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January 04, 2018 | Tom Ballard

Smart World Market helping individuals buy clean, green, eco-friendly and non-toxic products

Smart World MarketBy Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA

Do you remember the famous question from Ghostbusters: “Who you gonna call?” If you asked that question in relation to safe, high quality products that are clean, green, eco-friendly and non-toxic, do you have an answer?

Starting this week, you can simply go to a new online marketplace where you can buy and sell just such products. Smart World Market, the new venture’s name, is the brainchild of Steve and Sheridan Nice, entrepreneurs from Johnson City, Tennessee.

“It’s the first website in America, like Etsy and Amazon, but for only clean, green, non-toxic products in over 500 categories,” Nice explains. “Our goal is to build the largest community of conscientious manufacturers and distributors in America.”

The venture builds on the passion for healthy food that Steve and Sheridan, a French-trained chef, have. They own Mona Lisa’s Gelato & Café in Johnson City, a garden-to-table café that offers daily fresh-baked bread, gourmet soups, Vegan, and gluten-free fare. The Nices grow much of the produce served in their soups, noodle bowls and salads in their organic garden.

The goal for Smart World Market is to deliver a unique shopping experience for those who truly want the very best products for themselves and their family, whether it is food or products in a variety of other categories ranging from health and beauty to kids, pets, or cool stuff. Their purpose is to raise awareness of sustainable practices in manufacturing and promote safe clean products created by conscientious makers. They will donate 10 percent of all profits to helping small farmers attain organic certification, nationwide.

How do you know the items that are offered on the site meet the claims they have?

“Third party organizations such as the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), Non-GMO Project, Made Safe, and Leaping Bunny (Cruelty Free) are used to verify claims made by vendors,” Nice says.

Customers can use the site to identify products that are “free of” GMOs, chemicals, gluten, nuts, BPA, artificial preservatives, artificial coloring, and fragrances. Addressing all these permutations was a big challenge,” Nice acknowledges.

He adds that Smart World Market will also spotlight new items added as well as those that are on sale. Want to purchase from local vendors? No problem. Nice says the site includes that option in the search bar. Just type in your zip code and find all sellers and products within a 50-mile radius of where you live. Google maps are automatically provided if one chooses to visit the seller.

“You can select your preferred value or combine several to find precisely those items that match your lifestyle and needs,” Nice explains. “We hope people will begin to question whether the products they buy, regardless of where they shop, are safe and whether the companies are worthy of their trust.”

Smart World Market is designed to help.


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