Do you ever wonder if the products you buy help to grow companies that support political and social causes you believe in (or oppose)? Wouldn’t you know it? There’s a new app for that. The husband sent me a link this week to an article about Buycott. This new app helps you determine what causes various companies are aligned with, or against, so you can target your spending toward companies you agree with and avoid those you don’t.
Buycott describes itself as “the opposite of a boycott.” Instead of exclusively avoiding purchasing products from companies whose beliefs you oppose, the app helps you to figure out which companies you want to support and seek them out in particular. I LOVE this positive spin!
The app works by allowing you to scan the bar codes of products to show “the family tree” of a company to find the ultimate parent company. You can join campaigns created by other users like avoiding the products from companies that oppose marriage equality, or who are on your side of the genetically modified food labeling debate or you can create your own campaigns. The app is non-partisan. It is still in development and so many people downloaded it this week that it crashed, but it is up and running again and continuing to grow.
Personally, I can’t see scanning everything I buy every time I buy anything. That said, It does seem worth checking out to find out which brands in favor of issues I care about and giving them as much business as possible (and vice versa!) If you want to be more conscious about what you buy and what political actions your money might be funding, download Buycott (free on iTunes and for Android).
If your spring cleaning yielded a ton of great new or slightly used stuff that you want to sell like mine did, but you don’t have the time/energy for eBay or Craigslist, check out Sold. Sold “sells so you don’t have to.” Through “smart pricing analytics, a refined user experience, and genuine customer service”, they are “reimagining the way people sell online – by taking the burden completely off their shoulders.” [I read this and said SIGN ME UP!]
On their blog, they ask the question that you are probably asking, “But why do people need someone to sell for them when they can just do it themselves?”
“We know that affluent consumers have far less free time on their hands (138 hours of leisure time per year less than the average American), and they’re spending much of that precious time driving the growth in online retail spending (from $200b in 2011 up to a projected $327b by 2016). With buying being so much easier than selling, these consumers are storing instead of selling (US self storage rentals have increased by 65% since 1995). Not to mention the more than $30B sitting in the growing closets and drawers nationwide.”
They take care of all of the steps for you. They price the item, find and negotiate with buyers, handle shipping (they will even send you a box!), protect you from fraud, don’t charge additional fees and then securely deposit funds into your bank account. Pretty cool – right? If you need more convincing, check out their site Selling Really Sucks.
I downloaded the app and placed an item for sale. I tried 2 things, but one was rejected because it is a bit out of date. (They are not wrong.) I got a price for my item and compared it to eBay (and asked the husband) and we agreed – YES – we’ll take it! Now, they sell our item. It can take as little as 24 hours or up to several weeks. I will disclose the outcome here when there is one and we can see if this app is a hit or a miss! Another cool thing – if you need a box, they will send you one! Otherwise, they send shipping labels. How much easier can this be?! My fingers are crossed that it works and then I am going to sell a bunch of stuff!
What do you think? Worth it or better to do it yourself ?
I am so delinquent in posting “Links I Like” that I may need to do a whole post with health, wellness, running links and good blog posts I have collected. In the meantime, here is some fun stuff I found this week from Next Draft (which I love) and other stuff I read:
- From the Week: 22 Workplace Tips We Learned from “the Office”
- From Mental Floss: 30 Things Turning 30 This Year Among them AOL?! McNuggets, Cabbage Patch Kids and more and the Dirty Etymology of 9 Everyday Words – Ah, vanilla, who knew?
- From Purewow: Need background noise to be productive? Check out Soundrown
- From Buzzfeed: 43 Things That Make You Feel Old – Ouch the original Karate Kid (Ralph Macchio) is now the same age as Mr Miyagi was in the movie! 51!
OK, that was kind of fun, but that last one was kind of depressing! I found some fun deals to take our minds off of it!
> As usual, I found good stuff on Gilt City:
- Nationally, get 40 – 50% off on personalized books and gifts for kids from MyChronicleBooks, 50% off on art made from iPhone pics at Pixaru or a code for 30% off at Prescriptives.com (FREE)
- In Chicago, Get 55% off on kitesurfing lessons from Chicago Kitesurfing – who knew??,over 50% off on classes at Yoga Loft, up to 54% off of swedish massage or organic facials and mani-pedis at Savon Spa in Lakeview.
- In NYC, get 45-50% off on language classes from Fluent City, get 40% off on dinner for 2 w/drinks or fried chicken meal for 4 at Fatta Cuckoo on the Lower East Side,or more NYC deals.
> Like Fun/Adventure/”Fad” runs? Zozi has half off on the Color Fun Fest Run on July 20 in Chicago and a bunch of other obstacle and color runs all over the country! Get $20 off any purchase of $40 or more, too. They have some great trip and active events all over the county.
> Want to run the 13.1 Chicago on June 8th? Amazon Local has entries for $65 ($105 retail – as crazy as that sounds!)
> Visiting (or living in) NYC? Get a 30 day pass at NY Sports Clubs for $24 from Living Social (some restrictions apply.)
> Does your home need a spring clean? In Chicago, get 50% off on spring cleaning services from Homejoy
> Lifebooker is offering 15% off on most Loot deals if you buy from their new iPhone app. They have a ton of great deals now like:
- In Chicago Crazy good deal for a training session at 1 on 1 in Wicker Park $5! (normally $75)
- In NYC, 80% off on 10 spin classes with Pablo only $55
- In LA, 67% off on hypnoptherapy
- And tons more in spa, health and wellness, beauty, home and fitness!
> Are you a slave to your Starbucks reward card/app like me? You should be. Here’s a new challenge – Register for the Star Dash. Collect 10 Stars from May 15 – 28 and earn a $5 eGift. Earn 20 Stars and get a $10 eGift. It’s as simple as that! You MUST be a registered My Starbucks Rewards Member in order to participate in the Star Dash. If you are not a registered My Starbucks Rewards Member click here.
> Hey active folks: There are some great deals on Honeystinger products, injini socks and more on Active Gear Up and Columbia, Skinz and more at The Clymb.
Wow! That ran long. Have a great weekend and let me know what you find out there!