if you missed the first part of this post, head here for context and then come back to read this follow-up. and if you enjoyed this post and don’t want to miss other content, be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter!

so we’ve established by this point that a) you probably care about finding businesses that align with your values given that you’ve presumably already read this post and now you’re reading the follow-up here; b) there can be barriers in financially supporting those businesses but it is still important for those businesses to get compensated fairly so that their employees can also have agency in supporting other businesses (this is how we build communities we want to see); c) money is not inherently evil and is also not the only way we can shape the community we want to build but it is definitely a layered and complicated construct; and d) given that everything is a lot more nuanced than a single social media post can illuminate, it is probably (although not always) unfair to judge a business from a single action or inaction on social media (and we also have agency in our own lives and get to determine who we give our money to and why).

the information on my labels, including the handwritten details on every single dyed skein, are one of the ways i try to share some of my values with customers.

now that we’ve got some context in place, if we’ve determined that short-term social media activity is not necessarily a good barometer of a company’s alignment with your values, what is a helpful sign?

longer-term social media analysis - it might be short-sighted to make a decision about a company based on one social media post (although goodness knows i’ve unfollowed/blocked several accounts thanks to this method - if a nazi shows their stripes, take them at their word and punch accordingly). you can get a much better idea of how a business makes their day-to-day decisions by following them for a longer period though. do they only post about queer content (relevant to their audience or not) during pride month? did they post a black square for blm and otherwise not said a peep about their anti-racism practices or stance on police brutality? are they located somewhere where there’s been an ongoing public fight around treaty rights and never shared resources on how to support local land/water defenders? do they sell products that feel borderline-appropriative (rather than just straight up obviously appropriative) and not acknowledge where they source the products from (looking at you, all the white-run shops selling bulk amounts of white sage)? a shop doesn’t have to completely align with your values, of course, but if you’re getting multiple red flags and they’re not interested in having any sort of discussion about things that you care deeply about, maybe find someone else offering similar products who aligns with your values more.
check out their staff (and clients pre/post-covid). is it a diverse space? do people from different communities that you care about feel safe engaging with the shop?
do they have an anti-discrimination policy written anywhere? a place where they clearly specify their values and boundaries?
who do they work with, both in terms of suppliers and partners? while no one can control what someone else does, looking at their collaboration and working relationships as a whole can provide a lot of context (if you want examples, you can check out the stories behind my yarn bases as well as peruse my stockist partners).
here’s a new one for covid - what are their covid safety protocols? we may all have a range of risk tolerances, but when you are engaging with the public in a direct-contact way during a global pandemic, do you take the steps that are sorta inconvenient in order to protect the broader community?

i hope these notes help you out if you’ve been having a tricky time determining who you want to invest with and who you don’t. a final reminder - there is privilege, financial and otherwise, in being able to choose who you invest with too. just because someone shops at walmart or via amazon doesn’t mean they have zero morals. approach the world with softness as much as you can. we all need to throw punches sometimes (hardcore aries over here), but as a whole, the world could use a lot more softness.

everyday magic: how to figure out whether a business aligns with your values (and why only looking at their social media isn't a strong enough barometer) - pt. 2