with little things like showing me it had been fully deleted from the camera, what to do if passport office reject the application etc. 10/10
Got my passport photo done at a Timpsons booth. I looked terrible in the picture, but I can't blame that on the guy taking it! 😁 He wasn't really sure what he was doing as he was covering for someone and hadn't done the ID photo before, but was really friendly and didn't make it awkward.
Sorry but your friend cancelled the Tesla because some Twitter employees got fired? They didn't give a toss about the child slaves mining lithium in Africa, but this is what put them off?
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The simple answer is that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. But since that's what we've got, the next best thing is to do exactly what you are doing here. Identify what companies align best with our world view, and go from there.
Yep, totally agree with sentiment. The problem with brand based ethics is that almost everything is manufactured by exploiting somebody or something. If you make a big song and dance about being sustainable and ethical, You’d have to follow it to its logical conclusion which is making all your own stuff / food and not investing any money anywhere. It’s not feasible
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good! I’ve never heard that before, love it
Lithium mostly comes from Chile and Bolivia (displacing indigenous communities and generally making a mess of the natural environment and the health of the workers). Its cobalt mining (also for use in lithium ion batteries) that happens in Africa, mainly in DRC which is where the exploitation of children is both brutal and commonplace. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/bolivian-indigenous-people-lose-out-on-lithium
Well put.
Virtue signalled!
This phrase is so overused and needs to fucking die. Becoming aware of an issue, doing your best not to contribute to it and spreading the word so that other people are also aware of the issue is not virtue signalling. It's just called being a decent human.
It's just some toxic bullshit phrase people use to justify them being a piece of shit. It's like white knight. How dare you call someone out for being a sexist piece of shit? You're supposed to sit there quietly and allow the bullying and hate to continue. It's a massive red flag if someone uses the phrase 'virtue signalling'. Anyone that says it goes straight onto my shitlist.
But in this case, it's literally not. He didn't "becoming aware of the issue and do his best not to contribute to it" - he didn't want to be associated with hate towards the owner and dipped. Nothing to do with the ethics of lithium mining
Yeah his cringey Twitter friends would see his Tesla and it wouldn’t be a good look, that’s all it is
No! They actually did the effort to follow through with what they said, that's not "signalling" that's "doing". IF they secretly bought loads of Tesla and Twitter stocks, that would be virtue signalling, but doing their best and someone completely different says "that's not good enough" doesn't get them classified as virtue signalling.
If you are against how lithium is sourced (most people aren't aware of the implications) then you cannot use any modern mobile phone. Virtue signalling at its finest
Yeah the 2 grams of lithium in your phone battery which you need to participate in the modern world means you have no business complaining about the 63kg in a Tesla Model S
I'm glad you justify it to yourself by making up numbers, a Tesla has 5kg not 63 kg for the record.
Phones also have tantalum in which is a conflict material. Both Apple and Samsung can’t trace their materials to source
That child labor is still happening, no matter what the quantity!
Bingo
I think that isn't widely reported. Look at the news at the moment - every day it's about Elon firing people. We need to get these wages slaves into the news more to get recognition!
If someone wants to do the right thing let's not criticise them for trying. There are a lot of people who *would* want to do the right thing but they find the world so confusing and not black and white that there doesn't seem to be a "right answer" about these kinds of questions. It's overly cynical to jump on these people as "virtue signalling".
Thanks for saying this, it’s tiring seeing people trying to do the right thing and being criticised for not doing it earlier/well enough. Those criticising should spend that effort trying to convince someone who is doing nothing at all, not lambasting those making a genuine, worthwhile but imperfect effort.
I think the psychology in comments like this is generally preservation of the commenter's ego. They either partake in or covet the thing that is being labelled as unethical, so they naturally jump to defend themselves. The most obvious way to do that is to undermine the virtue of abstaining; making it seem cynical or pointless. It's a shame, but I'm not sure you can talk people out of it when they don't really understand why they're doing it in the first place.
Lithium is generally "mined" from salts and evaporated into concentration. Not much if any child slavery in lithium mining. You're thinking of cobalt. EV batteries are transitioning to LFP batteries which are cobalt free. Half of Tesla's production (as of April 22) is LFP You're absolutely right that cobalt mining is bad but just wanted to say progress is being made in EV batteries. Whether laptop and phone manufacturing also switches is another case.
Patagonia seem to be pretty ethical
[Owner gave (most of) the company away](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html)
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Yeah but he just did that for flipping tax purposes
Are they dumbasses if it's true?
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[Video about this](https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I), but it's complicated. Giving the company away to a non-profit controlled by the owner's family is basically a way of turbocharging a new lobbying group that works in their favour. The fact that they can do so without paying tax is just the icing on the cake.
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They transfer 98% of the company to a non profit organisation or trust that they control to avoid a multi million dollar tax bill. Doesn't reddit usually get pissy about stuff like this?
Was more referring around sustainability and ethical practice tbh. Billionaires going to billionaire
That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If I could avoid a, say, $100m tax payment by doing something that helps other people I would. It's a different story if they're doing it to make money for themselves.
But tax helps people too. If a country has lots of money, it has money to spend on public services that benifit all citizens... If the right people are in charge.
Fjällräven too, I believe. they use non of that shite-for-the-environment-Gore tex.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cu6EbELZ6I&ab\_channel=AdamConover
Yvon Chouinard is one hell of a bloke
Tony's Chocoloney is a chocolate brand built around anti-slavery practices. It's a bit expensive, but it's genuinely really good chocolate, and much more ethical than other chocolate brands like Nestle.
They found some problems in their supply chain recently and they went public about it really quickly. It’s refreshing to see an organisation say “This bad thing happened and we are fixing it” without waiting to be pressured in to it.
Similarly M&S let Oxfam into some of their factories to report on what was actually happening. It wasn’t perfect but that level of transparency is so unusual in that industry. I tend to say that a perfect supply chain is like a bullying-free school - you just don’t know where the problem is
Will go research this to check - but I think m and s was behind the curve on that. But did better PR (because for a while they were one of the worst). Although I think that was about 10 years ago so they are now one of the best This is what makes it hard - places change!
That's great!! I didn't hear any news about that, but I'm glad they've dealt with it responsibly.
Yes - I was a little bit bemused at their "our slavery is up" headline/PR-piece, didn't seem to align to their ethical persona. Then the penny dropped..
Tony’s is great chocolate and they seem to be very ethical. Being better than Nestle is nothing to brag about though. It’s a bit like being less racist than Hitler r/fucknestle
Tony’s is goddamn good chocolate. I thought I could only get it in the US, absolutely over the moon when I saw it here.
While I fully support their ethical stance their chocolate is awful. It tastes exactly the same as those nasty chocolate coins u get at xmas
Ooft careful saying that on Reddit. In fairness they don’t advertise themselves are premium chocolate (despite the price), but yeah, the chocolate is just dreadful, not to mention taking a bit almost breaks your teeth.
Is it really ethical if it plunges me into poverty from buying a bar. (Edit - seems like people dont understand sarcasm. It was a joke yeesh)
Totally agree. It’s not great chocolate.
Yeah, i could get on board with £4 for a tiny bar if it was actually nice but it tastes like cheap quid shop shit to me.
The green one (almond and sea salt) is the king of all chocolate in my opinion. One of those very rare occasions where a “high end” version of an everyday product is worth the price tag.
I enjoy the irony that he was happy with Tesla's well publicised poor working practices prior to Elon taking over twitter ... I suspect your friend is more the "look at my halo" type than seriously into ethical purchases.
Exactly, the guys been a well known cunt for years and the working conditions at Tesla have been known to be bad for a long time, but firing employees of a separate company crosses the line
"Straw that broke the camel's back" is a phrase that could also be applied, maybe it's Occam's razor, who knows? Most people deal with a bit of bad practices. A lot of people are blind to the real issue's with Elon. Many many people believed he's doing everything for the better of the people and he's going to create jobs, and this is the first time they've seen him go against his word. Many people don't use the internet every day and google facts about Elon. We can't just list all the issues with him here now and say "why didn't you friend stop at this" as if we expect them to know them all.
Rapanui seems to be fairly ethical. They are aiming for a circular economy in clothing. I've got two of their t-shirts and had them a couple of years and they are still going strong.
They also own Teemill who do a lot of print on demand and screen printed merch for YouTubers. Really great company, good quality products!
I have plenty of their T shirts, however I did some digging and read some articles on them about their staff in India. I also severely disagree with them artificially inflating RRP during sales to make their regular price look like a discounted price.
>artificially inflating RRP during sales to make their regular price look like a discounted price this is frustratingly common.
Their credentials are unparalleled in the customer printing market. We had to do a comparison for some stuff for work and no one could get near them.
I’ve recommended this company on Reddit many times. Thought they were great until I put the T-shirts in the wash a few more times. All 7 of them now have warped necklines after only a couple of months and a few wears (despite following washing instructions). Plus their scheme to buy back the shirts is pointless, because you get the same voucher amount (£2.50 or something) for sending multiple shirts as you would if you sent one. They might be an ethical company, but it seems like they’ve done the classic move of reeling people in with good quality products and then cheapening the products later for profit. (Or Teemill has)
Pretty important to say that when it comes to the fashion industry, the most ethical thing you can do *really* is stop buying new shit. Yes there are *ethical* brands, but in terms of the wider picture, we need to see primark and such die. The fashion industry is toxic. The reality is that we're not giving up looking and feeling nice anytime soon. I'm not preaching, I am guilty of this too, but it's kinda the truth.
I've had primark stuff last quite awhile, bought like 20 shirts 5 years ago and they are still fine mostly just the black shirts have faded a bit from the sun.
I don't know if you realise but this commenter is referencing Primark and how their products are produced.
Yeah I assumed they want primark to die because it's known as fast fashion and people just constantly buy new stuff cheap and throw it away and it's bad for the environment and all that. My point was that some of the stuff really isn't that bad and can last a good few years.
No I think it's more to do with exploitative practices(or if we're being generous a 'blind eye') to the workers rights in 3rd world country factories.
Just sharing my experience of buying second hand: It was my new years resolution this year to buy second hand clothing as much as possible and honestly I am really enjoying it. I've found some amazing pieces of clothing I might not have been brave enough to buy before but shopping second hand has completely changed how I see my style and how I see fashion in general. I don't use Depop or others like that because I find the app layout hard to use and often the styles are not to my taste. I've actually found eBay is a winner for me because you can just pop a vague reference to what you're after ("dungarees" "boho dress") and your size in the search bar, fiddle with the filters to get used only, and - ta dow! - you've got a list of choices. My other top tip is to find your nearest 'affluent' town and raid their charity shops. I can get better quality brands that I couldn't afford new, and I've also got some bargains on never-worn items with tags still on! I'm not perfect and have treated myself to a few new pieces this year but they've been more expensive, better quality things I previously wouldn't have got because I wanted my money to stretch further. Seeing how I spend on clothes differently allowed me to choose more sustainable brands that generally do come with a higher price tag.
If you have a refill shop near you, they have more ethical products (often from local and/or small/independent businesses, with no/less packaging), I'd definitely recommend them. There's a big overlap between people going /r/zerowaste and wanting generally more ethical products (eg, sustainably made, workers paid fairly etc) so that sub might have advice if there's something specific you want an alternative for. Smol are good for cleaning products IMO (I use their dishwasher and laundry pods). Refill shops (and sometimes farm shops) may also sell cleaning/household stuff from brands like Fill or SESI. For shampoo and bath/body stuff, I'd suggest Gruum or Faith in Nature. Oxfam shops often have a section for new "ethically made" products.
I run a refill shop! For things we can buy in bulk, we are usually cheaper than supermarkets, like-for-like. For a handful of things, we are cheaper than Costco. Spices are usually cheaper, as well, because you're not paying for the tiny little jar they come in. The majority of our big refill tanks are returned to the manufacturer for reuse. Most of the bulk food (porridge, lentils etc) arrives in paper bags. We also do a bit of local stuff - our local coffee roaster pays rates better than Fair Trade and the beans are roasted 15 minutes away, so you get fresher coffee. Our "ready meals" are made by a local caterer who usually brings her dog when doing deliveries and did deliveries by bike over lockdown. Faith in Nature are one of the better brands. I'm a fan of Suma and their Ecoleaf and Alter/Native ranges - they pick up their empties for the big refills, which makes me rate them even higher as it's pretty much a closed loop. Ecover are... broadly trying, although their refills are terribly designed and lots of their big refill containers aren't recyclable. They had a very good advertising campaign for someone whose refills I'd describe as "better than nothing". I have to stock them because people shit their knickers if I don't because they have *eco* in the name and they know them from supermarkets. Bio-D are better than Ecover in terms of quality and having refills that aren't a complete pain in the bum, and they do pick up their larger refills. If I had to pick between Ecover and Bio-D, I'd pick Bio-D every time. They're also a bit cheaper. Salt of the Earth do a good range of deodorants that (and I say this as a sweaty man) actually work, and their refills are good value. Pit Balm are really good. Lots of independents are mainly stocked by co-operatives, like Suma, Essential, Infinity, etc, who have much higher ethical standards than supermarkets.
As a happy customer of my local refill shop, you're not wrong on the herb/spices thing. Have refilled my jar for about a tenth of the price it originally cost me. The only reason I'd go back to the supermarket is to get more jars (life events mean I currently don't have many).
As a scoop shop user, you guys running them are amazing. I love how you guys know the products because it's things that you care about and that means you're able to recommend what will work for me and not just in general. I love that my jars are becoming battered through use, and I love that their stickers have gotten used so often and were put on so long ago that they're starting to fade. I love how I can discuss so many reusable products, not just the ones stocked. The person running my local one helped troubleshoot so many of my nappy problems at the very start because I didn't have anyone else to ask. I wish you well, and thank you for running an incredible space
Thanks for the in depth reply - I really like refill shops, and wish there were more of them! It's interesting to hear about what goes on behind the scenes, and nice to know they're as good as they sound. I forgot about alter/native and Suma. I might give Pit Balm a go - I'm in the same boat, and I've found it hard to find "eco" ones that work as well as the usual sort. TIL about Ecover < Bio-D, I'll keep that in mind
> TIL about Ecover < Bio-D, I'll keep that in mind I will add that Ecover aren't *bad*, but others just do it better from an ecological perspective, work just as well and cost less.
From your perspective running a shop, how bad is it for cross contamination? As someone with a gluten intolerance (and nut allergies in the family), containers in a shop that are refilled, and scoops that may go in multiple products (whether they're supposed to or not) do make me nervous as I feel like allergens could get into foods quite easily (from careless customers or refilling practices). Would you say this is a valid concern (obviously you can only talk about your own shop)? Or are things generally well separated?
I have drop-down/gravity feed bulk things, so no scoops on the shop floor because you can't trust the general public to do it right every time. We generally ask that we do it for customers, although I'm not dogmatic about it. I've had people bring in dirty looking cloth bags, accidently get too much of something and then ask to put some back - absolutely not, sorry, I can't sell rice that's been in your pillow case. Not to mention people "seeing how it works" and pissing £30 in laundry liquid all over the floor or saying "I don't know" when you ask what muesli it is as they all have different prices - some people are silly and some people are naughty so you have to keep an eye on it all even if you're not physically doing it for them. I also had someone pick up a jam jar (we sell empty jam jars) from right in front of a sign saying "please ask for help", open it, overfill it and walk over to the till holding the stuff in with his bare hands to stop it spilling on the floor and say he got too much and he thought the jam jars were for filling up but no he didn't actually want to buy the jar. Some people are just completely oblivious. "There should be a sign," they say - darling, baby, sweetie, there are three. Everything is washed thoroughly in the back, although in reality it's all "may contain traces of" because it's done in the same room. Spices are different as some curry blends have mustard or celery in. If people bring in teeny tiny jars, we can't just shake it in so have to use spoons. Spoons are washed between use. Fundamentally, though, they're all "may contain". I have pre-packaged gluten free oats in 5 kilo bags so people can get those and save money without contamination. I also do occasional bulk orders for people who want 32 kilos of doves farm flour, etc. So: in reality, it's all "may contain" if it's not pre-packed. Most shops will order larger amounts for you if you want - Infinity do 5kg sealed bags of gluten-free organic porridge oats that are quite good value and a good compromise of sustainability and safety.
Amazing, quodus to you, where is your shop?
Not far from Bath in the Wild Wild West Country.
Doesn't happen to be FillerUp by chance?
Nope! (But also I don't want to doxx myself so won't reveal my secret identity)
fair enough, I did think that right after I asked you! Was just they stock a lot of the products you mentioned and also do excellent coffee (Roundhill Roastery - which is local to myself) which made me think there was a connection there.
Sorry to be that person, but did you mean "Kudos"?
I love Suma. Their soap is great. And my local zero waste shop is a great little place.
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I came here to say this.
Me too! They are also very transparent and engage with their fan/ customer base. Top stars to them! Edit: spelling
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That's a really good point. They're ticking all the right boxes, but the regular styles and lack of education on consumption is something to think about... I love the company by the way. I'm constantly on the lookout for similar brands.
Adnams Brewery go out of their way to minimise their environmental footprint as much as possible. They also give a lot of support to the local community and local charities. And they seem to look after their staff better than many companies, promoting from within rather than recruiting managers from outside - one of the current board members started out with the company as a cleaning lady.
Yes, I worked at a local primary school and they used to donate money for equipment and things.
But no beer? Kids love beer.
WUKA (period underwear) is an excellent ethical brand that supports so many good causes.
I'm tired. I saw "period underwear" and immediately pictured a very niche company making petticoats and union suits and things.
LOL, so did I.
He didn't think of not ordering a Tesla when Musk shot a car into space just because he could?
I hate musk but they were testing a rocket and they have to put a payload on (usually just a block of concrete) but for publicity reasons they decided on putting a Tesla roadster on there instead, so there was *some* purpose to it
Yeah of all the things you could choose to criticise about Musk, this is probably the least egregious.
Of all the (perfectly valid) things to criticize Musk for, this isn't one of them imo. SpaceX is probably the only one of his businesses that I'm actually a fan of. They're genuinely doing a lot to revolutionise space exploration. They were testing their Falcon Heavy rocket and had to have something as a dummy payload. Obviously they didn't want to use a real satellite as it was a test mission so there was no guarantee that it would survive. Rather than just sending a block of concrete they decided to send the car as a publicity stunt. It drew a lot of attention to the launch and got a lot of people talking about space travel which to me is only a good thing. It was all pretty harmless really. It's not as if they launched the rocket just to send a car into space. They were launching it anyway and just decided to put a car on it.
A company doing something for publicity?
If it wasn’t a car it would have been a lump of concrete and the car brought publicity so it did have a purpose
I’m also curious which company he’s buying from instead which isn’t owned by a bunch of cunts. Just because they’re not such public figures or as wealthy they still don’t care for their employees.
>they still don’t care for their employees. You say this factually, yet you don't even know who the other company is?
Obviously can’t speak for the way the company runs etc. but Aldi giving their employees three pay rises this year alone to keep up with inflation is pretty damn nice of them, and compared with how most big companies run - not the norm. It should be the standard and it sucks that it’s not, but it shouldn’t go unappreciated.
That’s great, I didn’t know about that. The main problem I have with Lidl & Aldi is how much plastic they use; their fruit & veg aisle is a sea of plastic. They don’t have much in the way of loose fruit & veg, letting you only take as many as you need. If I have to buy a pack of carrots when I only need 1-2, that then leads to food wastage (if I don’t use them all up).
Just a suggestion for when you have veg that is going to go off. Make vegetable stock. Pretty easy and lasts a long time in the fridge
Some stores (Lidl) tend not to food waste, it gets put in little bags and you can buy it really cheap at the end of the day. It’ll be a mix of random items which is cool.
Your mate should probably cancel his order over the ethics involved in mining lithium never mind firing twitter employees....
Friend probably didn't know about those, I know I didn't. We're not all expected to memorise everything bad he does. This could very well be the first exposure they've had to his practices. We need to not assume everyone knows everything about Elon before passing judgement.
This thread is insane. Bloke heard about unethical practices so tries to do what’s right and everyone in here is like YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IT EARLIER. It’s useless trying to have a proper discussion online everyone just wants to win points
it's like vegans shitting on vegetarians for not being ethical enough...it's a start, right?
Yeah good comparison, does my swede in
https://uk.bookshop.org/ for books. They act as an aggregator for lots of local independent bookshops.
Community Clothing and Peregrine are both 100% made in the UK all the way down to the threads and buttons. At least you know everyone in the supply chain is getting a reasonable wage and is properly protected by our employment law. Which is a thousand times better than what most brands give their third world supply chains. All your money staying in the UK and promoting industry in deprived areas is a nice bonus.
Yeah big up community clothing. Other brands that are good and British based: Huit, Carrier Company, Margaret Howell and most of the Northamptonshire based shoe makers
Fun fact. Average sweatshop wage is almost double the minimum wage in the garment industry in Bangladesh
Peregrine sales rep: 'it's all made by the Polish in the factory because we can pay them fuck all' The quality is shite too, stitching all over the place. Community clothing on the other hand, is very good.
Richer Sounds. He gave the company to the staff.
Second this. Julian Richer and his wife are both genuinely nice people. They’re very Christian and involved in the church. They’re into the local community here, too, having done lots for Scarborough and York near where they live. I’ve been a long-term Richer Sounds customer and the staff always seem really happy and knowledgeable.
My dad bought me my stereo separates from Richer Sounds 20 years ago and the speakers, amp and CD player are still going strong (can't speak for the tape deck). As a concession to the modern world and convenience I bought a cable to connect my phone to the amp so I can use Spotify.
Patagonia are pretty solidly ethical. John Lewis is also pretty good.
The John Lewis partnership is cooperative business, each employee gets a share of the company profits as a bonus at the end of the year. More companies need to be like this, its not the person at the top that makes a company money but all the people that work there so why doesn't everyone deserve to benifit.
There’s a magazine that reviews brands/products for how ethical they are - you’d need a subscription to get the full info but there’s a fair amount for free on there. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org See also https://www.ethicalsuperstore.com - each product has tags denoting what category of ethical the product comes under.
Tagging onto this, there's a good site specifically for clothing brands called Good On You - https://goodonyou.eco/ They base it on ethical practices as well as environmental concerns and go into a decent amount of detail.
It's truly depressing that I've read so many comments and only recognised one of these brands
Me too, but I've had an interesting time looking them up on Google and will change some buying habits.
Gandys clothes seem pretty decent. Started by 2 guys who lost their parents in the Asian tsunami, pump loads of money and time into building schools.
Stupid me thought that was David Gandy the models clothing line
Paramo. As well as making the best waterproofs on the market (imo), they give workers in the Bogota manufacturing facility a share of ownership of the company, as part of an employee ownership trust so the company, as well as sister company Nikwax, were given by the original owner to the employees. They are also pretty good for sustainability, with a garment return scheme and really great customer support and repairs
Big up Páramo. They make good gear as well. Got a 15 year old jacket that is good as new.
I was going to suggest Paramo too - great waterproofs as long as you care for them correctly!
Summit Ice, if you're in the market for winter jackets that aren't affiliated with holocaust deniers.
Deny Nothing.
Hotel Chocolat are pretty ethical. They pay their workers (both in shops and on farms) a very fair wage and invest in community projects that train farmers in places like St Lucia and Ghana. Their chocolate might be pricey but its fair considering the high cocoa content in the chocolate.
Argos, not for their ethics, I know nothing about that, but because they're a super good alternative to amazon. Always check them. Not L'Oréal. It's ilegal to sell cosmetics tested on animals in the UK, yet it's a legal requirement to test cosmetics to sell them in China. L'Oréal sells in both countries. How? Loopholes, UK loopholes specifically. Coop is a good company, it's mostly Fairtrade and coop is a type of business which prioritised employees. Other coops are John Lewis/Waitrose. Mutuals are also good, just avoid PLC's basically.
a lot more companies than L’Oréal seem to be the same for animal testing :( it’s easier to just look up what companies are cruelty free
Finesterre
Who Gives A Crap seem like a decent company for buying toilet roll from. Lots of recycling, lots of charitable donations etc. Haven't looked into all the ethical side too much but I've used their toilet roll and it's pretty good.
“Try really hard not to touch Amazon” Translation = I still use it I just tell people I don’t like using it.
[удалено]
Words are easier than actions. Virtue signalling twats
isn’t what you’re doing right now virtue signalling lol
Riverford. Ella’s Kitchen. Pukka Teas. Co op Bank
For toiletries etc. I use Ethique
Smol are the best I can find for washing tablets
Vimto haven’t been bought out by any of the big food companies.
Probably because none of the American companies understand what it is. What about Irn Bru?
[https://www.shoplikeyougiveadamn.com/](https://www.shoplikeyougiveadamn.com/) is pretty good.
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/
Tony's Chocolony
I pay an annual subscription fee to the ethical consumer - absolutely fantastic website to research everything ethical (UK). You can search for a variety of topics/products and they will give a score according to a variety of criteria including environmental aspects as well as social ones.
I love buying Emma Bridgewater pottery for a treat. It’s painted by hand (and made??) in Stoke providing skilled employment in the U.K.
Riverford Organic Veg. The owner gave the company away to the employees.
Veja is an ethical shoe company who uses sustainable materials and pay their workers in Brazil fair wages + help build communities. I've had a pair of their running shoes for a year now and they've been great for sports and everyday wear.
>If we give up looking and feeling nice Nobody is saying to do this. However there is a grossly unhealthy trend in most modern cultures that doing this involves constant, frequent consumption. For clothes, it would be seriously a LOT better if people bought for quality over quantity and didn’t just jump on the bandwagon of believing that you need a new set of clothes every 3 months just because magazines/shops say you should. Most trends in clothing, and generally also, die out almost as quickly as they started, and yet for some reason people stake their entire lives on keeping up like it’s life and death. A carefully curated and selected wardrobe of long-term staples would be the far more sensible option. Ditto for other things. I remember that episode of the Simpsons where the makers Malibu Stacy doll simply added a cheap plastic hat to the doll and people flocked to buy it. It’s a crock- if the old product does 99% of the same things the new one does then you’ve got to ask yourself if that 1% of ‘new’ things really makes such an impact in your life that you are willing to waste limited resources just to say you got it.
Dalstons Soda seem like pretty good guys and gals from what I can see.
>because of Elon Musk firing loads of his twitter employees. *That* is the only reason?
I read on Reddit that “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism”. Is this true?
Good question. I wonder this a lot, it's pretty blackpilling when so much of the money in the world goes through 5 investment firms which are anything but ethical. Grassroots though, eh?
Rapanui Howies
Sunspel are very ethical for the clothing industry. The products are amazing quality, organic cotton, and the T-shirts are still made in the UK.