By Shernay Williams, Word In Black
Did you know there’s Black-owned toilet paper? The Leafy Products company, which specializes in eco-friendly and 100% bamboo paper, was founded by a group of Black friends. And it’s not the only Black-owned toilet paper company out there.
August is National Black Business Month, so we have created a roundup of platforms and directories that are making it easier to shop Black-owned businesses.
“If we are able to put it in the palm of someone’s hand, then I think we’ll see a lot more people willing to [buy Black],” standup comedian and Blapp founder Jon Lester says in the Word In Black video above.
Inside the Blapp app, you can enter your location to find Black-owned businesses near you. So far, Lester says the platform can point its users to 40,000 Black businesses in the U.S. Soon, it will support online shopping, as well.
“So [it’s] a Black Amazon of sorts,” Lester says.
Blapp is one of a handful of platforms hoping to make it easier to find Black-owned businesses.
8 More Platforms to Shop Black Businesses
Here’s a list of the other ones we found:
- EatOkra: an app helping you locate Black-owned restaurants near you
- Miiriya: an app allowing you to buy Black-made products in one place
- National Black Guide: a Black business directory, events, and news platform
- Buy from a Black Woman: a directory of Black women-owned businesses
- Blk + Green: an online marketplace carrying toxic-free, Black-owned beauty products
- Black Dollar Network: an app allowing you to buy Black-owned products and services in one place
- Black Nile: a marketplace featuring luxury Black-owned brands and services
- Sadiaa: a Black-owned beauty directory
Lester says there’s enough room for all these platforms to help the Black community retain its $2.1 trillion spending power.
“You can go out; you can march,” he explains. “Trouble only comes knocking when Black folks start to circulate our money… By the time we as a community get to [the point where] 5%, God forbid 10% or 20% of our spending is Black-owned, we will feel it. Black folks will feel it.”
This editorial was originally published in Word In Black.
