Green Options » holiday shopping

Holiday Shoppers Say Bye-Bye to Plastic Bags

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:30:43 +0000

According to Deloitte’s 2008 Annual Holiday Survey (BrandWeek, December 16), consumers are going increasingly green for the holidays. Nearly half of the 13,000 consumers polled said they’d be willing to pay more for green gifts — up from 17% last year — and more will be foregoing the plastic shopping bags and wrapping paper.

Among the other highlights:

38% of those polled said they will use fewer bags this year, up from 27% last year.
21% said they are considering not wrapping presents to preserve paper.
18% said they will shop at more “green” retailers than they did in the past.

Green Consumers Willing to Spend a Little More This Holiday Season

Robin Shreeves — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:00:11 +0000

My favorite radio station is usually giving the news every morning just about the time I’m making my boys’ lunches. Lately, I’ve been flipping the station as soon as I hear the news start. It’s a variation on a theme each morning. The Dow is down. One bank or another is failing. The government is considering bailing out one industry or another. Consumer confidence is hitting record lows, and even the holiday season won’t reverse that. People will be spending a lot less than they have in previous years.

A study of Americans done by the retailer Plow & Hearth, however, shows that some consumers - green consumers - are willing to spend a little more to buy a product that is environmentally friendly. According to an article on Portland Business Journal the study found that

About two-thirds of those going green this year say they are willing to spend between 10 percent and 25 percent more to by ecofriendly holiday green gifts.

Here are a few other statistics that the study found:

55% of women are likely to purchase green products
45% of men are likely to purchase green products
Middle-aged and younger people are more likely to buy green than older people
Those who live in the West are more likely to buy eco-friendly than other parts of the country
34% said that money is the most important factor when it comes to deciding about purchasing an eco-friendly product

So what can we conclude from this?

Green Shopping Spotlight: Max and Zane

Victoria Everman — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:16:39 +0000

Oh yeah, you read the subject of this post correctly … shopping, eek. The holiday gift season usually begins the day after Thanksgiving, a day which I intentionally avoid doing any buying. This year, shops and merchants are breaking out the good stuff (and the good deals) right after Halloween to try and help jump-start the economy again.

If having a gift-free holiday is not something your family would go for, why not get them something sustainable? Just by looking through the eco-links collection on my website, one can easily see that there are cornucopia of green stores to choose from. For the next two months, I’ll be featuring some of the freshest shopping destinations the world wide web has to offer, helping you get to the bottom of that twice-checked list faster than ever.

Trying to decide who to feature in my first Green Shopping Spotlight was a darn tough decision, but the answer came to me in a snap, or an e-mail as it were. Two days ago, I got a delightful message from Jennifer, half of the two-woman team that started Max and Zane, the other half being April. I’d never heard of the online outlet before so I quickly clicked on over to see what the scoop was, and boy (or girl, haha) was I in for a treat!

Handmade, vintage, recycled, repurposed — Max and Zane has it all. We’re not just talking accessories and t-shirts either — paper goods, bath & body, kid & baby, men, women and special gift lists are full of unique items that I haven’t seen on any other sites. "Max and Zane was born out of a love for all things extraordinary and the knowledge that not everyone has the time or the patience to seek them out."

While the goods sold on Max and Zane are green, does the rest of the business operate under the same principles? You bet! "Not only do we have a love for vintage and repurposed goods, but we use recycled office supplies and support eco-friendly companies whenever humanly possible. Your purchases from Max and Zane will most likely arrive at your door in recycled cardboard boxes with reused packaging … we figure, if we can provide secure shipping in materials that are reused, why waste valuable resources?"

Need a simple gift for a co-worker? Shopping for a relative that is "difficult" to pinpoint? Ready to start putting slash marks on your holiday list? Click on over to Max and Zane — you won’t be disappointed.