I’ve never been a particularly admirable shopper. While I love to shop locally for the fun stuff, I’ve never gone to great lengths to make sure that my necessities – food, clothes and so forth – were actually coming from companies that were doing good things for the world. To be honest, I think I felt guilty about making decisions based on convenience or price, and therefore stuck my head in the sand. But the pandemic has made me want to spend my shrunk-down dollars on things that my family needs and things that will save local economies. I mean, what choice do we have? My sense of guilt seems to have been replaced by a sense of power – and urgency.
So my question for you this week is, how has this crisis affected the way you’re shopping, or (for those of us without ways to acquire things, or without disposable income), thinking about shopping in the future? Of the many new websites and distribution channels that are popping up all over the place and will continue to do so, which look useful to you? Which local merchants are showing particular ingenuity? On Wednesday at 8 am CR, 10 am ET, I’ll talk about this issue and how some Costa Ricans are rising to the challenge. You might even get inspired to get a Costa Rican gift for Mother’s Day (might not arrive by Sunday, but hey, a crayon IOU card never goes out of style).
(Like the featured image? It’s by Carolina Rodríguez of ChepeArt. Read my post on her, here.)
I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! If you want to learn more about how to support Costa Rica during the crisis, visit my COVID-19 section, updated regularly – or for ways to enjoy Costa Rica from afar, visit Virtual Costa Rica.
katherine stanley obando 