The antidote to “Black Friday”
Posted on 27. Nov, 2009 by kchristieh in non-profits, religion, shopping
I’m burning out on rampant consumerism, and am trying to be more careful about how I spend my money in a tight economy. I found no reason to drag myself out of bed early this morning to join the throngs of people hitting the stores early to take advantage of the latest bargains.
Instead, here’s what I’m excited about: the LCPC Christmas Market. I’ve been helping my church, La Canada Presbyterian Church, with its alternative Christmas market for several years. You’re probably familiar with the concept: instead of buying a physical gift for a relative, teacher, client, etc., you buy something such as a goat, school supplies, tuition, etc. for someone who really needs it in your friend’s honor.
For the past few years, I’ve created a long online list of all the items available, with a PayPal button for each. It wasn’t very elegant, since you’d have to hit “back” every time you added something to your cart if you wanted to purchase something else. But none of the ecommerce packages I’d ever used – Yahoo Stores, GoEMerchant, Volusion, Miva Merchant – were cost and time-effective enough to bother with. This year I finally found the solution I’ve been looking for: BigCommerce. I had a blast creating this year’s online Christmas Market with BigCommerce, and am enjoying using it for other clients. After living through the creation and launch of eToys so many years ago, it’s mind-boggling how quickly and effectively I can now launch an online store.
Please visit the LCPC Christmas Market and put this year’s holiday dollars to good use!
Yes, for me sleeping in late is to big a temptation to overcome simply so I can save an extra 10 or 20% on something…IF it wasn’t already sold out!
KCher, your new theme is a beam of bright sunshine!