Chri$tma$

Christmas is this week. And you know what that means. Shopping.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas all you hear about is shopping. From Target to car dealerships to jewelry stores, every retailer is trying to get a piece of the shopping pie. I'm sure we've all seen commercials telling us our wives need a new diamond necklace and our kids need the newest fancy toy with blinking lights and sirens. As I celebrate my 25th Christmas, I see how I've believed this lie told to us by retailers and advertisers. We've been told the way to express love to our family is to buy them things they don't need. Ignore the fact that the toy truck you bought for Junior was made in China, where factory workers make almost nothing, have no health care, no unions, and don't get bathroom breaks. Ignore the fact that the fun scarf you bought for your niece was made in India, where factories don't have to worry about pollution standards and child labor laws are basically nonexistant. You NEED the truck and you NEED the scarf, otherwise how will you express love to your family?

This year I've been thinking a lot about where my money goes, I've tried to consider what a retailer hides from me about what I buy, but it's almost impossible not to compromise certain values living in America in 2008 (almost 2009). Peace on Earth and Good Will towards Man should mean more to us than peace in our house because everybody got what they wanted for Christmas. We should think about peace for the cashier at Wal-Mart and good will towards the factory worker in China. Are the shopping choices we make moving us towards these ideals or not?

I don't think retail stores are evil or we shouldn't buy products made in foreign lands, but we should hold the people we buy things from to a high standard. I hope people hold me to a high standard at Homer's. I get excited when people ask me if our coffee is fair trade and would expect our customers to be angry if they found out I was mistreating our staff. I've done my best so far to buy products from businesses who have the same values we do, but we still have a long way to go. It's extremely difficult to find a reasonable price on things like paper cups, cleaning supplies, and napkins without buying them at a big box chain and buying imports. One item I'm particularly excited we now offer is our quiche, made by a local Kansas City baker who has similar ideals to ours. Offering the quiche is a small step in the right direction for us.

I would encourage all of us to make wise choices with our money. What you buy with a dollar impacts people all over the world. Peace on Earth. Good Will towards Men.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2009,
Glenn Winkler