Much has been said and written about voting with your dollar. Buying locally grown produce at a farmer’s market instead of out-of-season produce shipped in from the four corners of the earth is a great place to start. Asking the butcher to wrap your purchase in freezer paper instead of styrofoam and plastic is another (even though freezer paper is plastic-lined, you’re still skipping the styrofoam.) Joining a CSA and purchasing fresh, raw milk is a very loud vote! Spending a little more for things like raw cheeses and pasture butter and skipping the cookie, cracker and chip aisle altogether sends a loud message. There are a myriad of things you can do. What do you do? Bring your own bags? Special request unique and healthy items at the large chain supermarket? I’d like to hear your own version of checkstand activism.

Several years ago, I joined a polling company that accumulates data from households all over the country. They gather and tabulate purchasing information and provide it to companies seeking marketing data. It’s a rather cumbersome system right now and takes more of my time than I’d ideally like, but it goes like this: A handheld scanner and base is provided to me. For each and every item I purchase, I scan the UPC code with the scanner. Most items I scan require a price entry as well. If an item doesn’t have a UPC code, I scan a bar code provided by the research company so the item is put in the proper category. Once a week, I send the information to the company by plugging the scanner into the base, and the base into the phone line. I am not paid for collecting this data, but gain points for faithfully sending it which can be traded for merchandise.

Because I am part of the sample group, what I purchase sends an even louder message to corporate America. My purchases represent something like 10,000 homes. So picture this: three months ago, 10,000 homes very suddenly stopped buying your crackers, Nabisco. Four months ago, 10,000 homes made their last purchase of sugar, Domino. There hasn’t been a loaf of your bread sold to 10,000 previous regular customers in the last five months, Arnold Bread. There has been a very sudden upsurge in the number of American homes purchasing food through CSAs, farmers markets and local sources in the last twelve months. I have to smile when I hear those reports, knowing at least part of that is me!

So, let’s hear it, readers. How are you voting with your dollar these days?

Advertisement