You won't find Earthy Crunch UK on Amazon.
You won't find it on Temu either.
And honestly, that's quite deliberate.
Earthy Crunch UK is a little unusual because I'm not trying to turn it into some enormous business. It's a side hustle. I have a full-time job, and I built this because I love the community around it and wanted to create somewhere people could find things that are otherwise surprisingly difficult to access. Frankly, something I would have loved to see when I started on this journey.
That changes how I think about it.
I'm not interested in selling everything to everyone
Amazon and Temu represent a version of shopping that I don't really want to be part of. More products. More convenience. More buying. More deliveries. Just because something is available doesn't mean we need to buy it.
I'm also not particularly interested in supporting the billionaire-led, consumption-at-all-costs model behind companies like Amazon, I'm looking at you Jeff Bezos! I don't want Earthy Crunch UK contributing to that when I can choose not to.
That might sound idealistic. I'm alright with that.
I care about knowing where things come from
One of the things I value most about this community is that people actually care about the products. Where did it come from? Who supplied it? What does it taste or feel like? How hard is it? Has anyone tested it? How was it stored?
Those things matter to me too. I would personally hesitate to buy something when I had no idea who was behind the listing or where the product had come from. That doesn't mean everything sold through Amazon or Temu is bad. It simply isn't enough information for me personally.
And then there's the warehouse factor. I don't love the idea of products sitting in enormous fulfilment warehouses for who knows how long before someone orders them. With clay, freshness matters. Flavour and texture can change with storage, and I'd rather know when something was packed and how it has been kept. I don't want to buy something wondering whether it was packed last week or has been sitting in a warehouse for two years.
With Earthy Crunch UK, if I don't know something, I'll tell you. If something is community-tested, I'll tell you. If something hasn't been tested at all, I'll tell you. And if something is still a little damp because it was freshly foraged, well... I'll tell you that too. I've been working meticulously this week on updating product descriptions to do exactly that. When I say fresh, I mean fresh!
I also care about the environmental side
I'm not going to pretend Earthy Crunch UK has zero environmental impact. It doesn't. I ship internationally. That obviously has an impact, and I'm looking at ways of offsetting air miles where I can. (I just spent Wednesday planting dozens of trees across the Southwark area of London, go team!)
Interestingly, I originally kept the business within Europe partly for this reason. Then I realised there were people much further away who simply had no easy way of accessing these products. So I made a choice. It's a balance between community and climate, and in that particular case, community won. That doesn't mean climate lost. I still try to make sensible choices where I can. No packing peanuts. No cellotape. No plastic baggies. Small batches. Regular stock rotation. Packaging that can be reused where possible. Not perfect. Just conscious.
And no, there won't be a Black Friday sale
I'm not interested in creating artificial urgency either with Cyber Monday, Prime Day, Boxing Day hype. There won't be a massive "buy now" sale because a calendar says it's Black Friday.
If I've bought a batch particularly cheaply and can pass that saving on, I will. If I need to rotate stock, I might reduce something to make room for new things. Otherwise, the price is the price. And if you don't need anything, don't buy it. Honestly. I'll still be here.
This is for the community
That's probably the biggest difference. Earthy Crunch UK exists because I wanted to build something useful for people who are interested in this weird, fascinating little world.
It's a side hustle. It doesn't need to become a giant marketplace. I don't need to be everywhere. I'd rather keep it small enough that I can care about what I'm doing, know what I'm sending out, talk to the people who buy from me and keep learning alongside the community.
Amazon and Temu have their model. I've got mine. And I'm quite happy with that.
No Amazon. No Temu. No Black Friday.
Just a small UK side hustle, a ridiculous amount of clay and a community I genuinely care about.
Shop Edible Clay with ECUK here
Disclaimer: I supply clay and other products for sensory, hobbyist, collection and ASMR purposes. Products aren't promoted as food and aren't represented as food-grade certified. I don't make medical or health claims about my products. Products are sourced from independent vendors and suppliers and repackaged in the UK in a clean home environment.
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