Vegan Retail Stores with On-Line Shopping
A Spotlight on Vegan Companies and Business
by M. 'Butterflies' Katz
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Vegan Retail Stores with On-Line Shopping:
MooShoes, Inc. is a vegan-owned business that sells an assortment of cruelty-free footwear, bags, vegan-themed t-shirts, wallets, belts, magazines, books and cookbooks, jackets, and other accessories.
MooShoes offers its services through an online store as well as in its retail store in New York City, the first cruelty-free store of its kind in New York City. MooShoes insists that one cannot have fashion without compassion. Founded in 2001 by sisters Erica and Sara Kubersky, MooShoes was originally located near the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan in a defunct butcher shop.
In October 2003, MooShoes relocated to 152 Allen St. on the Lower East side of Manhattan. MooShoes supports local no-kill animal shelters and has hosted companion animal adoption days for Mighty Mutts and Oasis Sanctuary. “About 85% of our staff is vegan and the rest vegetarians. We became vegetarian at a young age and vegan in high school when we became more educated about the issues.” explains Erica Kubersky.
Moo Shoes is located at 152 Allen St., NY, N.Y. 10002 Phone: (212) 254 6512 Web site: www.mooshoes.com
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FoodFightGrocery.com sells only 100% vegan products, no animal ingredients, no honey, no bone-char refined sugars, non-animal tested. They offer around 600 items. Their specialty is junk food, snacks, and hard to find vegan foods, but they also have a lot of staple foods like canned goods, tofu, and fake meats. They have pretty much everything you would buy in a regular grocery store, minus the meat and dairy and produce. The company owners are both vegans for 9 years and have one employee who is vegan. They would only hire someone who is vegan. They have been in business 2 1/2 years. A final message from the owner: “Support the ALF!”
Contact information: Food Fight Grocery, Inc. 4179 S.E. Division, Portland, Oregon 97202 Phone (503) 233-3910
Web site: www.foodfightgrocery.com E-mail: info@foodfightgrocery.com
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All Vegan, located at 4669 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA. 92116, sells ONLY vegan products. The owner has been vegan since 1987. All of the staff is vegan. It's their first requirement! The store sells non- leather shoes and hiking boots, trail and running shoes, belts, purses, gourmet chocolates, wallets, backpacks, Snooty jewellery; specializing in vegan pieces, Osea cruelty-free skin care, Arbonne make-up, vegan candles, cookbooks, vegan lip balm, an extensive selection of animal rights shirts including men's and women's styles by AnimalRightstuff, Herbivore Clothing Co., and Last Chance for Animals (including the very popular "No, I don't eat meat; Yes, I get enough protein; No, my shoes aren't leather; Yes, I have a life", and “Vegetarians Taste Better"), pins, bumper stickers, magnets, and patches. And if you get hungry while you're trying on shoes you can pick up some treats like gourmet Belgian chocolates or gumi bears candy, Tings, Tasty Eats jerky, or Primal Strips. They offer an exclusive line of Amanda's organic All Vegan doggie treats!
All Vegan opened in November 2003 to provide a fun and convenient shopping experience for vegans and vegetarians, and everyone else who wants to be kind to animals or just appreciates cute shoes and fine gourmet chocolate! The proprietor is Joy Zakarian, Director of Last Chance for Animals San Diego. Joy went vegan as soon as she realized that eating eggs and dairy is just as cruel to animals as eating meat. She realized San Diego needed a local vegan shopping spot after so many people came up to their info booth over the years, asking them where to find non-leather shoes, belts, etc. Not only was it hard to find them but many were tired of having to study labels as they shopped in depressingly leather-laden stores, or had unsatisfactory experiences having to return shoes purchased online that didn't fit.
Web site: www.allveganshopping.com
E-mail: joy@allveganshopping.com
Phone: (619) 299-4669
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Pangea sells only vegan products. The owners and all of the staff are vegan. “We offer thousands of products! Our store is a one-stop shop for vegans; we carry shoes, belts, food, body care products, cleaning products, even guitar straps! We specialise in hard to find items, and when we can't find them, we make them ourselves. Our Marshmallows are our own formulation, and most of our belts and many of our shoes are custom made for us” says Lauren Flax; inventory manager of Pangea Vegan Products.
She continues,”Shari Kalina, the founder of Pangea, started the Oasis Animal Shelter in Oberlin, Ohio, during her college years. When a vegetarian friend of hers pointed out that she was saving dogs and cats while eating other animals, she went vegetarian, and soon after made the transition to veganism. When Shari started the company in 1995, there weren't any sources for vegans to find a comprehensive range of products in one place (food, body care, apparel), so Pangea was created to fill that need.
Pangea is the original one-stop vegan store, and for over 11 years we've grown from meeting the needs of vegans in the D.C. metro area to serving the vegan and animal rights community all around the world.” In conclusion, she states, “Pangea is the only vegan store that sells only goods made under fair labour conditions. We're really proud to be able to offer a comprehensive range of products that meet the needs of vegans, and are kind to the humans, too!”
Pangea, the Original One-Stop Vegan Shop, is located at 2381 Lewis Avenue, Rockville, MD 20851
Phone: 800-340-1200 Fax: (301) 816-8955
Web site: www.veganstore.com E-mail: info@veganstore.com
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Herbivore Clothing Co. only sells products that are vegan and that promote veganism. Their clothes have never seen the inside of a sweatshop, either! Both owners are vegan; Josh has been vegan for 7 years, Michelle for 4 years. The clothing company has been in business for 4 years, the Herbivore magazine that they publish has been in business for 3 years.
“Our t-shirts promote the veg*n lifestyle. We also sell stickers, buttons, postcards, tote bags and the magazine. Nothing contains animal products.” She adds, “As vegans we want to contribute to moving others toward veganism. We wanted to do this, though, using our talents and ideas. Design, writing, culture and clothes seemed like the perfect avenues. We wanted to "wear" our message but never found any shirts or styles that suited us, so we started the clothing company. Josh's experience in magazine publishing and love for that was a natural segway to starting the magazine. Josh became vegan after reading ‘Diet for a New America', like many people. He had 2 dogs he loved and realised that if he couldn't see himself eating them, why would he eat any other animal? Herbivore is opening a retail store in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2006. We will carry products by and for veg*n people: bags, wallets, belts, clothes, art and such. Come visit the vegan treasure chest that is Portland!!”
Herbivore Clothing Company and Herbivore Magazine are located at 5519 NE 30th Street, Portland, OR. 97211
E-mail: herbivoremagazine.com Web site: herbivoreclothing.com
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Planet Species is the store of Save Animals From Exploitation (SAFE) in Auckland New Zealand. The SAFE shop ‘Planet Species' has been in business for 3 years and carries ONLY vegan products by policy.
The company owner is a vegan for 15 years. All staff is vegan, though some volunteers may not be. They offer sweets, shoes, wallets, belts, vegan cheeses, cookbooks and animal rights books, a library of books and DVD's, chocolates, cosmetics, toys, gifts, personal care products, jelly, badges, no-egg, food items, clothing, household cleaning products, vegan pet food, cards, personal care items, baby care products, and more. The CEO is animal rights campaigner and director of SAFE, Anthony Terry. The store came out of a natural progression of defending the rights of animals and knowledge of their exploitation.The shop was set up as a showcase of compassionate living and as an example of what SAFE stands for.
The shop is open 7 days. All the profits go towards SAFE's work for animals in New Zealand. Most items are available on-line. Located at Shop ll, St. Kevin's Arcade,Karangahape Rd., Auckland, New Zealand.
Web site: www.safe.org.nz E-mail: Auckland@safe.org.nz
Phone (64)-country code (09) city code 370-7799
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Vegan Wares is Australia's first and only vegan shoe manufacturer, in fact, the only dedicated vegan shoe factory in the world. They offer footwear, belts, wallets, purses, some bags, wrist cuffs, etc. The owners of the firm are vegan; of the additional 3 staff, one is vegan and 2 are (sadly) meat eaters. “At Vegan Wares we believe in the sanctity of life and do not support or condone the exploitation of sentient (conscious) creatures (or any creatures for that matter).
We seek out materials which are free of animal products, and because most of our products are made in our own workshop we can be quite confident that no leather component sneaks its way into our merchandise.” One of the owners is Peter Cabera, who became vegan from joining Animal Liberation many years ago. Peter says, “I was veg then but not vegan. I guess just mixing in such circles made the path to veganism an obvious progression. About 12 years or so, I had decided I wasn't going to buy or wear leather any more... I'd heard there were some vegan shoe businesses in the UK, and I decided to make inquiries. At this time I happened to meet up with Jenny (Donaldson) who had been independently investigating her own vegan shoe concept. I suggested a business partnership arrangement, seeing as we had complimentary skills. Six months later (and two years after I had first started thinking about vegan shoes) the Vegan Wares shop opened at 78 Smith Street, Collingwood. That was in August of 1995.
Located in Melbourne, Australia. Phone: 61-3-9417 0230.
E-mail: veganw@veganwares.com Web site: www.veganwares.com
M. 'Butterflies' Katz is the co-author of Incredibly Delicious; Recipes for a New Paradigm which is published by Gentle World www.gentleworld.org
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