When you buy a
product whether on the High Street or online, do you ever wonder where it has
really come from? Would you like to know
more about the item you are buying? Well
let me introduce you to Madecloser a place where you, the customer can
buy any goods that are originally manufactured within your own continent and
they are sorted by area - in order of local, regional, national or continental
location.
The brain child
of John Palaguta-Iles, MadeCloser came
to being in February 2011 when he spent quite some time searching for locally,
ethically produced products for his new home, products that he could trace the
origin of its manufacture and could get from a retailer that was closer to
him. Having found it quite a difficult
task, he came up with MadeCloser, an online marketplace where ethically and
locally manufactured goods, literally made closer, could be more readily found
and purchased by like-minded people.
MadeCloser state
that they are:
“Uniquely for an online marketplace, shoppers
who care about local economies, sustainable commerce, helping the planet and
helping fellow citizens, can choose products from a wide-ranging catalogue of
goods - all Made Closer!”
So how does it
work? Manufacturers register their products with MadeCloser to sell them on the
their marketplace, as a customer we can then sort those products from
continental to regional levels to find a product that we want from the closest
manufacturer to you.
There are so
many products that I liked from this website and from a choice of twelve
different categories such as Jewellery, Health and Beauty, Home and garden and
Animals and pets to name just a few, the choice is quite literally endless when
looking for that perfect item or gift and here are some of my favourite items:
For those of you
who are interested in ethics first, and economic and environmental
sustainability, MadeCloser is a site you will like because whilst reading about
MadeCloser, I was encouraged to find that it gives two thirds of its' net
profit, to charities that comply with at least one of its charitable
pre-requisites:
- ŸSupporting the preservation and evolution of indigenous and endangered cultures and species
- ŸActive involvement in local, national & continental self sustainability
- ŸThe education of free will and self governance
- ŸWorking with nature to fight disease
Out of this
donated money, half of the funds go to causes and projects in the actual region
of the individual customer. Whether you are
a retailer, someone who is crafty or like me, someone who often wonders where
products actually come from and wants to find something that has been made by a
person, with a lot of love, rather than factory made in their millions, then
MadeCloser is the place you should definitely come to look at.
**SP