Safe Shopping?

So, the owner of my fave retailer, L.L. Bean, is a Trump supporter. So much so that she created a political action committee to help fund the billionaire bozo’s efforts AND she, oopsie, gave well beyond the max allowed by law.

L.L. Bean heiress Linda Bean is in hot water with the Federal Election Commission over a political action committee she created to support Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, federal regulators say Bean's Making America Great Again LLC was limited to individual contributions of $5,000 in a single year— and Bean contributed $60,000. (source)

I was so veddy sad to read this. I’ve shopped at Bean regularly over the years. Each time I visited my dear Aunt Mary Ann, we'd peruse their catalogues together, picking out what we fancied, what we hoped to find under the Christmas tree. We window shopped without leaving home. I pick up a gift card for my sister Celeste on every holiday. When Helen and fam moved north from Texas, I insisted we hit the joint, live and in person, to make sure the girls were kitted out for their very first REAL winter. Bean has long been a Maderer tradition.

No more. I've had to add them to the who-to-boycott list found at Well-Spent.com (see below).

An aside: Who is Well Spent?

Well Spent features responsibly made products that look good and don’t cost an arm and a leg.

What does responsibly made mean? It means no sweatshops, a low environmental impact, and nothing disposable. We cover items that are designed and built with thoughtfulness and intention.

Cool! It's one thing to know who to renounce and quite another to find a replacement.

The list of where and what NOT to buy gets longer and longer. I’ve never been much of a shopper and I generally prefer individually owned/mom & pop type stores to the big chains. Sometimes though, the big chains are the only place to, quickly and easily, find what I need. The days of taking nothing for granted and researching the fuck outta what and where I buy are, full stop, here.

In my search, in addition to Well Spent, I found The Good Trade. Their post, 35 Fair Trade & Ethical Clothing Brands Betting Against Fast Fashion, led me to Fair Trade Winds.

And then I found the Austin, Texas based ModCloth.

Want bricks and mortar? Fair Trade Winds has shops in
Bar Harbor, Maine
Boulder, Colorado
Fairfax, Virginia
Jamestown, Rhode Island
Seattle, Washington
and
Springfield, Ohio

ModCloth is in Austin at 200 West 2nd Street.

Business Insider’s column, Most Ethical Retailers in the World, brought me to the big UK retailer, Marks and Spencer which has made commitments to become "a carbon neutral, zero-waste-to-landfill, ethical-trading, sustainable-sourcing, health-promoting business.”

Fabulous!
While I’m at it, I’d like to buy American made products. The Good Trade site has a list of American made clothing but I need to get more research-y in order to find the merch offline. Same for the Well Spent site. At OXJane I found a list of brands made, at least in part, in the U.S. GREAT but I need to make sure the makers aren’t Trump supporting, ACA opposing, big money half-wits AND I need to purchase them at intelligent retailers too. Finding a nice, inexpensive pair of jeans is beginning to feel like a greater challenge than quadratic equations.

In big, BIG, inexpensive Merchant Land there's Target, who's not on the bad list. Yea! Sears isn’t either but they totally should be. After all, they carry all of Trump’s colognes, after shave and deodorant.  *gack!*

I'd just love to be able to toddle down to the shops and only have to think about whether:

• the new sparkly shoes fit and feel good
• the jeans do or do NOT make my ass look like the QE2 going away
• the bra lfts, supports and is in a cool, zippy color

Those days are past.

Without further ado, the boycott list:
Retailers who do business with Trump Family (source):
6pm
Amazon
Belk (Southeastern Chain)
Bellacor
Bloomingdale’s
Bluefly
Bon-Ton
Bed Bath & Beyond
Burlington Coat Factory
Carson’s
Century 21 Dept. Store (NY, NJ, PA)
Dillards
DSW
Hudson Bay
HSN
Jet
Lord & Taylor
Macy’s
Marshalls
Neiman Marcus
Nordstrom
Overstock
Perfumania
Scion Hotels
Saks Off Fifth
Stein Mart
TJ Maxx
Wayfair
Zappos

Trump-Owned, Branded, or Operated Business
Trump Golf Courses
Trump Hotels
Trump Winery

Companies which publicly endorsed Trump and/or contributed moolah to his vile campaign:
ABC Supply – CEO raised funds for Trump
Forbes – CEO supports Trump
Hobby Lobby – Endorsed Trump
Jenny Craig – Board member Jenny Craig raised funds for Trump
Kushner Properties – Owner Jared Kushner led Trump’s campaign
L.L. Bean
MillerCoors – CEO raised funds for Trump
NASCAR – CEO Endorsed Trump
New Balance – Vice President expressed public support for Donald Trump
National Enquirer – Media outlet that endorsed Trump & prevented negative news about Trump from being released
People Magazine – Media outlet that is normalizing Trump
Uline – CEO raised funds for Trump
Ultimate Fighting Championship – President endorsed Trump
Yuengling Beer – Founder endorsed Trump