The Compact: "Don't Buy New" Consumerism Group Recruits Thousands

We first heard about them a year ago. Money magazine profiled Jonathan and Miranda Edels of Rochester, Minnesota in their August 2006 issue. At the time, they had four children, a fifth on the way, and a $90,000 combined annual income. Jonathan, 29, was a surgical resident. Wife Miranda, then 34, taught graphic design. What made the Edels particularly noteworthy was Miranda's decision to join The Compact. She entered the marriage with $50,000 of debt and a love of shopping.

This group was formed to go beyond recycling to try to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of American consumer culture and to resist global corporatism. Members support their local businesses and farms whenever possible. They purposefully reduce clutter and waste in their homes and generally follow a path to simplify their lives.

Lots of people want to do that. What makes these folks so special? They exist only as an online group that's growing like crazy. In January alone, they signed up 1,000 new members.

The Compact resides as a Yahoo! group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact. Membership is by invitation. You fill out the form and explain in a couple of sentences why you want to join. A few minutes later, you'll receive an email reply and instructions on how to proceed if you were accepted.

The principles of the The Compact are straightforward but not easy to follow. Members agree not to buy new products of any kind from either stores or web sites. If they must replace something, they must borrow it or buy it used.

Most individuals can immediately think of roadblocks to living this way. Keeping that in mind, the group initially established some automatic exceptions. They recommend that members use the standard of what a "fair and reasonable" person would do regarding:

Food, drink, and necessary medicine (forget the Botox injections)

Necessary cleaning products (but not equipment to use them)

Socks and underwear if not fashion statements

Pajamas for kids

The founders of the group also set up standards for purchasing products or services actually deemed necessary. For utilitarian services such as plumbers, mechanics, and veterinarians, they encourage using local businesses and buying used parts such as a rebuilt transmission whenever possible.

While recreational services such as a massage must not be used for too much personal gratification, Compact members are free to give them as gifts, along with charitable contributions. Whenever possible, they are to cultivate plants and cut flowers from free cuttings or seeds. If they actually need a garden shop, they're encouraged to patronize small local businesses, not mega-stores such as Wal-Mart.

Since many members have school-aged children, they often need art supplies. Their recommended first stop is scrap materials. If they find it necessary to visit a store, they should buy from a local business.

For magazine and DVD lovers, no new subscriptions are allowed. However, renewals are fine. Any video rentals and downloadable music files must be freely shared and done on a legal basis.

The Edels readily embraced these principles. When interviewed for the article in Money, Jonathan had recently purchased a 1979 Mercedes diesel sedan. He planned to convert it to run on vegetable oil salvaged from area restaurants. His wife joked that despite smelling like a deep fryer, they would be fueling the vehicle for free.

The Compact group operates by following the established principles and by posting on the Yahoo! groups discussion board. If you join, make sure to sign up to receive the daily email digest. Mark "all emails", and your inbox will be flooded with hundreds of individual postings each day.

Many posters are looking for confirmation that what they just bought or are considering buying is a legitimate purchase. For example, if your house was painted 30 years ago but you've kept it in pristine condition, is it all right to repaint it because the paint is old? Or just to change the color?

Others share great buys, recipes, or ideas for living the principles. The back-to-school season brought a long list of items for a decision. Should you make your kids use the remainder of the pens they were using when school recessed for the summer? What if your college student can't find used textbooks or isn't willing to look?

And what happens when your 20-year-old refrigerator, with $100 of groceries in it, dies? If you can't quickly find a used one that fits and have no other way to store the food, are you free to visit a store and buy a new model?

Just as in any family, kids sometimes rebel at the prospect of curtailing shopping. Their friends have iPods, but they don't. Teenagers often object to clothes, shoes, or purses from a resale shop if they aren't the latest fashion.

In that respect, families belonging to The Compact seem pretty typical.