The Resurrection

I've decided to resurrect this big, and to pursue the intent behind it.

Whilst we - although for now it is just I, Stu - still like to shop locally, visit our markets and so forth, we still do a fair bit of shopping at the Duopoly.

I won't refer to them by name, just as the Duopoly.  I'm going to try and explore the alternatives, highlight what I see as good options to explores; try and debunk myths that independent stores are more expensive; and highlight what you get in return: both with respect to the hidden costs of the Duopoly and what I see as the hidden pluses of shopping locally and independently.

Wish me luck.

Stu

An Ethical Dilemma

Fairtrade products are good right? I'd say that's fairly universally acknowledged. After all it's about better prices, decent working conditions, land fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

And organic is pretty good too i'd say: sustainable farming practices, greater biodiversity and are being all round environmentally sound. That's good too.

So we should be supporting producers of Fairtrade and/ or organic products.

But what about when the producer of an organic and fairtrade products, in this case Green & Blacks, is owned by Cadbury's - they have just made their leading product line, Dairy Milk, Fairtrade in Australia and New Zealand, that's good too.

Looking at the Ethical Consumer Guide, Cadbury's don't appear too bad - either from the perspective of their Australian holding company, nor their parent company in the UK.

However, reading on, Cadbury is now owned by US giant Kraft, as a result of a recent high profile takeover. Those bad boys are a different proposition altogether: cited as payers of poor wages to coffee farmers, use of GM ingredients etc

So where do you draw the line? As I opened this post with, fairtrade and organic are good right? So how do you reconcile the support being provided to those farmers being paid under a fair trade scheme with the knowledge that the bottom line profits are going back to a behemoth multinational? Just think about the next time to tuck into your Vegemite on toast, or Mac n Cheese, or dunk an Oreo into your coffee.

New Feature - Unchained Locations

We've added a new feature to Brisbane Unchained, a map in the panel on the right. This shows featured 'Unchained' sources/ retailers that we have encountered in the course of this project.

As a side-panel it will always be available and will update as we identify more unchained outlets.

Groceries, West End Markets, The Powerhouse and Other Independents

Along with fuel, another difficult group of products to buy unchained is that of Groceries.

As with fuel, the market is controlled by a small number of retailers. In this case 70% market share (excludes convenience stores and other merchants e.g. fruit 'n' veg stores) resides with two dominant retailers: Coles and Woolworths.

It was really these two grocers that we had in mind when we set about undertaking this project. Their buying power and the means they undertake to secure favourable terms over their suppliers is well documented and I don't feel the need to repeat that here ad nauseum.

At a high level, some would see their ability to buy in bulk and at favourable terms as reflecting their prime positions at the head of the grocery service chain; others consider such dominance unhealthy and detrimental to local communities through the many smaller retailers they have invariably put out of business in their pursuit of dominant positions.

As with anything unchained, the consumer does have choice. Making alternative purchase decisions requires changes in habits and foregoing the apparent "convenience" of supermarkets with their longer opening hours and general accessibility.

Within the inner-West of Brisbane we are quite blessed with some good alternative sources of general groceries.

West End Markets
The West End Markets are set in the shade of the giant figs just a short hop from the Brisbane River. Selling food, fashion and limited amounts of general tat, the markets are a great source of unchained produce - much of it also organic. The website is very informative too - providing a small panel showing produce currently in season.

Jan Power's Famers' Markets
The Farmers' Markets operated by Jan Power have a regular schedule for the Greater Brisbane area. The markets we frequent most are those at the Powerhouse, New Farm on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. The markets are easily accessible by public transport too with the CityCat stopping conveniently at New Farm Park - also a great place to take some of that lovely produce just purchased and share with friends!

Fundamentals
Fundies is a great store in Paddington, billing itself as "one of Australia's leading retailers of natural & organic foods, with 5 stores situated in the Northern Rivers area and Brisbane. At Fundies...we are very selective about what we sell, with strict quality control and commitment to sustainable agriculture.

Of course there are other independent retailers around, those highlighted here are just some of those easily accessible within the Brisbane area and are also that we frequent most often.

Fuel

One of the hardest items we have found to purchase unchained is fuel. That's not altogether surprising given 5 retailers between them have 87% market share [source: IBIS World Automative Fuel Retailing in Australia May 2010].

When you consider that within the remaining 13% are, what we would consider within our project, chains such as Matilda and 7-11, it's easy to see why buying unchained fuel is so difficult.

Major independent chains between them operate around 670 stores across Australia.

Amongst true independents, it wasn't possible to find too much information in the public domain. The report cited as a source earlier also yielded little in the way of substantive information.

It certainly is possible to find unchained fuel within Brisbane. Like with most other commodity items, doing so requires a change in consumer habits. The closest outlet to Brisbane CBD we have found is Bizzell's in Paddington. Being independent it has reduced opening hours, Monday-Friday 7am - 6pm.

There is an additional outlet along Kelvin Grove Road, we haven't as yet made it here to establish opening hours.

Unchained living perhaps not conducive to frugality

Today the little bear and I were going a bit stir crazy and bored, and for me the best method of combatting boredom is to spend money I don't have, then get stressed out about being poor. So we packed ourselves up in the car and headed off to Paddington's Green Precinct for a spot of righteous retail therapy. Also, remember yesterday that I said I needed pyjamas for the little one now it's getting a bit chilly - this was ostensibly the purpose of my wanderings, but really I just needed to get out the house and look at some lovely things.

We pottered along and in and out of a few places, all of which were small and independent. One was a retro clothes shop which I had to remove myself from sharpish as they were selling fur, which generally makes me want to copiously vomit everywhere. I had a slightly more successful trip to Biome, where I purchased The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Cleaning, and some wild soapnuts. Apparently trying to live unchained brings out the even more rampant hippy in me... but I figured that trying out new things, and trying to make our own cleaning products can only help shed the shackles we live under... right?

I thought I'd pay lip service to my intentions to buy some pyjamas for the bear, and went into some BEAUTIFUL shops with just wonderful things for babies & children (Cocoon, Bliss EcoWear). Whilst undoubtedly independent and unchained, and places that I could happily have spent hours and hours and hundreds of dollars in, I had to frogmarch myself out pretty quickly. I found some lovely pyjamas for the little one, but I just couldn't justify spending $30-40 on something for her, when I had bought her last pair in K-Mart for $10. This is a quandry. I don't imagine there are many unchained independent clothes shops which sell cheap & cheerfuls out there. It's not like she's going to have to go naked, because we're only doing this for a month, but it does show that living independently might not necessarily also mean living frugally.

This also made me ponder that perhaps trying to live unchained is having some sort of knock on effect on us elsewhere - it seems to have morphed into also meaning trying to make ethical purchases: for instance, in our arbitrary rules we state that buying mass produced products from an independent retailer is OK, because we are supporting an unchained retailer. However, we seem to suddenly and spontaneously be trying to not purchase anything made by Nestle. The boycott of Nestle is well documented, and I won't go into it here, and it's something we've flirted with before, but it really requires tons of discipline and knowledge, because it does feel like Nestle manufacture or own everything in the world. Not sure how we'll go with this one, but I think it's interesting that this little project is kind of morphing into something else already.

Unchain my thoughts, set me free....

It can be hard to change your thought process about what you need to do/buy in a day when you are trying to live an unchained life. Last night I was trying out my new sewing machine for the first time, and had to drag our big kitchen table over to a different wall in order to access the plug socket. Stu said to me 'why don't you pop to Bunnings tomorrow to pick up an extension lead'. We both had to pause for a moment to work out why this just didn't seem right...

The weather has turned colder now in Brisbane, and we don't have much in the way of cover up clothing for the baby, so I caught myself thinking 'I'll just pop to K-Mart to get her some more pyjamas'. Another no-no. Now this one IS going to be tough - I don't want to be going to exclusive baby boutiques to buy jamas for a 4 month old, but I can't think of anywhere cheap and cheerful that isn't a chain. Hmmmm...

At some point also I need to shop for groceries. I took the little one for her jabs this morning and she has been a bit sad ever since, so I didn't have the heart today, but we're running out of excuses. Oh, and food.