Every time you spend, you vote for the kind of world you want
My Linkedin activity is normally sharing insights and learnings, but two weeks ago I had a bit of a rant.
It popped off, ending in huge consensus that Countdown is awful (only two dissenters in a sea of 400 supporters comments!) In case you missed it, I thought I’d share what I said here:
"I’m over it. I’ve had it with zero care, poor quality and my purchasing not being aligned with my buying values.
I’m not buying from Countdown anymore.
Our closest supermarket is Countdown, and I’ve heard it said that convenience is king. And our shopping decision was dominated by proximity. However, this week we experienced the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back; we had to throw out a tray of chicken (the day we bought it), a punnet of raspberries and a bad egg that ruined breakfast! Around $30 of produce, in isolation you may say “oh well, it happens' '. But this is far from the first time.
So how do you resolve this? If you buy online, its a 10 minute resolution. But for some reason we craved the in-store experience. And so restitution involves returning to the store, with the problem produce and fact checking. I have long related to Naval Ravikant’s notion of establishing your hourly rate and outsourcing anything below this. I choose not to spend 30 minutes to get $30 back, I’m pretty sure my time is worth more than $60 per hour.
So, we’re changing our buying habits. It means a small amount of effort; we have a wonky box subscription, a local supermarket for household basics and a quality meat supplier. It requires some organisation and here's the rub: we’re supporting local. I’m personally over profits leaving NZ to go offshore, especially when it feels like gouging at the checkout, or teller. This is assuming I have choice, which luckily I do.
I want a vendor who is connected to our community.
I want my supplier to care about the buyer experience.
And I think they should own poor CX and product.
In life, our locus of control is far smaller than we believe. I subscribe to the Stoics, we control what we make things mean, and how we respond or react to circumstances in our life. And I’ll add to that, we also control how we direct our spending.
Does your spending represent what's important to you?"
I'd love to hear what you think!
Josh
"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want."
– Anna Lappé
Make better buying decisions
Based on clarity of my values, rampant price increases, and pockets of deteriorating service, I’m changing how I buy. Between 70-90% (depending whether B2C or B2B) of buying decisions are now made from research conducted behind the keyboard, ie without much counsel. Maybe this process could help you make better decisions:
Define the problem I’m solving clearly, getting to first order issues
Define my decision-making criteria
Conduct a thorough search
Evaluate alternatives based on my criteria
Consider adjacent issues and unintended consequences (international vendors’ reliability and shipping issues, for example)
Make the damn decision!
Review the purchase decision and its impact on the above
And I’m now very present to the true cost of convenience. It's not always as good as it seems…
