What is a business/org that is great and ethical in so many aspects that everyone should consider using?

Costco emphasizes a no-frills "warehouse" experience - you're getting what you pay for there.

Agreed about the quality of their clothing in general, not just the Kirkland label - women's clothing in particular has noticeably declined.

I think in-store promotions (free tastings) are subsidized by the manufacturers. Yes, there are some not-very-healthy junk foods being promoted. It's not quite as bad as the generic grocery stores where they funnel you past all the junk food before you get to the produce, dairy, and other primary grocery items. But Costco also does tastings of cheeses, prepared pasta, sauces, and other food products that are what they say they are.

I think the produce complaint depends on your local store; I've never had this problem.

The shopping experience is not very pleasant in general. The stores are too large and too crowded. The parking lot is a chaotic mess.

If you can ever pull it off, Costco on a Tuesday afternoon is a place of tranquility. No one is there. I always go in the week before 4pm, it's a very different experience.

Most of the promoted food is junky snacks, and a lot of them are presented as if they were healthy. Things like "antioxidant chocolate" and "vegetable chips" are almost never more healthy than the cheaper alternatives.

I think that's because it's the food they cycle through the most. Usually if you're getting a sample it's because it's something they are trying out. The stables - cheese, beans, grains, oils - don't need the same help.

They do accept all debit cards so you don't need to get cash. But yeah IIRC they only take Visa in the US and I think it's only Mastercard in Canada except they'll take the Costco credit card I think regardless of which country.

It's all just bargaining for a better rate via exclusivity. (Same with the recent pivot to Coke products in the cafe from Pepsi ones near me.)

They also sell fluoride-free toothpaste which is bunk and appeals to conspiracy theorists. So generally good, but keep that in mind.

That's fair. They are targeting a hippy-esque crowd so I can see that. I don't mind if they are filling the niche if they aren't actively spreading misinformation.

Nano-hydroxyapatite (NHAP) is a suitable fluoride alternative, but their toothpaste doesn't appear to have that either

I use Dr Bronner's in a foaming dispenser (specifically the one from Eco Geek because I believe their claim that it is intended to actually last for multiple refills) for hand soap and I'm very happy with that setup. You do need to dilute it some, maybe 2:1? I forget, but it says on the bottle!

Unfortunately I've never tried it, but if you do please report back!

I like Patagonia a lot, and own lots of their cloths, but I do want to give a quick peek under the hood of the brand. My wife worked in their European headquarters when we lived in Amsterdam and the culture there was very different. They didn't get the same compensation, childcare, flexibility, or mobility benefits as their US based counterparts. It felt much more like a traditional "corporation" outside of the people who worked their who, for the most part, were freaking awesome. It was odd to see that the messaging preached by Patagonia stopped at our boarders.

To compound that, my wife was going to take a job with them in the US that was hired as remote. She ended up getting a weird feeling from the team and ended up not taking the position. 2 weeks later it was announced that all employees, including those hired as fully remote, would have to relocated to a central office or quit. That also didn't sit well.

The last part is that a lot of the gear they do sell is intended for a single season of use. The Torrenshell jacket is a great example, if you call customer service they will tell you the planned lifespan of the jacket is a year. Also anything with a liner won't be repaired.

Buuuuut, all of that said. I love the fact that they have an ironclad guarantee - almost all my patagonia gear has gone back for repair once or twice at no cost to me. They do have some exceptional labor practices in the the US. And they invest funding towards really interesting beneficial things, like their long root lager or in the wool/rubber wetsuits. So definitely deserves to make the list, but just know the other parts as well!

They're the same company under John Lewis Partnership PLC ;)

For another example though, Richer Sounds moved to this model a few years back. Even before then though, they had a great reputation for actually helpful staff.

Former Sec Robert was in a recent episode :) I won't spoil which, but it seems like Sam really looks up to his dad and hold his values in esteem :)

Sam's dad is Robert Reich?!?!?!

I suspect Libro (which is like a 15-person company) is constrained significantly by the formats and metadata provided to them by publishers. Book publishers (all publishers, this was absolutely true for music too when I worked in music streaming) have ABYSMAL metadata practices. Amazon can (and does) hire teams of people whose sole job is to clean metadata, so that you get proper chapter titles in your m4bs. There's absolutely no way that Libro could do that.

I have noticed that almost all of the books I've purchased from them recently have had m4b files, but they were also mostly newer books. I think they probably default to providing mp3s only if that's all they get from the publisher.

All of the Eco Geek stuff I’ve tried is great. That includes the hand soap tablets, the dishwasher tablets, and the laundry detergent sheets. It’s great that the products aren’t shipped with a bunch of water. It’s so much easier to recycle a cardboard box that used to hold laundry detergent sheets than to get the remaining soap out of a detergent bottle.

Question: has anyone here bought their socks, and if so, can you offer any input on the durability? I walk largely barefoot at home, and also tend to walk/run hard, and have worn many holes in my socks. So I'm always on the lookout for good, somewhat thick socks that also aren't too thick.

My girlfriend got AwesomeSocks through the year of 2023, so the oldest pair of socks should be 2 years and 8 months old, or something like that. I don't think she has had any holes yet, though I could be wrong. She certainly hasn't complained about low durability. I don't think she is as hard on her socks as you describe yourself to be.

The only minor complaint here: When they're in the washer, they seem to attract an unusual amount of our cat's hair.

My credit union was willing to put in writing that they would never sell our mortgage to another company. This was a big deal for us because we got tired of having to setup new payment processes and dealing with totally new fees every time it was sold.

This is the whole Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness aka boots theory issue.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Unfortunately it isn't really solvable by telling people it's a good deal long term.

Yes it is expensive but the jacket I paid 350 CAD (if I remember correctly) is super warm and was repaired completely for free. I would have had to buy a spare one (or straw very least pay 50–100$ to get it fixed) if it wasn’t for their generous lifetime warranty.

Ditto my rain pants, they cost 90 CAD at the time but again with this damage I’d have to buy new ones if they hadn’t fixed it for free.

I insist that in these two instances the damage was absolutely outside of what you’d expect the warranty to cover. It was 100% accidental damage that wouldn’t have been covered under warranty by any other brand as it wasn’t a defect of the items.

So yes I paid more than a no name brand for these but I didn’t have to buy twice (so far) and I gave money to a company that treats its employees and suppliers well, and makes an effort towards conservationism.

Ah yes also the stuffing in my winter jacket is recycled, the feathers are from other garments.