Our story
SeaChange Local started with a realization that had been building for years since the Pandemic.
Karen and Michael had been buying almost everything on Amazon. It was fast, it was easy, and the boxes kept coming. Then one day Karen looked at the pile of cardboard and plastic wrap in the recycling and said: this is embarrassing. A supplement order. A single bottle. In a box big enough for shoes, packed with air pillows, sealed with plastic tape.
And it wasn't just the waste. The more they read, the more they couldn't ignore what they already half-knew: the companies making online shopping "easy" were doing it on the backs of warehouse workers running routes that no one in a corner office would last a day doing. That the convenience they'd gotten used to had a cost that never showed up in the price.
This did not reflect their values! They wanted to buy from local shops. They meant to. They just kept defaulting to Amazon because it seemed easy.
That's the thing SeaChange Local is trying to fix: Build a healthy equitable community. Not with guilt. With ease.
What we're building.
SeaChange Local makes local shopping as frictionless as clicking buy online. Store owners connect their POS system and get real-time inventory alerts so their shelves stay stocked. Shoppers search for products and see what's available at shops near them, right now, today. And when shoppers browse online, the SeaChange Local browser extension quietly shows them local alternatives before they default to a warehouse.
It's not a complicated idea. We just built it for the people who actually need it.
Why local retail matters.
Independent health and wellness shops carry products you won't find at big-box stores. They hire staff who actually know the difference between magnesium glycinate and magnesium oxide. They sponsor the local 5K and know your name and remember what you asked about last time you were in. They're the kind of business that makes a neighborhood feel like somewhere worth living.
They also run on thin margins, lean teams, and software that was built for someone else. The giants have logistics networks and ad budgets and algorithms. Local shops have knowledge, relationships, and community — and they've been fighting the comparison on uneven ground for too long.
SeaChange Local levels it.
The ocean part.
3% of everything SeaChange Local earns goes to ocean research and conservation: the Ocean Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, and the Coral Restoration Foundation.
This isn't a marketing decision. It's a structural one. We set it up this way from day one, before we had revenue, because the kind of company we wanted to build had to stand for something beyond the product.
You don't have to care about the ocean to use SeaChange Local. But we do.
Ocean Conservancy
Coastal advocacy and policy
Surfrider Foundation
San Diego chapters and beach access
Coral Restoration Foundation
Reef restoration, Florida Keys
Team
Michael Kirkham
Founder, CEO
Tom Szymczyk
Lead Engineer
Karen Kirkham
Chief Philanthropy Officer