Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

Wander & Trade Launches (and offers us an enticement!)

By

With the whole ‘buy local’ craze sweeping the nation we forget it doesn’t just mean buying from your home town or even home country or continent. We appreciate anything that is well crafted no matter where it is from. But it is often hard to find such treasures, especially when we are glued to our office chair most of the year. That is where Wander & Trade comes in handy.

This site launched last Tuesday and is already garnering fans around the country. What they do is simple: they aggregate inventory from small businesses across the globe, offering shoppers the ability to discover local products from any destination and in turn, offer small businesses the ability to expand their distribution and audience. There are curators in Brooklyn, Portland, San Francisco, New England and London with Africa and South Africa to follow.

Recommended Videos

Don’t think this is just another site with more of the same. Co-Founder and Creative Director Brandon Burns explains that, “Now you can discover small businesses from the streets of your favorite cities without traveling to them.”

There is a wide range of products to peruse from Bicycle Handles from Portland to Mayonnaise collections from Brooklyn and Pendleton tees from London. We are big fans of the Brooklyn based Lihtan light collection made from copper pipes and candelabra sockets. There are even great gifts for gals so click around for some interesting holiday gifts.

Burns has kindly offered up to the readers of The Manual a discount code ($10 off an order of $75 or more) valid from today  (Friday November 8th) till Sunday at midnight. Just enter TheManual when checking out and shop away!

Editors’ Recommendations

Cator Sparks
Cator Sparks
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Cator Sparks was the Editor-in-Chief of The Manual from its launch in 2012 until 2018. Previously, Cator was covering…
Books to read this summer: ‘Ripe’ by Sarah Rose Etter offers a frighteningly familiar dystopia
"Ripe" by Sarah Rose Etter, reviewed: One of this summer's must-reads
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter.

Shuai Guo, Pixabay Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are plenty of books to read on the more troubling aspects of life in Silicon Valley, but none are so personal in tone and downright haunting as Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter. You don’t have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area or work in tech to see yourself in its mirror. In the modern world, we’re all in Silicon Valley, and we’re all well-versed in the drudgery and throes of life under corporatocracy.

Read more
‘The Last of Us’ episode 6 avoids a tired trope, and we couldn’t be happier
'The Last of Us' episode 6 has hellos and goodbyes
the last of us season 1 episode 6

There's a key line spoken by a new character in the middle of this week's episode of "The Last of Us". Maria  (Rutina Wesley) is one of the leaders of a new commune in Jackson, Wyoming where Joel and Ellie arrive to reconvene with Joel's brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). She's also the wife of Tommy — therefore, she's heard a thing or two about the eldest Miller brother in the time they've spent together. Maria warns Ellie during a one-on-one conversation that Joel may not be the man Ellie thinks he is and that you often have to worry the most about the people you trust in life, especially during a scenario like the end of the world.

This immediately raised my antenna. It's not that I don't trust Joel or Ellie, but that I didn't trust Maria or Tommy. Even as the showrunners displayed various reasons to believe in the rebuilt world that the survivors have created in this small Northern town, I kept waiting for it to be a facade, a Trojan Horse that would bite the two protagonists in the behind when we least expect it. Instead, there was no such deceit. Tommy and Maria never pull any funny business, and Joel and Ellie are able to leave the community better equipped for the road ahead than before we began.

Read more
‘The Last of Us’ Episode 5 Asks: Who’s More Dangerous, the Living or the Dead?
the last of us season 1 episode 5 keivonn woodard bella ramsey

Ellie and Sam Liane Hentscher / HBO

It doesn't always seem like zombies, undead, or post-apocalyptic monster entertainment would be the ideal avenue to create and answer philosophical questions about the world. Still, there is a surprising amount of depth to the genre. When placed in the very competent hands of "The Last of Us" creators, these queries run even more extensively through the characters' minds and the audience's. When the dead overrun the planet, you would think the reanimated corpses dominating the landscapes would be the main threat to the living's survival. Still, live humans are the most dangerous creatures in the world. People have natural predilections towards crudeness and selfishness. The harsh reality of an apocalypse expounds upon these negative qualities. This leads to a massive question in episode five of Last of Us about who is a more significant threat: the living or the dead?

Read more