If you could start an ideal business for your community, what would it be and why?
THE RIVER OF GOODS
If I could start a business for my community, it would be a secondhand store called The River of Goods.
I think of used goods as flowing through a river. When I no longer need something, especially clothing, I put it into the river by donating it to a thrift store. It keeps flowing until someone else finds a use for it. When I need something, I go to the river myself. Sometimes that river is a thrift store, sometimes it’s eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
To me, this is one of the best forms of recycling. I regularly find high-quality secondhand items, especially clothing. Buying used saves the resources required to manufacture new products and keeps perfectly good things out of landfills.
Over the years, people have joked I’m hard on the economy, and they may have a point. But is it better to waste resources simply so we can have a stronger economy? To me, it is better to live a conservative lifestyle, one that values stewardship, thrift and making the most of what we already have.
When I shop at a thrift store, it doesn’t feel as though I’m simply paying for an item. It feels more like I’m helping to cover the cost of keeping the river flowing by supporting the store, its operation and the people who make it possible for useful goods to find new homes.
I’ve seen countless usable items hauled to the landfill, and it always makes me cringe. When I travel and work in developing countries, I see great need and little waste. That contrast has only strengthened my belief we should make better use of what we already have.
The River of Goods would be more than a secondhand store. It would be a place where useful things keep moving, where one person’s surplus becomes another person’s treasure, and where we choose stewardship over waste.
Hilary Gietzen
Verendrye Electric Cooperative
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