Page 21 - BusinessWest March, 21, 2022
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Doors of Opportunity
EcoBuilding Bargains Builds a Global Presence Online
By Joseph Bednar
When Darcy Ratti was living in Southern Connecticut, she heard about EcoBuilding Bargains — shortly after she completely refinished her basement.
“I was so angry,” she recalled. “I would have saved so much money, and it would have looked
stock. I’ve got a lot of brand-new windows that were a misorder.
“In general, people want to save some dollars here and there, and they want to buy something that will help out the environment a little bit,” she went on. “You can get better quality here
for the price than you would at a big-box store. Instead of getting a pressboard cabinet set IKEA or Home Depot, for the same price, you can come here and get a full plywood set with all the bells and whistles.”
The Center for EcoTechnology (CET) launched EcoBuilding Bargains more than a decade ago as a way to repurpose materials that otherwise might be headed for landfills, but
the past few years have seen the store expand beyond in-person sales and into an online pres- ence, first on eBay in 2019 and then, last spring, onto its own e-commerce website (ecobuilding- bargains.org), making it one of the few sellers of reclaimed materials with a national (and global) online platform.
“We started our e-commerce on eBay two and a half years ago, selling doorknobs, hinges, more of the antique, rare items that folks look for spe- cifically,” Ratti explained. “Then we branched out with a broader range of items.”
From there, the store launched its own web
 “People want to save some dollars here and there, and they want to buy something that will help out the environment a little bit.”
so much cooler.” These days, as store manager at
the Springfield- based seller of reclaimed building materials, Ratti is sharing that enthu- siasm with custom- ers both near and, increasingly, far away.
“We get a lot
of higher-quality materials now than
      we did four or five years ago as word has spread,” Ratti said, explaining how the store procures its ever-shifting stock of used building materials and also new items taken off contractors’ and whole- salers’ hands. “We’ve got brand-new Samson doors that have never been installed — an over-
Darcy Ratti says she’s surprised at what people want to toss out — but her customers are the ones who benefit.
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