Love, Value, and Business

Yesterday, I picked up a box from Loomis. I was going to have to pay $22.95 in extra fees for this lovely box, so I wasn't in a hurry to get it. In some ways, I almost wanted to leave it, but I had ordered this item and knew that to bring it to full cycle, I needed to get it.

The plain brown box enclosed a very lovely, weighty day planner from Danielle LaPorte. I love Danielle's writings and most of her products. I purchased a planner last year and have used it regularly, although it was one of the less expensive ones. This year, I decided to order a daily planner with the black cover. It's beautiful. The weight means it will sit nicely on my desk. The pages are large and well laid out. The paper feels good and the fonts are easy to read. The month calendars are large enough to see multiple daily entries. The daily calendar pages allow for lots of writing and thinking and planning. That being said, with the American pricing, the shipping and then the extra costs of sending an American item over the border through a private shipper, this planner cost me nearly $100. 

I won't do that again. Period. Danielle lives in Vancouver - not 5 hours from the city I live in. Her work is powerful, but this is just a pretty thing. I can use that money for other, more empowering, local learning. I can design and print off my own pretty planners and it will cost significantly less than $100. I'm satisfied knowing that I've supported Danielle and her family and given her the value that she deems this work to have. I don't agree that it's worth that much and as a result I won't pay it again.

I think the thing that I find interesting is that, as an educator, I have some discretionary money to put towards beautiful things for myself, but I'm not wealthy (of course, that's privilege speaking....) and choose to manage my money carefully to the best benefit of my family and myself. While organizing myself if important to me and doing it beautifully is a bonus, That's a significant cost compared to 98% of organizers. I wonder who Danielle's market is?  I don't fully know, but obviously I'm part of her demographic because I bought one.  I would continue to be part of her demographic if I knew I could purchase this in Canada at Canadian prices without the horrendous conversion to American dollars and the added duty. Ah well, not a big enough self-improvement market in Canada, I guess. It's been an interesting lesson.

Love you Danielle, love the organizer, and love myself not to buy it again, unless something changes.