As I’ve mentioned in the past, it’s important to me to shop locally, to support local businesses and manufacturers. And a lot of the time I’m able to do that. There’s a balance to strike of course, as we live on a budget (one that will soon be much stricter than it has been in the past), but for the most part I’m able to live my values in a way that I am comfortable with.
Enter the crib quandary.
This is the crib I want:
Stanley Young America
Made in Virginia, within 100 miles of my home, and available through a local furniture store. It’s solid wood and meets strict indoor air quality guidelines (the manufacturer is Stanley Young America, if anyone is interested). It’s stylish and customizable in terms of colors – the ones shown in the picture are the ones I actually want. It would last through ten kids if we chose to have them (and we won’t). And the cost? Well… for perspective you could buy the most expensive crib at Ikea for 1/7th the cost. Not that we’re crib shopping at Ikea (talk about opposite ends of the spectrum).
Here are some of the other options we’ve been looking at, also at a fraction of the cost:
Stork Craft
Graco
Stork Craft
The first one meets all of my specifications in terms of being made of solid wood and using non-toxic stains and sealants… but not so pretty and apparently only comes in that one stain. The second two are much more my style aesthetically, but make no mention of using non-toxic stains and sealants. And, well, babies chew on things, especially crib rails.
It’s not an issue of being cheap, but the discrepancy is so significant. As I’ve been compiling our registry, I have where possible, been using Amazon’s Universal Registry tool to register for items at local shops rather than simply through Amazon. One of the things I found is that the cute boutique shop less than five miles from our house marks items up at least 10% higher than other independent baby shops in the area. Ouch.
I want to support local businesses, but I definitely don’t want to be taken advantage of. Is buying locally made, locally sold furniture something only the wealthy can afford to do? I don’t shop at WalMart, and we recently stopped shopping at Target. In general, we want our money to stay in our community. I understand the economics of local business, they have overhead that Amazon doesn’t, they have taxes that Amazon doesn’t. A local manufacturer has to maintain their own shop, with all of the risks and challenges that go along with it. A major manufacturer like Graco or Stork Craft can afford to absorb more of that potential for mayhem (Side note, those are some commercials I definitely don’t mind watching. I’d totally switch to AllState because of them if we needed new car insurance).
There are different kinds of responsibility. There’s the responsibility I have to my community to support it, to feed my money through my local economy. There’s the responsibility that I have to my world, to shop in ways that don’t encourage depletion of resources. And there’s the responsibility I have to my family, to make sure that we can afford our basic needs. There’s the responsibility I have to my baby, who will be here so soon, to make sure that s/he has things in his/her life that are safe and won’t harm, injure, or cause other significant or lasting damage to him/her (getting the house tested for lead, making sure furniture is finished in non-toxic products, etc.). I just wish it were easier to meet all of my responsibilities.