Eco-Friendly Stores in Tampa Bay

Today's awesome photo from downtown Tampa is brought to you by Elawgrrl via her Flickr site. Check out the rest of her catalogue here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elawgrrl/sets/72157606737215731/

This morning I sent out a call to all of our customer list asking them to take a few moments and vote for us in Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay. This year they have a category for Best Eco-Friendly Store. Our advertising has always been word of mouth and viral email-forwarding based on people that have seen what we offer and believe it is worth telling others about. To be honest, I don't know of that many stores like ours in the Bay. If we lived in San Diego or Brooklyn, that might be a different story. In Tampa eco-friendly stores are still blazing a trail that feels well-worn in other cities. We have visited places like Good Use in Boulder, Colorado and Sustainable NYC in New York where we love getting ideas and comparing notes with other shops.

In Tampa, you can find eco-chic clothing and gifts at Why Not Boutique on MacDill and in St. Pete you can find greener flooring and paints from Healthy Home for your remodeling and building projects. Tampa Bay Outfitters has some great green options for the outdoors. Finally, just this last week, I made it to Worm's Way Garden Center on 56th St. in Tampa and found an amazing array of organic gardening supplies as well as the natural ant killer, diatomaceous earth, that I'd been hoping to find.

We have also seen stores come and go here in our almost three years in business. We are always on the lookout for places that are doing the right thing. Let us know of other eco-friendly stores in the Bay in the comments and watch, as we will, for the results of the vote. I'm just proud to say that we have enough stores to actually have a category for the first time! Keep supporting all of us little green guys and we'll do all we can to keep you happy with quality products and knowledge. I would hate to see Wal-Mart or Whole Foods win the greenest store in Tampa Bay.

If you still haven't voted, then here's the link:

http://bestoftampa.technomile.com/bestoftampa.php

Vote now at Creative Loafing!

-Charles