Wrenching the supply chain out of large corporate control is easy only in one’s mind. Once you start to decide that your purchasing will work as if there is only one planet, you find you come up against large supply chains that are telling you “no there isn’t there are plenty of planets!”

I am saying this because any attempt to take control, unless you are very experienced in commerce, will end up hitting a brick wall. Many of the brick walls have to do not with supply chains directly, but with your neighbours not trusting you. Having gone through those hoops you will then discover the “invisible hand” guiding all the economic system.

You can ask any small health-food store. The supermarket next door works out the store’s best sellers and offers them at a slightly lower price. Left to the small health food store is the low margin, slow moving products and lower traffic to the store.

All is not lost, however, if you get the first deals right, neighbours will get it and subsequent deals will be easier, at least to convince neighbours.

To ease the way, before you even get started, we suggest forming a group and doing walk-throughs of What if? These are really valuable for:

• Getting neighbours to think and talk in terms of one planet
• Finding out the trust barriers that exist (“I am not lending you anything, I can’t trust you not to break it.”)
• Getting used to setting up the social side of every deal
• And many more aspects

Our walk-through “game” might be of some help. It is a kind of canvas (based on the https://canvas.avbp.net) that gets you to ask all the questions as you walk through the various scenarios.