Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Wobbling on my ethics

WOBBLE!!!! Yesterday I had an interview and I realized most of my clothes are either uber-corporate (from my uber-corporate suit days) or scrungy t-shirts. So I decided to buy a semi-nice shirt and a pair of shoes for an interview, but put it off until the last minute. I decided to buy something from a local store, not made in China, in a style I might actually like. I decided to go to Whole Earth thinking they would have a nice selection of bamboo and organic cotton clothing. Nope. Everything was made in China and most of it was sleeveless (not so great for interviews). Everything -- everything except the linen weird baggy thing I bought that was made in ... Lithuania -- was made in China. I bought some non-leather shoes thinking they would at least be okay, but Near and Dear pointed out the "vegan" earth shoes had cute little US flags stickers with the VERRRY tiny statement "DESIGNED IN USA" and, totally separated, in an out-of-the-way spot and in VERRRRRRRY small letters, "MADE IN CHINA." AGH! How can I support a store that actively sells novelty plastic tacky landfill items at the counter? Returning my purchases hurts the local store. But the items they sell hurt my ethics because they don't go far enough.