The Ethics of Shopping in the Time of Covid

Image courtesy of Unsplash.

During such an unprecedented, tragic, and frightening time in our world, this blog feels frivolous at best. I’ve been debating whether to continue working on it at all, not just because of the ethical dilemmas associated with nonessential shopping, but also because I’ve been laid off from my day job and frankly, I don’t need to be spending nonessential money. 

But the reality is - in the before times - shopping was one of my hobbies. As unsophisticated as that sounds, it’s the truth. For me, sustainable shopping exists at the intersection of research, creativity, and self-care - so in this time of heightened anxiety, I find myself spending hours pinning wish lists and filling up digital shopping carts, only to empty them all out. Even if I can justify the financial investment of buying a nonessential item online, is it ethical to hit “purchase” in the first place? Is any nonessential shopping sustainable shopping?

For every item purchased, it means that all of the laborers required to produce the item, package and ship the item, and deliver the item are putting themselves and their households at risk to get that item into my hands. Factory workers. Warehouse workers. Postal and delivery service workers. Depending on the origins of the product, these workers could be in the U.S. or in any number of other countries like China, Mexico, and India - all facing vastly different circumstances with regard to the intensity of the pandemic, the lockdown procedures in place, and the public health policies to support those who become ill.

Drilling down to the corporate level, individual companies may be handling operations in the time of Covid to better or worse degrees. For instance, are all employees provided personal protective equipment? Are they provided health care coverage with paid sick leave, whether they themselves are sick or whether they have members of their household who become ill? Are they provided safely distanced and sanitized workspaces? And beyond the workplace itself, what risks do employees need to take simply to get to work - filling their gas tanks, riding the subway, or otherwise? 

Of course, inherent in each point of risk noted above is the reality that every point of risk represents a worker who is employed with a source of income during the greatest economic recession in recent decades. How do we balance the potential negative health risk of online retail shopping alongside the potential positive economic impact? This is a central question that may not have an answer - or more specifically, may have a very different answer based on the factors of production, the retailer, the delivery conditions, and the location of the consumer for any given order - meaning that it’s too complex to assess with any fidelity. 

There are no easy answers here. But here are some additional resources that I have found helpful in mapping my own decision trees:

Paper Mag: Is It Okay to Online Shop During a Pandemic? 

Huffington Post: Why You Shouldn’t Order Nonessential Packages During the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Curbed: Should You be Buying That Online Right Now? 

New York Times: We’re Shopping a Ton Online. Let’s Be Conscientious About It. 

The Bottom Line: Now more than ever, we should all be mindful of what we are buying, why, and from whom. If we can afford it (and for many, that’s a big IF…), we should make an effort to support small local businesses with transparent policies around Coronavirus safety. Many businesses have policies and safety protocols clearly outlined on, or linked directly from, the home page of their website.

We can also ask ourselves, “Do I really need this item - and do I really need it right now?” “If I order it, am I confident I won’t need to return it, since that will double the potential points of risk associated with this one package?” For those times you do buy online, either for your survival or your sanity, see if there are options to have items bundled in fewer packages - even if that means a delay in shipping. 

For myself, I’ve cut back on my usual volume of ordering and have primarily stuck to the essentials that I can’t get at my small neighborhood grocery store - things like my dog’s food, a few kitchen implements, and the light bulbs I need for my bedside reading lamp. But I’ve also binge-ordered some items from H&M Conscious because they fit my new budget, they’ll come in handy for my new home-all-the-time wardrobe, and because it felt like a small delight in an otherwise very strange time. I’m not particularly proud of this moment of weakness, but I hope I’m strengthening a new set of mental muscles that will help me shop online more mindfully than I ever have before.