Where and how to buy your Christmas gifts this year?

This is nothing new: the end-of-year period is the peak sales period for a large number of retailers. This is true primarily for gifts, but also for food, clothing, and so on.

In this period of growing environmental awareness, coupled with inflation and the current economic crisis, we each have a crucial role to play as consumers. Yes, because buying is making a choice.

So where and how should you buy your Christmas gifts this year?

Here are some ideas to motivate your purchases, become aware of the impact of our choices, and realize the impact of the money we spend, and in this way build a better world for our children.

1: Meeting the shopkeepers in their physical stores

If our towns and villages still have a bit of soul, it is thanks to the shopkeepers who hold on despite the crisis, who beautify their shop windows, offer new products and listen to their customers.

In a shop, you receive advice, you can touch, look, imagine and browse. Shopping at the shopkeeper means supporting them with their skyrocketing costs (yes, the indexation of their employees' salaries, the energy bill that has doubled, etc.), it means showing them that yes, you appreciate their presence in your town, it means investing in your town.

Furthermore, if you wish to make an exchange in store, that is entirely possible.

2: Online, but in Belgium!

If you're one of those who's embraced digital shopping, keep in mind that many retailers have online stores. So you know them well, but don't want to go out? Just visit their online shop. Furthermore, many Belgian businesses are 100% online.

Why should you choose them for your purchases? Well, because if you spend €50 with an online retailer based in Belgium, that money will cover their employee costs, rent, social security contributions, and VAT. And all of that will be injected into the Belgian economy, therefore into our public services, schools, hospitals, pensions, and so on. So your purchases contribute to the well-being of your country.

This link is full of gems, all based in Belgium: Belgian e-shops

3: The second-hand market

An alternative that is enjoying ever-increasing success is the second-hand market.

Indeed, it's possible to find some great deals on local groups and secondhand marketplaces. Attitudes are also changing in this direction. While it can sometimes be difficult to give secondhand gifts for fear of being judged, if we receive a gift, we should anticipate and say that we're interested. We readily buy apartments or houses secondhand, so why not other things?

4: Above all, avoid large platforms like Am*, B*l.com, etc.

Because these online retail giants don't contribute to our Belgian economy. And even worse, it's because of them that Belgian shopkeepers are closing down, jobs are being lost, and they're impoverishing our economy.

They're the ones with the enormous ecological footprint. Did you know that your Am*ne package traveled 4,000 km? That if you return it, it will be destroyed? So, to all those who think "it's quicker and easier," well, I invite you to continue the sentence: "it is indeed the easiest and quickest way to let our world collapse"... and after that, it will be difficult to explain to the next generation that the economy is no longer able to fund hospitals, schools, pensions, and infrastructure...

There you have it, that's been said!