The Shop Without Money is a place where people can exchange objects and skills, but not money, thus multiplying the lifecycle of everyday objects and promoting the value of sharing in society.
PROMOTING THE GIVING ECONOMY
La Boutique Sans Argent (The Shop Without Money) is a French non-profit organisation which was founded in 2013 to promote the giving economy – free material and symbolic interactions between individuals. Since 2015 it has been running the first free shop in Paris: La Boutique is an open space where all citizens can come and leave objects which they no longer need, making them available for others without any financial exchange. The fact that everything in La Boutique is free allows people to focus on an object’s usefulness, its environmental value and the value of sharing.
SHARING OBJECTS AND SKILLS
All sorts of objects are welcome: clothes, toys, dishes, small electrical goods, books, music etc. La Boutique collects these objects – which would otherwise have been destined for the scrapheap – and gives them a second life, encouraging better use and distribution of resources and reinforcing local solidarity. Alongside this, the association organises skills and know-how workshops which allow participants to demonstrate and pass on their skills to those around them. Knitting, origami, gardening, nutrition, parent-child communication, calligraphy – numerous subjects are on offer, and hundreds of people have already signed up for free.
FIGHTING WASTE PRODUCTION
Since the start of the adventure, around twenty similar projects have come into existence – directly inspired by La Boutique’s model – which have been supported by advice and assistance from the association. The model promotes environmental protection by fighting against planned obsolescence, over- consumption and the production of waste, by multiplying the life cycles of everyday objects. The project saved a total of 128,000 objects in 2016, equivalent to 130 objects for eachhour the shop was open. Through the textiles section alone, the association prevented the production of 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
