Businesses to support?

November 20, 2024 6:10 AM

What are good businesses to support, for reasons beyond their products or services, such as for good practices in:

* Corporate governance.
* Environmental sustainability.
* Social responsibility.
* Supporting its community in a positive way, especially if more than typical for its peers.
* Supporting liberal or left candidates or causes.
* Other ethics or standards.
* Maybe even outstanding customer service and support, especially if that exceeds what is typical at that pricing level.

I am open to companies doing business in any part of the world. (And I realize standards are different in different geographies.) But if the company you suggest isn't global, please say where it does business. And please say why you are suggesting the company.

posted by NotLost to Shopping (20 answers total)

Stitch Buffalo is all about empowering refugees and practicing sustainability. They do too many good things for me to list here.

Burning Books is a radical bookstore that hosts speakers and carries the books you can't find at other bookstores.

Both are located in Buffalo NY. There are other great businesses here but those two are particularly dear to me.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 6:28 AM on November 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

Mama Earth is a pretty small concern based in Toronto, but they do weekly home deliveries of organic and locally grown food. Unlike most food delivery services, they use reusable containers and sustainable packaging that are picked up on the next delivery. They're a B corporation.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:30 AM on November 20, 2024

When possible, I try to choose products produced by a B Corp. full disclosure: I don’t know how verifiable/verified a B Corp designation is as a positive indicator, but it at least demonstrates an intention to be socially and environmentally responsible.
posted by samthemander at 6:54 AM on November 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

Penzey’s Spices
posted by corey flood at 7:00 AM on November 20, 2024 [13 favorites]

There's a little place called Costco that is known for treating their employees well. A Wall Street analyst even complained that the company wasn't maximizing profits, saying, "It’s better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:05 AM on November 20, 2024 [7 favorites]

Patagonia has a number of good corporate social responsibility practices.

I also like to support Ben & Jerry’s who have for a number of years been public about their (symbolic) resistance to the occupation of Palestine.
posted by rodneyaug at 7:13 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Putting in a mention for King Arthur Flour. They are employee owned, B Corp, headquartered in Vermont and top quality products.
posted by ichimunki at 7:20 AM on November 20, 2024 [9 favorites]

Ooo, and Bob's Red Mill - wonderful oat company and also employee owned with quality product.
posted by ichimunki at 7:30 AM on November 20, 2024 [8 favorites]

Glasslock has great products and stands behind them better than any other company I've ever seen. The glass containers last basically forever. When the lids wear out after 10-15 years they'll send you new ones for shipping cost only. I've done this a couple of times for the glass storage containers I got when my now-college-age child was born. The replacement lids came in a hand addressed envelope. The company appears to be pretty small. I can't find out anything about them from the web, other than that they make these great products.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:34 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Red Emma's in Baltimore is a worker co-op radical bookstore and cafe with a strong community support focus.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:47 AM on November 20, 2024

Bank Australia and Amber Electric both operate in Australia and hit all your bullet points.
posted by flabdablet at 8:02 AM on November 20, 2024

If you're in the Chicago area, Abt Electronics is definitely the go-to appliance store, not just for their best-in-class customer service but also for their environmental policies and being an employer-of-choice. They have a significant online presence as well.
posted by DrGail at 8:06 AM on November 20, 2024

There is a certification called B corporation that is given out by a global non-profit to for-profit companies that are certified for their social impact. It is not without controversy as they certified Nespresso, aka Nestle, despite the single use product. However, lists of these companies are a good place to start.
posted by soelo at 8:11 AM on November 20, 2024

Zuri Kenya is an ethical clothing company, mostly focusing on dresses. They're open about their production policies and their garments are gorgeous.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:39 AM on November 20, 2024

I like the Just Cofee Co-op. They sell sustainable fair trade organic coffee, and are an employee-owned co-op that buys from growing co-ops. It's also a B-corp, plus the coffee is good. My local food co-op carries it; you can ask yours to, or order online. I'm not sure if they have a retail store in Madison, WI but if I lived nearby I would find out.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:54 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Chapman's Ice Cream payed all their employees when their factory closed due to fire:

At the time of the fire, Chapman’s employed 350 people in a town with a population of around 1,200. The Chapman family made sure not a single employee missed a pay cheque or a Christmas bonus, a decision that solidified Chapman’s reputation as a leader in Canadian corporate social responsibility.

and bought and donated freezers to rural areas back when we thought covid vaccines needed super-special freezers.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:55 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Equal Exchange was one of the pioneers in the fair trade movement, and they are still going strong and staying true to their mission. They engage in organizing and education. For example, I recently got this fascinating article about dramatic increases in the price of cocoa and how the price changes impacted fair trade. Oh, and their products are great, too.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:04 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

The coffee roasters called New Harvest in Providence, RI, take very good care of their staff, and pay their growers well. They donate to local fund-raisers and show up at events. They're just great folks.

They have one farm where they buy all the beans that the farm produces, as a way to help compensate that farmer better, which they call "Source Direct." They're certainly not the only roasters who visit their suppliers' farms, but they bring staff from throughout the company to make sure that everyone in the organization has a firsthand experience with the people behind their beans.

https://newharvestcoffee.com/pages/our-story
posted by wenestvedt at 12:05 PM on November 20, 2024

Dean's Beans coffee can't be beat!!
posted by starfish at 2:52 PM on November 20, 2024

I've been buying all my pants from Lanna Clothes Design for a couple of years now and if they turn out to be a milkshake duck I am going to be gutted. I have never found pants as comfortable as these.

The clothing trade is notorious for terrible practices and obviously it's damn near impossible for somebody on the other end of a web connection to guarantee that an online vendor operates as it purports to, but I do regularly go searching for red flags about this business and have yet to find anybody saying anything even slightly negative about it.
posted by flabdablet at 5:50 PM on November 20, 2024