'Buy Nothing' group swaps goods, builds neighbourhoods in Thunder Bay

Members of a new Thunder Bay group are devoting themselves to what they call the "gift economy" by offering free services and used goods to one another on Facebook.

Volunteer administrator Tabitha Kosoris said the group's purpose goes beyond saving money and recycling.

"It's about community and getting to know your neighbours and that sort of thing, because a lot of times with the internet nowadays you don't really get to know your neighbours.”

Kosoris said members write their ads in a way that helps neighbours get to know each other.

"I'll do kind of a bit of a background like 'oh my great aunt ... gave me this stool and it's helped our family out but we don't need it anymore so we want to pass it onto the next person.  So you don't need to go into that much detail but it's kind of fun if you do,” she said.

“And then people will post whether or not they're interested.  And what's different with this as opposed to other buy and sell or trading or like gifting web sites is you don't just choose the first person.  You choose whoever you feel would be the best fit for whatever you're giving," said Kosoris. 

First meet-and-greet

Kosoris said Buy Nothing Fort William held its first in-person meeting and swap session at a city coffee shop, in January.

One member proposed the meeting because she had so many clothes to give away it seemed more efficient to do it in person.

"It was a great experience to see people, and I really hope that more people come out to the next one."

Kosoris says the group hopes to meet several times a year, including at least once each season.

"Buy Nothing itself is a gift economy. So you'd be offering things you don't need any more, or services that you have to offer and you could also ask for services that you might need or things that you might need,” Kosoris said.

"It's not just 'stuff,' like a lot of the other groups other there. It's more of a community, and people are helping each other out, and not necessarily because you need it, but because it's a friendship, sort of," she said.

Group's focus is hyper-local

Kosoris said she discovered Buy Nothing when she stumbled upon the web site. It's an international movement whose web site claims it has 415 groups and 80,000 members in nine  countries.

When Kosoris discovered there were no groups in Thunder Bay, she volunteered to administer one, and began the Fort William group online in late 2014. 

Kosoris said the goal of Buy Nothing is to build groups within neighbourhoods, in order to make them accessible to people without cars, and to discourage driving. 

But, she said since starting the Fort William group, she's had so much interest from the north side of Thunder Bay that she's started administering a group for Port Arthur as well.