One (late) Wednesday thing

Item 1. Transparent small businesses

Is there a small business you'd like to shout out in this moment?

➡️ Reply to this email or leave a comment on the post.

Here's the context for the question. A week or so ago, I was down a rabbit hole that led me to Uppercase Magazine's website. It was the first time I saw a note from a small business that addressed the tariffs like this:

Clicking on it leads to this FAQ.

Then tonight, I opened an email from Diaspora Co. with the subject line "About these tariffs..." that includes:

In our nearly 8 years in business, we’ve never once lowered the prices that we pay our farm partners, only raised them. We continue to pay them an average of 4x ABOVE the commodity price, what we believe is a truly equitable wage for their beautiful spices. To date, we’ve paid over $2.5 million dollars directly to these small, regenerative farms. So, despite the tariffs, we are committed to not lowering prices on any of our farm partners. Doing so would be antithetical to our mission and values. 

We also know that every single one of us is feeling the panic and pinch of the rising costs on our grocery bills and with each passing paycheck. So at this time, we won’t be not raising prices for you, our community, either. [...] we’d love your support, and we’d love it if you could refer as many friends and family members our way as possible. As a thank you, we’re offering free shipping site wide through midnight on Sunday. So please stock up, whether it’s just one tin of chai masala or a full pantry restock! With love & in community, Sana Javeri Kadri

Again, if there is a small biz where you'd like to direct the attention of this small but engaged readership, hit reply or leave a comment on the post.

Good night, all. Back to the library for the book fair again tomorrow. We partnered with a small biz for that, too, instead of Scholastic (gasp!) – but more on that some other time.