Plum Ethical is Now a FREE Postage and Returns Site
Posted on | August 8, 2009 | Comments Off
…For the UK, at least.
We’ve been thinking long and hard about this. Until today, we charged UK customers £5 for the delivery of each package, which is cost price for a one kilo package. Moreover, we had actually rejected free postage because we thought it would encourage increased carbon overheads.
However, we’ve noticed that other ethical internet stores have free postage, making it hard for us to compete, and giving free postage would also level the playing field between a bricks-and-mortar shops and Plum Ethical. The carbon overhead of a customer travelling to a physical shop to buy, or having an internet shop deliver an item, will always be there. We can’t get rid of it by charging for it, so we’ve decided not to do so any more. From today, UK postage and returns are free.
Deciding to offer UK free postage and returns means customers can more clearly see the value of what we are offering. Although we lose some profit, we gain more customers, which means more people will share the message we’re trying to spread that ethical shops can sell high quality goods at reasonable prices so craftspeople are properly rewarded.
We’d really like to know what you think about this. Thanks.
Recycled bags from OlovesM
Posted on | August 5, 2009 | Comments Off
Breaking News! (I think I have to say that to show excitement when presenting new news?) We have just put in an order with clever US recyclers OlovesM. They rescue material heading for land-fill and make really great bags, and they do it themselves, which means there are no worries about worker exploitation, despite the relatively low prices for some of the bags. We’re really happy so far, and we hope you like them too.
You can see the bags we’ll be getting at http://www.olovesm.com/shop (the “Fab” collection and the “Jute” collection – hover on the two right-hand squares). They’ll be on the website a couple of days after we get them, so probably two or three weeks.
Awesome Rubber Cow Bags are Coming…
Posted on | August 4, 2009 | Comments Off
We’ve just got back from “Pure” in London. It’s a major women’s fashion show, and quite a few bag companies show there, and quite a few ethical companies show there too. The Rubber Cow Co. are both a bag company and a very ethical company who are strongly animal-free and vegan. I was looking forward to seeing their stall…
Now, we already sell bags by Rubber Cow, and they’re very nice, but at Pure they were showing off their new collection. I have to tell you I literally said “Wow” out loud when I saw them. And it wasn’t because the owner was standing next to me, they really are gorgeous. We’re going to put in an order as soon as we can.
I took some photos, but I probably shouldn’t put them on-line until I’ve cleared them with Rubber Cow first – I’m not sure if they want the rest of the world to see their new bags just yet. I’ll do another post as soon as possible once I’ve got it confirmed.
Another things I also checked is that they are still doing some of the original bags. The Pink Bag sells really well (because it’s cute and girly, and in a lovely quirky way), and we were hoping it’s not going to be discontinued. Well, they are indeed going to keep selling it, which is good. It (and the green and cyan bags) will complement the new collection really well.
Pure ends today, so I hope to get some more details from them by the end of the week. More then.
Mysteries and Updates – Selling Eco Bags is Always Fun!
Posted on | July 31, 2009 | Comments Off
We’ve got a bit of a mystery here at Plum Ethical. Well two mysteries really. Here’s what happened…
We advertise on Facebook, and we keep track on how well our ads are doing. They’re pretty much the same each day, although we’re very slowing improving the percentage of people who click on our ads. This is important to us because it’s only when people come to our site that they can really see how gorgeous eco/recycled bags can be. Plus, hopefully, they’ll buy something : )
Now, all was chugging along nicely until two days ago. Suddenly, BOOM! The percentage of people who were clicking on our ads (the click-through rate) went through the roof, and we had massive numbers of people on the site for two days. We have absolutely no idea why the click-through rate exploded – Facebook have no way of changing it, and we did nothing particularly unusual – but today it’s back down to normal. Weird.
Equally weird is that not a single person bought anything, which really should have happened just by the laws of averages. So, two mysteries. As I said, if you know what happened, we’d love to know.
Other News: We’ve slightly updated the website. If you’re not sure about it, please tell us. You can also tell us if you think it’s better too! In fact, you can always let us know if you think there’s some aspect of the website that needs fixing. Website are always evolving, and always improving, so we love your feedback. Thanks.
Fair-Trade is More than Helping Someone Who Lives Far Away
Posted on | July 29, 2009 | Comments Off
What is fair-trade? Talking to some people this week, you’d think it was only trade via certain specially organised schemes. I suppose that is one interpretation of the term ‘Fair-Trade’ – though I sometimes think we’re allowing someone to trademark the term, put it in capitals and own it. Hmm. Perhaps I’m being a bit grumpy.
Well, I don’t want to belittle the good work that some of these schemes do, but, as you can tell, to me, fair-trade simply means trading with someone in a fair way. If I buy something from you, I will pay you a fair price for the work you’ve done. You’d do the same for me. We don’t try to rip each other off. But that’s not how it is in business sometimes; particularly in fashion, apparel and footwear. We all know about the vile sweatshops that exist throughout the world – yes, almost certainly even in your country, however First-World it is. Long hours, appalling pay, awful conditions, being utterly exploited and treated inhumanely. It’s bad.
However, the point I’m making is that companies don’t have to wait for a specially organised scheme in order to do something about trading fairly. Many small (and not so small) companies make things themselves in a very fair way. For example, I’ve recently been talking to a small company in Aspen, Colorado who make all their own bags. They help people, who can’t leave their own homes, to work and earn a wage. They also make bags themselves. They pay above the going rate for the work that’s done, and give their helpers a high degree of control over the when they work, and what work they do. Now, to me, supporting that is supporting fair trade.
It more than that though. Surely, fair-trade must cover the whole supply chain? That means ensuring that no one is exploited, from the first-person who gets paid during design and manufacturing, through the suppliers, transportation people, and retailers, ending with the purchase by you and me.
The problem is clear, however. It is almost impossible for a customer to check out the entire supply chain for a product that they want to buy. I see two ways forward. One, is to continue to support established fair-trade projects, because many of them are genuinely caring and their labels can be helpful. The other, is to ask the retailers from whom we’re buying about the fair-trade status of the product. If they don’t know, or won’t say, don’t buy. The more we do this, the more retailers will care about it. Then suppliers, then manufacturers. This will effectively make everyday items into fair-trade items. It’s open to abuse, as is any push towards fair-trade, but there will be a significant difference.
Obviously, we at Plum Ethical want to shout about this! All of our suppliers are checked out from the initial stages of design and manufacturing until the products reach us and are sent to you. However, (and I’ve already said this before) we only started doing this because our old company had some worrying experiences with suppliers refusing to tell us how their products are made. We made mistakes and we learned from them. I think that’s all any of us can do.
Waste not, want not
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | Comments Off
A couple of days ago, I looked up E&KO on the web again* and came across some YouTube videos I hadn’t seen before. In one, Kresse (the ‘K’ in E&KO) was talking about the amount of waste we create. She made a point that is worth repeating. Imagine you have to explain to an 8yrs-old what we do with our waste. What would you say? How do you tell them that we, individually, make all this waste, and then we get someone to take it all away and put it on a big tip somewhere. Where it rots. Eventually. We hope. It’s like hiding it under the bed or something.
It’s INSANE!
I was thinking the best way to get people (me included) to really appreciate the amount of waste they are making is to tell them there will be no more bin lorry, ever. What would you do? What would I do? Suddenly our waste is our problem. Each week we’d create more and we’d have no idea where we’re going to put it all!
Just about at that point it makes sense to separate your waste into different catagories. Food waste that might be used as feed (for animals under your care), or for compost. If you can’t do either of those, then you’d have to find somewhere to take it where it could decompose. Cardboard waste could be used as fuel (though there’s a carbon-release hit at that point) or taken for re-cycling. Plastic waste (clean it first) can sometimes be re-cycled (see the label), but many plastic tubs can be re-used, and there are also ways of melting it and turning it into cool new things (we’re hoping to get Matt and Nat bags soon in the shop; they do exactly that). Well, you get the idea. There is a lot of information on the internet about this sort of thing. The point is, I think we would pretty soon try to minimise the waste we create.
All of this reminded me of my Grandma. She was the daughter of a farmer, though she lived most of her life on old-fashioned housing estates. Wherever she was, however, she grew stuff (in her garden and in an allotment) and more importantly (for this blog post at least) she very carefully managed her waste. It wasn’t a trendy ‘green’ statement or anything. She just didn’t want to waste stuff, because wasting stuff is inherently dumb! When she died, we found loads of things she’d saved “just in case”, including a box of milk bottle tops (which she used to make cards and seasonal decorations), stacks of cardboard, folded flat, ready for re-use, and even a bag of chicken bones (I have never worked out why she was saving those).
Together, these two messages tell me something – waste is dumb, and you don’t have to be a trendy greeny to do something about it. You just have to be you and me to do something about it, because it makes sense not to waste stuff and not to send it to a big tip to rot.
We’re very proud at Plum Ethical that we help, in some small way, to minimise waste. The whole point of what we do is to show that everything has potential to be beautiful. It can stop being waste and become something gorgeous, and useful.
S.
–
* Because, after our experiences with suppliers in a shop we ran some time ago, it’s good to know where suppliers are coming from. Also, because Kresse and James are very cool and inspiring. : )
E&KO Bags
Posted on | July 22, 2009 | Comments Off
Have you seen our E&KO bags? Wow they’re good. Really, good. We had to order them, sight-unseen (because we ran out of time getting the shop ready), but when they arrived we were over the moon. “Woohoo!”, we cried, “That’s the moon underneath us!”
They are very, very well made, and all local to the UK, so the carbon overheads are minimal. They re-use ‘waste’ firehose from London, and 50% of the profits they make from us buying the bags goes to support their fire-fighter’s charity in London. Kresse Wesling, who founded the company, says this is ‘closing the loop’. If you want to see more on her work, you can find some of her short talks on YouTube. We’re just happy that they’ve made such a good job with their bags. We get to sell stuff that we’re proud about, and you get to buy a bag that is really special, in so many ways.
The Neumatica Bags are Here!
Posted on | July 22, 2009 | Comments Off
Our Neumatica bags arrived last week, all the way from Argentina!
We were really concerned about the carbon footprint, but we thought we should try it because Neumatica are doing such brilliant work. It turned out that Roby (owner of Neumatica) packaged the bags up very small, with no internal filling, and the delivery wasn’t anywhere near as heavy as we expected. The total carbon cost was 0.37T. A very small tree can absorb that in one year. Our office gardgen is next to a wood, so we’re going to plant a new sapling each time we do a Neumatica order. It’s not at all great, but it’s much better than we feared. We’re balancing that against the good it does for the local community in Argentina, and our projects here in Wales too, plus there’s less rubber on landfill tips. Though the bags were squished and squashed in transit, since they are rubber they just bounced back almost as soon as the package was opened.
The bags themselves are gorgeous. They’ve got a faint, almost musky rubber aroma to them, and they feel much softer than we were expecting. They’re still tough as old boots (well, tough as old tractor inner tubes, actually), but the surface feels soft to the touch. Once people get to hear about these bags, they’re going to fly off our stock shelves (by the way, I made the stock shelves myself, from an old staircase I found).
Let us know what you think about this. Is it worth the transport carbon? Do you like the bags? Your comments are welcome.
Independence From Nasty Bags
Posted on | July 4, 2009 | Comments Off
We’re properly open now.
Our next job is to get the message out that it *is* possible to buy gorgeous bags that are also ethical. To do that will take a long time, but we have a plan and we’ll get there in the end. Lots of people to write to, lots of ads to write, lots of people to talk to. We’re going to have to pace ourselves.
If you want to help, just blog about us, or talk to your friends about us, or chat about us on a forum / Facebook etc. Anything you can do will really help us let people know that they don’t have to compromise if they want a really nice bag. It’s a little thing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still something. And I think it’s something good.
When We’re Tired, We Make Mistakes
Posted on | June 30, 2009 | Comments Off
That’s certainly true of me at the moment. Do you know what I did yesterday? No? I’ll tell you.
I carefully crafted a Facebook advert to let people know about the new site (which you may have noticed we have kind of put live). I got the text and photo exactly how I wanted them. And then I attached completely the wrong web address and posted the advert live to 156,000 people. Yes! I really did!
I actually posted the web address for the development site, so anyone who clicked on it would have seen all the gory details of the new things I was developing, with weird colours, and everything out of alignment. I can only imagine that they would have been rather un-impressed. Ho hum.
Anyway, we’re nearly there. Tomorrow the site is really, really live and we’ll see what happens. Tell everyone! Help fill the ethical world with beautiful bags!