c/cooperatives · by IESAI@lemmy.world · 20d

Searchable marketplace of 190,000+ products from worker and employee owned companies

https://www.workerowned.info/

I made a searchable marketplace of products from worker and employee owned companies. 190,000+ products from 175+ companies. There's coffee, chocolate, books, clothing, sporting goods, home goods, bikes, and more.

It's supposed to be as easy as Amazon. You search for something, see which companies sell it, and click through to buy from their store directly. No middleman, no commissions, no tracking.

Volunteer project, I don't make anything from it. Just trying to make worker-owned companies easier to find. Please share! And let me know if you know companies I should add.

55 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

username_1@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 20d (5 replies)

And how do you distinguish cooperatives from non-cooperatives?

Mastema@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 20d (4 replies)

This is a good question. If this is verifiable in some way then I'll try to do all my shopping this way!

Edit: actually, the FAQ seems to answer this to my satisfaction.

username_1@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 20d

How do you decide what to list?

We research businesses using public sources including the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives directory, the Democracy at Work Institute, regional cooperative networks, and direct submissions. We do our best to verify ownership structure before adding a business.

Manual checking and adding to the list :(

IESAI@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19d (2 replies)

Yeah we're not like, vetting companies super hard. It wouldn't make much sense to game our system, it's not like we're driving crazy traffic at these places. If a co-op isn't listed on a more official roster we usually poke around the web site to confirm it.

I have to say, I started this project because it is ridiculously hard to find co-ops. I'm sure like a lot of people, I hate ordering from Amazon or Walmart but it's so convenient. But finding alternatives is a pain. I know there are various ethical models but again, finding ones that don't seem scammy is a pain. Worker-owned seems best, simplest.

Mastema@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 19d (1 reply)

I appreciate that. Honestly it is just nice to have a compendium from which to START a search. I can do my own due-diligence from that point. Thank you for this effort!

IESAI@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 18d

Yeah co-ops that we couldn't integrate into the marketplace are still listed in the directory pages, like here [https://www.workerowned.info/marketplace/books/directory]

WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 19d (1 reply)

Constructive criticism, if I may:

Light blue text on a white background is pretty difficult for me to read, let alone for my significantly vision-impaired spouse. The pink for visited links is slightly more legible, but still not what might be considered "accessible" to low-vision users. Perhaps the option to switch between light and dark themes might be good?
While I understand they have high-tech sighting, guns are not really what I expect to find under the "Tech & Software" category. In fact virtually everything under that category seems more appropriate to the "Sporting Goods" section.

IESAI@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 18d

thanks! fixed that categorization bug and bumped contrast

Light blue text on a white background is pretty difficult for me to read, let alone for my significantly vision-impaired spouse. The pink for visited links is slightly more legible, but still not what might be considered “accessible” to low-vision users. Perhaps the option to switch between light and dark themes might be good? While I understand they have high-tech sighting, guns are not really what I expect to find under the “Tech & Software” category. In fact virtually everything under that category seems more appropriate to the “Sporting Goods” section.

electric_nan@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 20d

This is dope! Great job :)