about us
The Birth of The Karma Bazaar
I have always enjoyed the feeling of my halo shining brightly when I reuse or recycle. The problem is that participating in the market of used goods is much harder than it should be – especially if, like me, you want to feel holy, but you simply can’t afford the time it would take to acquire what you need. I wanted a way to make giving and receiving feel easy, rewarding and fair, and the result is The Karma Bazaar.
The Problems
Participating in the marketplace of used goods takes too much time and effort
- I would rather sell my firstborn to the circus than have to take a photo of every single item that I want to give away.
- I have zero time, and even less inclination, to browse assorted sites and groups for hours in search of items that I need.
- I very much dislike the feeling of having to compete with the other four thousand people who are longing for the very same item(s) that I need. If I didn’t happen to glance at my phone at exactly the right time, it was bye-bye item, and back to the dreaded endless scrolling and searching.
- If I’m trying to put together a wardrobe for my relentlessly growing children I don’t want to have to negotiate pickup logistics and schedules with a dozen people and travel all over town picking up two Tshirts here, a pair of pants there, a pair of shoes tither.
The Solution: The Karma Bazaar
A marketplace where you give what you can and simply ask for what you want. If the item exists, and you have earned enough karma to afford it, it is yours.
About Me
I grew up in India wearing hand-me-downs from my cousins and then, in turn, handing those clothes down to my sister. The culture I grew up in reused and recycled long before it was fashionable. We had raddiwalas and kabadiwalas come to our door to collect old newspapers and other used goods in order to recycle them. My mother washed the little plastic bags that our milk was delivered in every morning for us to reuse.
I started my career in software development first in India, and then in the United States, where I met my husband, and we started our family. I now live in the Netherlands with my husband, two daughters and an extremely fuzzy dog.
Wherever I have lived I have done my level best to participate in the market for secondhand goods – Buy Nothing groups, WhatsApp groups, Maarktplaats, more FB groups than I can count, Vinted, local kringloops – I’ve tried them all.
I’ve built The KarmaBazaar for myself, and for all of you out there who, like me, want to do what feels right to us without having to spend time we don’t have doing it.
