Resalers can raise eco-awareness

If ever there was an industry that should go all out on Earth Day, it would be us resalers…

but April is such a busy season for most of us that it gets overlooked. We MEANT to plan some event, celebration, promotion…and we want tohelp the earth, but we dropped the ball. Or did we?

Here’s some quick-quick things you can do right now if you have Facebook fans, Instagram followers, blog readers, email subscribers.

• Swap-out. “Bring in a clean and usable [handbag, pair of jeans, cooking pot] and we’ll give you [20%, $3 in store bucks, a hug]. We’ll give your donation to [the clothing  pantry, emergency shelter]. They get stocked up, your cupboard gets cleaned out, and you get to find a new [outfit, geegaw] to love!”
• “Put your MyShop staff to work! For every $X purchase, we will donate 1 hour of volunteer labor to [the parks dept, Habitat for Humanity project]” (make sure you have willing owner or staff for this one…and PAY the staff member as if s/he were at work)
• Something to encourage green living: “Come shopping by bike on [date] and receive [a $10 gift certificate, a reusable water bottle]” or “Get a free earth-friendly tote with any purchase…we only have 23 to give away so come early!”
• Take the opportunity to reinforce your mission via ad, tweet, FB entry, press release: “For every T-shirt and pair of jeans MyShop sells, 4 pounds of fertilizer is diverted from the watershed, [and so on, look up some stats on the web re water, land, fertilizer, dye effluence, transportation costs]
• Or go even further. How many pieces of merchandise did you sell last year? Multiply that out by any stat that appeals to you (landfill averted, number of cargo containers shipped from China with disposable clothing)… and that will astound your viewers.

After all, 2010 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. That’s worth some attention from us resalers and our eco-conscious shoppers, isn’t it?