In case you haven’t noticed, “Green” is being tossed around as a marketing adjective for everything under the sun. While other companies have been rushing to describe how their products and services are now “Green”, I have been trying to figure out how to authentically share the sustainability pitch for Plato’s Closet of Cool Springs (and kicking myself for not making a bigger deal of it sooner). After all, it was part of our decision to start the business in the first place.
When we first started talking about opening a Plato’s, we sat around one night talking about the societal implications of the Plato’s business model. We wanted to make sure that we were getting involved in a business that could be congruent with our morals. Just a couple of years before we opened, I had been protesting many of the brands we would be selling for their poor labor practices and unsustainable production practices. As we started thinking about the mediated impacts of Plato’s we felt that we would be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. That is the mantra that we were going to change the world with when I was in grade school. That is also a key tenet of the Plato’s business model. By encouraging resale (i.e. reuse) we should be reducing both the amount of clothing that needs to be produced as well as the amount of clothing that ends up in the trash. By brokering the resale process we are providing a financial incentive for people on both sides of the arrangement to participate in reuse.
Plato’s Cool Springs is located in a suburb of Nashville. It is next to a regional mall that attracts customers from all over. As gas prices rise, the drive to Plato’s may be reducing the financial incentive for our customers to participate in resale. That is why, for the second summer in a row, we have decided to help foot the gas bill for our customers.
Come in from now thru the end of June, buy $35 or more, and we’ll chip in for your gas!. That’s right. Now that gas is back up to three bucks, we want to help out. So when you buy $35 or more:
- We’ll check the zip code on your license
- we’ll check the chart to see how far you had to drive to see us
- and discount your purchase with your gas money
Not that our business interest in Plato’s is philanthropic; we are definitely in it to make money. We just don’t want to be part of the problem. We went ahead with opening the store because we feel that Plato’s is part of the solution. It just happens that 3 years later, being part of the solution is very hip. Kinda like the clothes at Plato’s Closet (very hip).
