Our values
Make good things.
Stand for good things.
We believe in democracy, equal rights, and dignity for every person. We oppose authoritarianism and the MAGA movement. That doesn’t mean writing off every conservative. Respectful disagreement belongs in a democracy; cruelty and intimidation don’t.
Penzeys and Blue Dot Farms helped inspire this idea: make it easier to support businesses that share your values. Blue Dot Merchants is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either organization.
01 / A direct connection
The people are
the starting point.
Learn who runs the business and where they’re based. Visit their existing shop, or find them through a hosted business page. Each business handles its own availability, payment, and fulfillment.
Applications are reviewed by a person. Businesses review their public details before a listing goes live.
02 / Free means free
Good work deserves
a place to be found.
Directory listings, business-page hosting, AI-assisted web design, and search setup are free. There are no upcharges or in-app purchases for our services. We don’t collect payment details because we have no reason to take payments for them.
Businesses set their own product prices. You arrange purchases directly with them.
Free search setup
Help your work
get found.
Clear page titles and descriptions. A sitemap. Help setting up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These tools are free, and so is our help.
For pages hosted on Blue Dot Merchants, we manage search setup for the shared website. If you have your own website, we can help with your permission and access to the settings it needs. Your website and webmaster accounts stay yours.
Search engines decide what to index and where it appears. We can’t guarantee indexing, rankings, or traffic. No paid SEO package is required.
Ask about search setup ↗Choose Business support on the inquiry form.
Personally run / Best effort
Hosting is
homemade, too.
Dave personally runs this free service on a best-effort basis. We can’t guarantee uptime, uninterrupted availability, or a support response time. Keep your own copies of your content. If your business needs guaranteed availability, you can use another host and keep your free directory listing here.
03 / Real pictures
Show what’s made.
Keep it honest.
If a picture helps sell something, it ought to show what you can actually get. Advertising already gives us plenty of pictures polished beyond recognition. We don’t want to add invented products to that pile.
AI helps us build the website. We don’t use AI-generated images. Product photos come from the businesses and show the real goods or work being offered. Until photos are ready, we can let the words do the work.
04 / A place to grow
Pennsylvania first.
State by state.
We’re beginning with McLaughlin’s Homemade in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania. As more independent businesses join, the directory can grow into more places without losing the local connection.
Bring your work here ↗