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Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
According to Atlantic correspondent Ellen Ruppel Shell, our culture's obsession with convenience and the lowest possible price has led to shoddy goods, economic instability, planned obsolescence, and environmental mayhem. Cheap particularizes the domino cascade of economic, political, and psychological ramifications of our low-cost fixation. A cutting-edge view of cut-rate practices.
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Published July 2, 2009
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August 9, 2009
I will never shop again.
I am thrifty. I hate to spend money. Though I have tried not to become dependent on big box stores, I do go to Target and Whole Foods on a fairly regular basis. I love a good deal. But how much do my good deals really cost?
"Cheap" educated me. And though my initial statement was a blatant exaggeration, it is solidly true that I have spent most of my mental energy while reading this book trying to formulate a plan to cut all of my ties to the world of discounting.
Sound crazy? It probably does. And that's why America is so effed up. We have no idea the damage we are doing, to ourselves, to our economy, to people in other countries we'll never meet, by rejoicing at a deal on cheap merchandise. As Shell writes in the opening note to readers, her warning, "Cheap fuel, cheap loans, cheap consumer goods do not pave the road to salvation. On the contrary, our Faustian pact with bargains contributed to the worst recession of two generations. The economics of Cheap cramps innovation, contributes to the decline of once flourishing industries, and threatens our proud heritage of craftsmanship. The ennoblement of Cheap marks a radical departure in American culture and a titanic shift in our national priorities."
See, we didn't used to be Cheap. When chain stores, CHAIN STORES, took their first wobbling steps on American soil, people were outraged. Anti-chain protesters in the 1920s represented almost 7 percent of the nation's population. A Shreveport, LA radio man, William Henderson, warned that chains would have the "... ruinous and devastating effect of sending the profits of business out of our local communities to a common center, Wall Street ... We have insisted that the payment of starvation wages such as the chain-store system fosters must be eradicated."
Obviously, Henderson and the 7-percenters lost. Chains took hold. Then came the discounters. Chains weren't enough profit and then Eugene Ferkauf came along, pioneering the low-margin, low-service, high-turnover model that our discounters still follow. Merchandise sells itself and employees are eminently replaceable because they are no longer experienced sales professionals but, rather, low-skill merchandise stockers and checkers. So down went wages. But logic said it was ok that wages went down because prices were going down too. So onward.
Woolworth's got into the act with Woolco, a chain that pioneered the "oversized, free-standing store with acres of free parking and the promise of one-stop shopping for a wide selection of merchandise at the lowest possible price." Shell continues, "The beauty part was this: By cutting back on customer service and most other frills, discounters not only saved money but created the impression that their merchandise was cheap due not to low quality but to low overhead." While this was partially true (wages being low, real estate in the middle of nowhere being sold at an incentive) quality levels sank dramatically; because the discounters were so big and powerful, they started pressuring suppliers to lower prices. And suppliers did this by squeezing more out of less. And quality, and craftsmanship, inevitably suffered.
But who cares if my toaster blew up? I'll just go to the Woolco and buy another one. Onward!
And so it goes. No one listened in the late seventies when Jimmy Carter railed against the direction America was taking; "...too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption ... (the) piling up of material goods leads to an emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose." But that wasn't Carter's zinger. The zinger, the whole reason for Cheap, in my opinion, is this; Americans have "a mistaken idea of freedom [as:] the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others."
Boom. Cricket. Cricket. Cricket. And onward.
Shell writes, "Harvard cultural historian Lizabeth Cohen has pointed out that mass market consumption offers the facade of social equality without forcing society to go through the hard work of redistributing wealth. Low prices lead consumers to think they can get what they want without out necessarily getting what they want - or need. The ancient Roman phrase for this is panem et circenses, bread and circuses, the art of plying citizens with pleasures to distract them from pain. Today, low prices are the circus."
Some Americans are, at this very moment, writhing and foaming at the mouth due to President Obama's "socialist" agenda. Put Carter's zinger together with Cohen's astute observation and one comes closer to seeing the reason why.
So we're ok that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott Jr. took home in his bi-weekly paycheck in February 2009 what his average employee would earn in a lifetime. We don't get angry when Scott states that retail doesn't have a responsibility towards its employees; it has a loyalty to low prices, all the time, no matter what. And to get these low prices, one has to do more than treat employees like indentured servants; one has to cut quality, safety, environmental responsibility and human dignity. As Shell puts it, "As citizens, we recognize this 'collateral damage,' deplore it, and frequently decry it. But as consumers we habitually downplay and ignore it. We rail against exploitation of low-paid workers in Asia as we drive twenty minutes to the Big Box to save three bucks on tube socks and a dollar on underpants. We fume over the mistreatment of animals by agribusiness but freak out at an uptick in food prices. We lecture our kids about social responsibility and then buy them toys assembled by destitute child workers on some far flung foreign shore. Maintaining cognitive dissonance is one way to navigate a world of contradictions, and on an individual basis, there's much to be said for this. But somehow the Age of Cheap has raised cognitive dissonance to a societal norm."
We've lost our sense of thrift. We've lost our patience; we want something, we get it now. We don't care where it came from or that we can't pay for it. Now. Now. Now. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. Shell writes, "A thrifty person does not drive miles to save three bucks on tube socks. A cheap person might. ... Cheap is about scratching the itch, about making real the impossible dream of having one's cake and eating it, too."
So the world is, in the words of a salesclerk at Bergdorf Goodman as he watched customers pawing through a discount bin of handbags, "off its axis." We've lost touch with the provenance of our furniture, our clothing, even our food. Craft is hard to find now. Shell writes, "Craftsmanship cements a relationship of trust between buyer and seller, worker and employer, and expects something of both. It is about caring about the work and its application. It is what distinguishes the work of humans from the work of machines ..."
Cheap things resist involvement. We'll put an IKEA bookcase out on the curb because it's easier to buy a new one than disassemble and move an old one. Cheap encourages disposable. Disposable encourages waste. So we don't fix small appliances anymore. We don't even know how. We throw them away and buy new ones. Because we can. Because they are Cheap.
And recession just encourages Cheap. Wal-Mart's sales have increased substantially during the current economic downturn; discounters profit when America hits bottom. "Poverty in America is market potential unrealized," said Andrew Young, a Wal-Mart spokesperson. This may explain why Wal-Mart lobbies not only against unions but against health care reform and other worker protections. The poor benefit the discounters just as much, or more, than the discounters benefit the poor. Though whether Cheap benefits the poor is a loaded theory ripe for arguing, which I will not do here.
And then there's food. Coming straight off Michael Pollan's writings, I was ready for the food issues. Food farmed, harvested and processed in enormous quantities and sold at very low prices is probably not, in the strictest definition, food. Low prices cause low overhead which causes lack of oversight, which causes contamination, infestation and infection. Add to that; goverment subsidies help agribusiness keep prices low; but they also help agribusiness squeeze the small farmer out of business and create a monopoly where consumers don't have an alternative to the low-quality, high-quantity food they create. And as bad as it is in America, it's worse overseas. Pulling people off the farm floods city centers with the unemployed (who are desperate enough to take jobs standing knee-deep in noxious clothing dye to make my 2 dollar tshirt ... but I digress). These displaced workers often end up in the United States, too, stressing our welfare and unemployment system. But we won't pay for them. Or even help them. Even though our penchant for cheap food put them there.
Broad swath I just cut, admittedly. But the pattern is unavoidable. And we just won't see it. We refuse to see it. Because we don't want to pay too much for anything. Because that wouldn't be fair.
But Americans spend less for food than do citizens of any other developed nation; and few people at the McDonald's drive-thru ever stop to think about that 99 cent burger they just ate (in their car, but I again digress). How on earth can anyone possibly raise a cow, feed it, butcher it, process it, freeze it, truck it across country and reheat it for 99cents?Then there are the environmental effects of the agribusiness system (most tellingly disgusting is one process for eradicating manure; liquifying it and spraying it into the air, letting it fall where ever it falls). Then there are imports from countries with even less oversight and care than we have here. But really. How can it possibly be cheaper to buy garlic imported from China than garlic grown in California if I live in Missouri? But it is. And we buy. But we fail to ask why or process the idea that it cannot possibly be a good thing in the long run. Cognitive dissonance again.
Perhaps by now you are thinking that it would be too expensive to change the system; after all, we are all on a budget and we need affordable goods. Ok. Robert Pollin, professor of labor economics, did a study just for you. If the wages of apparel workers in Mexico were raised by by 25 or even 30 percent it would raise the price of a shirt in the United States by 1.2 percent. A 30 percent raise for a worker would cause a $20 shirt to cost $20.24. We won't stop to pick up a quarter in a parking lot but we'll keep half the world in indentured servitude for that same quarter. Less one penny. Cognitive dissonance one more time.
But we are caught in a cycle. And we need innovation.
"What is happening is that we are creating low-income workers who become low-wage consumers who seek low-priced goods. Stores are built strategically to cater to these low-wage earners, filled with products that are there for the single reason that they are affordable. This is diabolical strategy, an evil strategy. What it comes down to is one group of workers eating another while the big boys in corporate sit back and watch the carnage." Robert Bruno
"Henry Ford is lionized for connecting the dots between worker prosperity and profitability. He understood that when workers are paid enough to purchase the fruits of their labor, companies thrive and communities prosper. When workers no longer have the means to buy what they make - or, for that matter, what other decently treated workers make - companies fail and economies crumble." - Ellen Ruppel Shell
"The discipline of the capitalist is the same as that of the frugalist. He differs from the latter in that he has no regard for the objects through which productive power is acquired. He does not hesitate to exploit natural resources, lands, dumb animals and even his fellowman. Capital to such a man is an abstract fund, made up of perishable elements which are constantly replaced. The frugalist takes a vital interest in his tools, in his land, and in the goods he produces. He has a definite attachment to each. He dislikes to see an old coat wear out, and old wagon break down, or an old horse go lame. He always thinks of concrete things, wants them and nothing else. He desires not land, but a given farm; not horses or cattle and machines, but particular breeds and implements; not a shelter, but a home ... He rejects as unworthy what is below standard and despises as luxurious what is above or outside of it. Dominated by activities, he thinks of capital as a means to a particular end." Simon Nelson Patten - 1905
So onward. As frugalists. As consumers who demand different, better and more fair. Pay the extra 3 bucks for the free trade products, the produce from your local farmer, the eggs from your local chickens, the milk from your local dairy. Start there. And onward.
I am thrifty. I hate to spend money. Though I have tried not to become dependent on big box stores, I do go to Target and Whole Foods on a fairly regular basis. I love a good deal. But how much do my good deals really cost?
"Cheap" educated me. And though my initial statement was a blatant exaggeration, it is solidly true that I have spent most of my mental energy while reading this book trying to formulate a plan to cut all of my ties to the world of discounting.
Sound crazy? It probably does. And that's why America is so effed up. We have no idea the damage we are doing, to ourselves, to our economy, to people in other countries we'll never meet, by rejoicing at a deal on cheap merchandise. As Shell writes in the opening note to readers, her warning, "Cheap fuel, cheap loans, cheap consumer goods do not pave the road to salvation. On the contrary, our Faustian pact with bargains contributed to the worst recession of two generations. The economics of Cheap cramps innovation, contributes to the decline of once flourishing industries, and threatens our proud heritage of craftsmanship. The ennoblement of Cheap marks a radical departure in American culture and a titanic shift in our national priorities."
See, we didn't used to be Cheap. When chain stores, CHAIN STORES, took their first wobbling steps on American soil, people were outraged. Anti-chain protesters in the 1920s represented almost 7 percent of the nation's population. A Shreveport, LA radio man, William Henderson, warned that chains would have the "... ruinous and devastating effect of sending the profits of business out of our local communities to a common center, Wall Street ... We have insisted that the payment of starvation wages such as the chain-store system fosters must be eradicated."
Obviously, Henderson and the 7-percenters lost. Chains took hold. Then came the discounters. Chains weren't enough profit and then Eugene Ferkauf came along, pioneering the low-margin, low-service, high-turnover model that our discounters still follow. Merchandise sells itself and employees are eminently replaceable because they are no longer experienced sales professionals but, rather, low-skill merchandise stockers and checkers. So down went wages. But logic said it was ok that wages went down because prices were going down too. So onward.
Woolworth's got into the act with Woolco, a chain that pioneered the "oversized, free-standing store with acres of free parking and the promise of one-stop shopping for a wide selection of merchandise at the lowest possible price." Shell continues, "The beauty part was this: By cutting back on customer service and most other frills, discounters not only saved money but created the impression that their merchandise was cheap due not to low quality but to low overhead." While this was partially true (wages being low, real estate in the middle of nowhere being sold at an incentive) quality levels sank dramatically; because the discounters were so big and powerful, they started pressuring suppliers to lower prices. And suppliers did this by squeezing more out of less. And quality, and craftsmanship, inevitably suffered.
But who cares if my toaster blew up? I'll just go to the Woolco and buy another one. Onward!
And so it goes. No one listened in the late seventies when Jimmy Carter railed against the direction America was taking; "...too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption ... (the) piling up of material goods leads to an emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose." But that wasn't Carter's zinger. The zinger, the whole reason for Cheap, in my opinion, is this; Americans have "a mistaken idea of freedom [as:] the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others."
Boom. Cricket. Cricket. Cricket. And onward.
Shell writes, "Harvard cultural historian Lizabeth Cohen has pointed out that mass market consumption offers the facade of social equality without forcing society to go through the hard work of redistributing wealth. Low prices lead consumers to think they can get what they want without out necessarily getting what they want - or need. The ancient Roman phrase for this is panem et circenses, bread and circuses, the art of plying citizens with pleasures to distract them from pain. Today, low prices are the circus."
Some Americans are, at this very moment, writhing and foaming at the mouth due to President Obama's "socialist" agenda. Put Carter's zinger together with Cohen's astute observation and one comes closer to seeing the reason why.
So we're ok that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott Jr. took home in his bi-weekly paycheck in February 2009 what his average employee would earn in a lifetime. We don't get angry when Scott states that retail doesn't have a responsibility towards its employees; it has a loyalty to low prices, all the time, no matter what. And to get these low prices, one has to do more than treat employees like indentured servants; one has to cut quality, safety, environmental responsibility and human dignity. As Shell puts it, "As citizens, we recognize this 'collateral damage,' deplore it, and frequently decry it. But as consumers we habitually downplay and ignore it. We rail against exploitation of low-paid workers in Asia as we drive twenty minutes to the Big Box to save three bucks on tube socks and a dollar on underpants. We fume over the mistreatment of animals by agribusiness but freak out at an uptick in food prices. We lecture our kids about social responsibility and then buy them toys assembled by destitute child workers on some far flung foreign shore. Maintaining cognitive dissonance is one way to navigate a world of contradictions, and on an individual basis, there's much to be said for this. But somehow the Age of Cheap has raised cognitive dissonance to a societal norm."
We've lost our sense of thrift. We've lost our patience; we want something, we get it now. We don't care where it came from or that we can't pay for it. Now. Now. Now. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. Shell writes, "A thrifty person does not drive miles to save three bucks on tube socks. A cheap person might. ... Cheap is about scratching the itch, about making real the impossible dream of having one's cake and eating it, too."
So the world is, in the words of a salesclerk at Bergdorf Goodman as he watched customers pawing through a discount bin of handbags, "off its axis." We've lost touch with the provenance of our furniture, our clothing, even our food. Craft is hard to find now. Shell writes, "Craftsmanship cements a relationship of trust between buyer and seller, worker and employer, and expects something of both. It is about caring about the work and its application. It is what distinguishes the work of humans from the work of machines ..."
Cheap things resist involvement. We'll put an IKEA bookcase out on the curb because it's easier to buy a new one than disassemble and move an old one. Cheap encourages disposable. Disposable encourages waste. So we don't fix small appliances anymore. We don't even know how. We throw them away and buy new ones. Because we can. Because they are Cheap.
And recession just encourages Cheap. Wal-Mart's sales have increased substantially during the current economic downturn; discounters profit when America hits bottom. "Poverty in America is market potential unrealized," said Andrew Young, a Wal-Mart spokesperson. This may explain why Wal-Mart lobbies not only against unions but against health care reform and other worker protections. The poor benefit the discounters just as much, or more, than the discounters benefit the poor. Though whether Cheap benefits the poor is a loaded theory ripe for arguing, which I will not do here.
And then there's food. Coming straight off Michael Pollan's writings, I was ready for the food issues. Food farmed, harvested and processed in enormous quantities and sold at very low prices is probably not, in the strictest definition, food. Low prices cause low overhead which causes lack of oversight, which causes contamination, infestation and infection. Add to that; goverment subsidies help agribusiness keep prices low; but they also help agribusiness squeeze the small farmer out of business and create a monopoly where consumers don't have an alternative to the low-quality, high-quantity food they create. And as bad as it is in America, it's worse overseas. Pulling people off the farm floods city centers with the unemployed (who are desperate enough to take jobs standing knee-deep in noxious clothing dye to make my 2 dollar tshirt ... but I digress). These displaced workers often end up in the United States, too, stressing our welfare and unemployment system. But we won't pay for them. Or even help them. Even though our penchant for cheap food put them there.
Broad swath I just cut, admittedly. But the pattern is unavoidable. And we just won't see it. We refuse to see it. Because we don't want to pay too much for anything. Because that wouldn't be fair.
But Americans spend less for food than do citizens of any other developed nation; and few people at the McDonald's drive-thru ever stop to think about that 99 cent burger they just ate (in their car, but I again digress). How on earth can anyone possibly raise a cow, feed it, butcher it, process it, freeze it, truck it across country and reheat it for 99cents?Then there are the environmental effects of the agribusiness system (most tellingly disgusting is one process for eradicating manure; liquifying it and spraying it into the air, letting it fall where ever it falls). Then there are imports from countries with even less oversight and care than we have here. But really. How can it possibly be cheaper to buy garlic imported from China than garlic grown in California if I live in Missouri? But it is. And we buy. But we fail to ask why or process the idea that it cannot possibly be a good thing in the long run. Cognitive dissonance again.
Perhaps by now you are thinking that it would be too expensive to change the system; after all, we are all on a budget and we need affordable goods. Ok. Robert Pollin, professor of labor economics, did a study just for you. If the wages of apparel workers in Mexico were raised by by 25 or even 30 percent it would raise the price of a shirt in the United States by 1.2 percent. A 30 percent raise for a worker would cause a $20 shirt to cost $20.24. We won't stop to pick up a quarter in a parking lot but we'll keep half the world in indentured servitude for that same quarter. Less one penny. Cognitive dissonance one more time.
But we are caught in a cycle. And we need innovation.
"What is happening is that we are creating low-income workers who become low-wage consumers who seek low-priced goods. Stores are built strategically to cater to these low-wage earners, filled with products that are there for the single reason that they are affordable. This is diabolical strategy, an evil strategy. What it comes down to is one group of workers eating another while the big boys in corporate sit back and watch the carnage." Robert Bruno
"Henry Ford is lionized for connecting the dots between worker prosperity and profitability. He understood that when workers are paid enough to purchase the fruits of their labor, companies thrive and communities prosper. When workers no longer have the means to buy what they make - or, for that matter, what other decently treated workers make - companies fail and economies crumble." - Ellen Ruppel Shell
"The discipline of the capitalist is the same as that of the frugalist. He differs from the latter in that he has no regard for the objects through which productive power is acquired. He does not hesitate to exploit natural resources, lands, dumb animals and even his fellowman. Capital to such a man is an abstract fund, made up of perishable elements which are constantly replaced. The frugalist takes a vital interest in his tools, in his land, and in the goods he produces. He has a definite attachment to each. He dislikes to see an old coat wear out, and old wagon break down, or an old horse go lame. He always thinks of concrete things, wants them and nothing else. He desires not land, but a given farm; not horses or cattle and machines, but particular breeds and implements; not a shelter, but a home ... He rejects as unworthy what is below standard and despises as luxurious what is above or outside of it. Dominated by activities, he thinks of capital as a means to a particular end." Simon Nelson Patten - 1905
So onward. As frugalists. As consumers who demand different, better and more fair. Pay the extra 3 bucks for the free trade products, the produce from your local farmer, the eggs from your local chickens, the milk from your local dairy. Start there. And onward.
August 9, 2010
Read it only if you can get a discount. Ellen Ruppel Shell’s cultural studies examination of the fixation on low cost doesn’t really get going until long after you have likely lost interest. Late in the book she finally gets to what she sees as the major downsides of modern global society’s pursuit of low cost at any cost: no $ for R&D, the promotion of waste and the dumbing-down of work. This final section reveals some passion and a point-of-view which are largely missing from its predecessor chapters. In short, read the last section and you basically get the point.
If you have time to kill, the early chapters cover widely varying topics which only loosely relate to the central thesis. They start with a prolonged history of discount retailing and despite its length the section is surprisingly shallow. We learn a lot of facts about F.W. Woolworth and his discounter brethren but not so much about why were customers so eager to buy the poorly made and mostly useless trinkets they peddled. Shell repeatedly lets the consumer off the hook by saying they had no other options and would buy quality if it were available to them. One can understand Shell not wanting to offend the reading public but surely Woolworth and Walton didn’t just foist cheap crap on an unsuspecting consumer base but rather found a lucrative consumer desire for cheap crap and exploited it. However, the major problem with this section is that a comprehensive history of discount retailing just isn’t all that engaging.
Another section focuses in on one discount retailer to be excoriated as a bane to the environment and society. This company is responsible for deforestation, the growth of subsistence-wage work, a culture of consumer good transience ultimately filling the world’s landfills and the decline of good taste. Of course, she is talking about…IKEA. To come across these charges leveled at a company that is not Walmart is sort of startling although the Bentonville Behemouth takes a beating in other sections. The problem here is that IKEA’s avoidance of taxes, gluttony of the world’s dwindling resources and pushing of manufacturing to the lowest cost Southeast Asian countries are all legal, common and basically make up the strategic business plan of most organizations. Hate the game, Ellen, not the Swedish playa.
Later on the book takes on cheap food railing against shrimp farming in particular but hitting all of in-vogue local and organic touchstones. The analysis is fine here but the discussion is covered in much better elsewhere by Michael Pollan. Here Shell tentatively puts some blame on the eating public but only in the context of sort of suggesting that the $15.95 all you can possibly eat shrimp feast at Red Lobster is maybe a little responsible for vast tracks of Thai rice paddies being transformed into stinking, briny shrimp farms.
In the late going she does start to find her voice and to fully suggest that consumers bear the burden of changing their gluttonous, hoarding ways before the whole world becomes one big Easter Island.
July 27, 2009
I seriously may never buy anything again.
Ok, so that's not realistic, but after reading this book I'm more aware, perhaps even paranoid, about the statement I'm making with each purchase. I'm definitely a bargain shopper, but I don't want my search for a great deal to mean that workers in Mexico don't make a living wage or that Chinese migrant workers are standing in vats of toxic substances for 14 hours a day.
But how on earth am I to ascertain that? It took Ms. Shell, with her many contact and considerably greater resources than I have, months (years?) to gather the information and interviews and data for this book.
There is plenty of blame to go around for the lack of product quality, workers' protections, environmental concerns, etc. Manufacturers, retailers, governments, CEOs, suppliers, you name it, all shoulder part of the responsibility. And this wide-ranging book does not let consumers off the hook either. We are complicit by our all-too-frequent lack of interest in questioning the origins of the items we buy due to our single-minded focus on low, low price.
Some of the information in this book was not new to me - particularly the topic of food production has been dealt with by other authors recently, too. Other topics, like reference pricing, were concepts I was somewhat aware of, but I now feel much better informed. And I doubt I'll ever shop at an outlet mall again!
Ms. Shell captures the dilemma for many of us perfectly when she says "Consumers are left to choose between discount retailers whose practices they find questionable and high-end stores whose prices they cannot afford...'Voting with your feet' doesn't apply when your values are so completely out of line with your budget."
The one quibble I have with the book is that it makes the problem seem too big to do anything about. I finished the book and my first reaction was to feel completely hopeless. I've always avoided the hordes packing into Wal-Mart and I buy a lot of food locally. Particularly with large purchases, I look for quality and craftsmanship at a good value rather than the lowest price possible. But where do I go from here?
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
Ok, so that's not realistic, but after reading this book I'm more aware, perhaps even paranoid, about the statement I'm making with each purchase. I'm definitely a bargain shopper, but I don't want my search for a great deal to mean that workers in Mexico don't make a living wage or that Chinese migrant workers are standing in vats of toxic substances for 14 hours a day.
But how on earth am I to ascertain that? It took Ms. Shell, with her many contact and considerably greater resources than I have, months (years?) to gather the information and interviews and data for this book.
There is plenty of blame to go around for the lack of product quality, workers' protections, environmental concerns, etc. Manufacturers, retailers, governments, CEOs, suppliers, you name it, all shoulder part of the responsibility. And this wide-ranging book does not let consumers off the hook either. We are complicit by our all-too-frequent lack of interest in questioning the origins of the items we buy due to our single-minded focus on low, low price.
Some of the information in this book was not new to me - particularly the topic of food production has been dealt with by other authors recently, too. Other topics, like reference pricing, were concepts I was somewhat aware of, but I now feel much better informed. And I doubt I'll ever shop at an outlet mall again!
Ms. Shell captures the dilemma for many of us perfectly when she says "Consumers are left to choose between discount retailers whose practices they find questionable and high-end stores whose prices they cannot afford...'Voting with your feet' doesn't apply when your values are so completely out of line with your budget."
The one quibble I have with the book is that it makes the problem seem too big to do anything about. I finished the book and my first reaction was to feel completely hopeless. I've always avoided the hordes packing into Wal-Mart and I buy a lot of food locally. Particularly with large purchases, I look for quality and craftsmanship at a good value rather than the lowest price possible. But where do I go from here?
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
March 7, 2012
Most of us readily understand that sex trafficking is driven largely by the demand for sexual services. But what drives the equally odious crime of labor trafficking? Is it possible that our appetite for 'all-you-can-eat' shrimp and our incessant bargain hunting has made us unwittingly complicit in child slave labor? That is exactly what is suggested in the remarkably enlightening book CHEAP, The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell.
Here we are treated to a breezily written yet cogent analysis of modern globalization. We discover the many ways we are tied together in what Martin Luther King called "an inescapable network of mutuality". The author looks at economics, history and psychology as she unravels our present situation where quantity trumps quality and cost is valued above craftsmanship. In examining the production of both food and merchandise she contends: "Technology, globalization, and deregulation have made competition a death march."
Along the way we are introduced to many remarkable and sometimes amusing personalities. Ms. Shell names names and uncovers more than a few corporate skeletons. The inner workings of chain stores and discount outlets are exposed. We get the skinny on WalMart, Ikea, Whole Foods, and many brands that are household names. We learn how many governmental agencies and international organizations act as little more than lobbyists and enforcers for multi-national corporations. China comes under scrutiny, along with how we enable, while at the same time deplore, its labor practices.
Disturbingly, we are confronted with our acquiescence to this state of affairs. Who, after all, does not love a bargain? But the author argues convincingly that we are really getting much less than we think, and at much greater cost than we realize to our health and safety, to the environment, and ultimately to our own economy. Marketing psychologists have gone to considerable lengths to learn how to manipulate our desires, our perceived needs, and the reward centers of our brains, all to the benefit of filling corporate coffers. Many experts are quoted and many facts and figures are marshaled to eye opening effect. The book is well annotated and does end on a hopeful note with solid suggestions about how we might do better.
I whole-heartedly recommend this provocative and enjoyable read to anyone interested in examining some of the root causes of slave labor and human trafficking, or simply wishing to know more about where stuff really comes from and how it is produced.
Here we are treated to a breezily written yet cogent analysis of modern globalization. We discover the many ways we are tied together in what Martin Luther King called "an inescapable network of mutuality". The author looks at economics, history and psychology as she unravels our present situation where quantity trumps quality and cost is valued above craftsmanship. In examining the production of both food and merchandise she contends: "Technology, globalization, and deregulation have made competition a death march."
Along the way we are introduced to many remarkable and sometimes amusing personalities. Ms. Shell names names and uncovers more than a few corporate skeletons. The inner workings of chain stores and discount outlets are exposed. We get the skinny on WalMart, Ikea, Whole Foods, and many brands that are household names. We learn how many governmental agencies and international organizations act as little more than lobbyists and enforcers for multi-national corporations. China comes under scrutiny, along with how we enable, while at the same time deplore, its labor practices.
Disturbingly, we are confronted with our acquiescence to this state of affairs. Who, after all, does not love a bargain? But the author argues convincingly that we are really getting much less than we think, and at much greater cost than we realize to our health and safety, to the environment, and ultimately to our own economy. Marketing psychologists have gone to considerable lengths to learn how to manipulate our desires, our perceived needs, and the reward centers of our brains, all to the benefit of filling corporate coffers. Many experts are quoted and many facts and figures are marshaled to eye opening effect. The book is well annotated and does end on a hopeful note with solid suggestions about how we might do better.
I whole-heartedly recommend this provocative and enjoyable read to anyone interested in examining some of the root causes of slave labor and human trafficking, or simply wishing to know more about where stuff really comes from and how it is produced.
October 25, 2011
i was excited to read this, but found it to be a bit of a slog. it's kind of like the first 200 pages are all introduction, & the author finally gets to her point & develops a point of view in the last thirty pages. it wasn't necessarily boring, but it was certainly not revelatory or especially groundbreaking.
the main thing i took away from this book & appreciated was her exorciation of the argument that discount retailers help struggling families save money & attain a higher quality of life. she points out that shopping at discount retailers for household goods, clothing, toys, shoes, et al, may indeed save the average american family a few thousand dollars a year, & that the advent of discount behemoths like walmart & IKEA have resulted in a world in which the average american spends much smaller percentages of their disposable income on food, clothing, etc. but she goes on to detail that some things are almost never discounted--housing, higher education, health care. & these costs are taking a larger bite out of household incomes with every passing year, to the point that even the most frugal discount shopper is not going to be able to make up the difference buying discounted tube socks.
reading this against the backdrop of all the occupy wall street stuff...this resonated. so many of the people that are against occupy wall street protests but are not rich are like, "i work three jobs & never go out to eat & live within my means & these protesters need to stop whining!" the point that shell makes (not directly) in her book is that a person should not HAVE to work three jobs & live hand to mouth in order to make ends meet, & that people have been lulled into complacency by discount shopping & are perhaps not even aware of the exploding costs of education & health care. these things have become so expensive as to actually be inaccessible to huge swathes of the american population...& shell, of course, also addresses the manner in which america's obsession with discounted everything is taking its toll on people all over the world, as well as the environment.
the main thing i took away from this book & appreciated was her exorciation of the argument that discount retailers help struggling families save money & attain a higher quality of life. she points out that shopping at discount retailers for household goods, clothing, toys, shoes, et al, may indeed save the average american family a few thousand dollars a year, & that the advent of discount behemoths like walmart & IKEA have resulted in a world in which the average american spends much smaller percentages of their disposable income on food, clothing, etc. but she goes on to detail that some things are almost never discounted--housing, higher education, health care. & these costs are taking a larger bite out of household incomes with every passing year, to the point that even the most frugal discount shopper is not going to be able to make up the difference buying discounted tube socks.
reading this against the backdrop of all the occupy wall street stuff...this resonated. so many of the people that are against occupy wall street protests but are not rich are like, "i work three jobs & never go out to eat & live within my means & these protesters need to stop whining!" the point that shell makes (not directly) in her book is that a person should not HAVE to work three jobs & live hand to mouth in order to make ends meet, & that people have been lulled into complacency by discount shopping & are perhaps not even aware of the exploding costs of education & health care. these things have become so expensive as to actually be inaccessible to huge swathes of the american population...& shell, of course, also addresses the manner in which america's obsession with discounted everything is taking its toll on people all over the world, as well as the environment.
August 2, 2009
Read this book, and you'll never shop at IKEA again. Never. Ruppel Shell does a truly masterful job of dissecting both the historical underpinnings and the current intricacies of what she calls "Cheap" culture, connecting Americans' penchant for low prices to the disappearance of the middle class, among other things. While this book will certainly disappoint deregulation enthusiasts, the author does a good job of considering the different arguments and counter-arguments in reaching her conclusions.
My one wish for this book was for it to have more practical advice. With cheap goods exacting a high price in other areas, and mass-produced expensive goods artificially price-inflated and generally little better in terms of human rights or the environment, where is one to turn? While this is the author's point, it makes for especially depressing reading (especially for someone of already limited means in the current economic climate). Nonetheless, a bit more on where one can turn -- for example, Ruppel Shell singles out Costco as one chain whose plusses surprisingly outweigh its minuses -- would be useful.
My one wish for this book was for it to have more practical advice. With cheap goods exacting a high price in other areas, and mass-produced expensive goods artificially price-inflated and generally little better in terms of human rights or the environment, where is one to turn? While this is the author's point, it makes for especially depressing reading (especially for someone of already limited means in the current economic climate). Nonetheless, a bit more on where one can turn -- for example, Ruppel Shell singles out Costco as one chain whose plusses surprisingly outweigh its minuses -- would be useful.
January 15, 2013
Read this one in Kindle format. Wasn't friendly because there weren't page numbers so I couldn't refer to the notes efficiently at all. Had to do it chapter by chapter.
Ok. This is the kind of book that simultaneously makes me hate myself and makes the cynic in me jump up and scream "SEE? SEE?" and makes me feel both self-righteous and guilty at the same time.
The idea here is that since the Industrial Revolution, our society has moved away from skilled craftsmanship in production to a more mechanized model of inferior but more cheaply-hewn products put together quickly by people who have no particular skill set for making said products. These things (all sorts of things, like guns, clothing, housing, food, automobiles) have been sold by retailers, and unsavvy buyers often choose price over quality (which they cannot discern) as the sole criterion in their purchasing decisions. While this has, in theory, pulled many people out of poverty, it hasn't really, but it's made shoddy goods available to people of modest means. However, it also forces more people into poverty by necessitating extremely low labor costs in order to turn any profit.
For specific examples, the author mentions IKEA, which is some Swedish furniture company that I have never patronized, and after reading this book, never will. They're one of the largest lumber purchasers in the world, and while they claim to make sure their lumber is responsibly gathered/produced, they're not willing to pay inspectors to verify its origins, meaning that most of it is illegally harvested in Russia and China and treated with toxic chemicals. They also make chairs of out banana leaves in Vietnam, where the company claims that they're waste, but they are in fact an important local commodity, so the $70 chair is depriving a poor Vietnamese family of vital roofing material, or something.
(I suspect the same sort of thing is true with coconut oil and acai berries, among other commodities that have been yuppified to the detriment of the poor.)
She discusses factory farming, which is disgusting and horrific and promotes disease and strips food of nutrition. This chapter totally changed the way I look at shrimp. Thailand has ruined much of its coastline making artificial shrimp beds because people don't want to pay a high price for wild or natural shrimp. In the food industry, quality goes out the window for the sake of low prices, sometimes even to the point of being nonsensical. This was evident firsthand when we lived in the SJV but got almost all our produce imported from Mexico instead of from the megafarms within 30 miles of us.
Talks about how foreign governments collude with American businesses to allow labor atrocities and treat workers as almost totally expendable, paying them almost nothing and spending no money at all on health or workplace safety measures. Apparently the Chinese government feels there are enough citizens that it's not necessary to protect any of them from workplace injury, since an injured worker can quickly be replaced.
The solutions aren't simple, and she doesn't go into them at length. She is in favor of giving more clout to workers but realizes that's unlikely. Nor does she advocate simply paying more, since if the store marks up its wares, it's highly unlikely that any of the extra money will trickle down to the workers or the workers for the store's suppliers.
As for me, I lean towards buying items of quality infrequently and taking care of them. Buy food locally if possible (harder than it seems) and realize that "value" can be more than "three pounds of cheerios for $6.95!" Don't buy from companies that make cheap crap in China or exploit their workers. The problem though is that it means I'm not an energetic contributor to the economy, since so much stuff is made abroad or is made of components that were made abroad. Darn.
Ok. This is the kind of book that simultaneously makes me hate myself and makes the cynic in me jump up and scream "SEE? SEE?" and makes me feel both self-righteous and guilty at the same time.
The idea here is that since the Industrial Revolution, our society has moved away from skilled craftsmanship in production to a more mechanized model of inferior but more cheaply-hewn products put together quickly by people who have no particular skill set for making said products. These things (all sorts of things, like guns, clothing, housing, food, automobiles) have been sold by retailers, and unsavvy buyers often choose price over quality (which they cannot discern) as the sole criterion in their purchasing decisions. While this has, in theory, pulled many people out of poverty, it hasn't really, but it's made shoddy goods available to people of modest means. However, it also forces more people into poverty by necessitating extremely low labor costs in order to turn any profit.
For specific examples, the author mentions IKEA, which is some Swedish furniture company that I have never patronized, and after reading this book, never will. They're one of the largest lumber purchasers in the world, and while they claim to make sure their lumber is responsibly gathered/produced, they're not willing to pay inspectors to verify its origins, meaning that most of it is illegally harvested in Russia and China and treated with toxic chemicals. They also make chairs of out banana leaves in Vietnam, where the company claims that they're waste, but they are in fact an important local commodity, so the $70 chair is depriving a poor Vietnamese family of vital roofing material, or something.
(I suspect the same sort of thing is true with coconut oil and acai berries, among other commodities that have been yuppified to the detriment of the poor.)
She discusses factory farming, which is disgusting and horrific and promotes disease and strips food of nutrition. This chapter totally changed the way I look at shrimp. Thailand has ruined much of its coastline making artificial shrimp beds because people don't want to pay a high price for wild or natural shrimp. In the food industry, quality goes out the window for the sake of low prices, sometimes even to the point of being nonsensical. This was evident firsthand when we lived in the SJV but got almost all our produce imported from Mexico instead of from the megafarms within 30 miles of us.
Talks about how foreign governments collude with American businesses to allow labor atrocities and treat workers as almost totally expendable, paying them almost nothing and spending no money at all on health or workplace safety measures. Apparently the Chinese government feels there are enough citizens that it's not necessary to protect any of them from workplace injury, since an injured worker can quickly be replaced.
The solutions aren't simple, and she doesn't go into them at length. She is in favor of giving more clout to workers but realizes that's unlikely. Nor does she advocate simply paying more, since if the store marks up its wares, it's highly unlikely that any of the extra money will trickle down to the workers or the workers for the store's suppliers.
As for me, I lean towards buying items of quality infrequently and taking care of them. Buy food locally if possible (harder than it seems) and realize that "value" can be more than "three pounds of cheerios for $6.95!" Don't buy from companies that make cheap crap in China or exploit their workers. The problem though is that it means I'm not an energetic contributor to the economy, since so much stuff is made abroad or is made of components that were made abroad. Darn.
May 26, 2015
First off BOO and sit the hell down Whole Foods and IKEA (I knew it). That done, I'll concede that Shell doesn't get to her main points or solution-oriented instructions until the final chapter, a bit after page 200. Cool because the countless streams of information she provided in the preceding chapters, made the answers - all to be done by the individual/reader - obvious. This was not just a book about discount culture; this was a study, a friggin' course, in the subject and so many psychological, sociological, economic, political and even physical attributes of "low prices" and even false luxury across more industries than most could fit into 200 pgs. That she turned so many conventional and worn out arguments about globalization on their ears (and asses) while also pointing out how some of the founders of said arguments would differ with those who leverage their words today was just...lovely. I'm not sure how long she spent compiling this book, though her vocation certainly gives her practice at compiling huge amounts of info and events while weaving them together in a way that makes several points clear without compromising their complexity. For me, this was a page turner - much more of one than I expected it to be. I was turned off by how she monolithically presented America outside of class/income disparities of the rich, middle class and poor (for some communities, a record low 5.5% unemployment rate has never existed and the line about people not seeing themselves in the working class but just the middle class - ummm, not for a whole lot of people -especially, but not exclusively, those who are not white), but if you enjoy this work, you're clever enough to extrapolate I suppose. It's worth it. What's more, I gave it a fifth star because I will no doubt reread large portions of it and definitely pull some titles from the bibliography while looking up several of the articles and speeches listed in the Notes section. Brilliant work and damn..we are so beyond in trouble. Books like this, as well as everyday life, make me glad I don't have kids.
January 2, 2010
“Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture” by Ellen Ruppel Shell argues that cheap stuff leads to many negative consequences.
The book starts slow out of the gate with a discussion of the history of retail followed by a few of the practices stores use to entice consumers into spending. Though mildly interesting, the information is hardly a revelation and isn’t terribly germane to the remainder of the book. After a dalliance with the idea that cheap stuff is largely crap and stifles innovation, followed by an exposé of the unsustainable business practices of the Swedish furniture giant Ikea, she finally gets to the heart of her argument that cheap stuff exacerbates destruction of the environment, lowers labor standards (both abroad and in the US), hollows out the middle class, reduces quality of goods for consumers and results in products that are sometimes dangerous (such as lead contaminated children’s toys and contaminated food products). This is by far the best part of the book and her arguments are strong and coupled with many illustrative examples.
The book ends on a weak note as she rather lamely proposes that consumers just need to choose to spend their money on quality stuff and the problem will be solved. So, first of all, other than a few well intentioned liberals with ample disposable income, people will never, ever voluntarily choose to pay more for goods when a similar product may be purchased much more cheaply. The very suggestion is laughable. Second, it is extremely difficult for consumers to be well informed about of each of the hundreds of products they regularly consume. Where was the cotton grown in the pair of socks you’re wearing? What kinds of pesticides and fertilizer were applied? Was water used efficiently or wasted? Were the workers in the fields given adequate protective equipment, health insurance, paid a living wage, or given job security? Now multiply those questions throughout the manufacturing and distribution process. The kind of protections Ellen Ruppel Shell desires can be accomplished, but they are not likely to occur any time soon given the economic climate in which we currently live.
The book starts slow out of the gate with a discussion of the history of retail followed by a few of the practices stores use to entice consumers into spending. Though mildly interesting, the information is hardly a revelation and isn’t terribly germane to the remainder of the book. After a dalliance with the idea that cheap stuff is largely crap and stifles innovation, followed by an exposé of the unsustainable business practices of the Swedish furniture giant Ikea, she finally gets to the heart of her argument that cheap stuff exacerbates destruction of the environment, lowers labor standards (both abroad and in the US), hollows out the middle class, reduces quality of goods for consumers and results in products that are sometimes dangerous (such as lead contaminated children’s toys and contaminated food products). This is by far the best part of the book and her arguments are strong and coupled with many illustrative examples.
The book ends on a weak note as she rather lamely proposes that consumers just need to choose to spend their money on quality stuff and the problem will be solved. So, first of all, other than a few well intentioned liberals with ample disposable income, people will never, ever voluntarily choose to pay more for goods when a similar product may be purchased much more cheaply. The very suggestion is laughable. Second, it is extremely difficult for consumers to be well informed about of each of the hundreds of products they regularly consume. Where was the cotton grown in the pair of socks you’re wearing? What kinds of pesticides and fertilizer were applied? Was water used efficiently or wasted? Were the workers in the fields given adequate protective equipment, health insurance, paid a living wage, or given job security? Now multiply those questions throughout the manufacturing and distribution process. The kind of protections Ellen Ruppel Shell desires can be accomplished, but they are not likely to occur any time soon given the economic climate in which we currently live.
November 19, 2013
I hesitate to review this because I didn't finish it, and I ended up skimming a lot of the sections I did read.
Why? I thought the author was redundant in her presentation. This book could have used some tighter editing.
But more than that, this book made me uncomfortable and anxious about buying anything. It confirmed my sense that generally, consumers are overcharged for just about everything, and that the quality of manufactured items has plummeted in recent years. I hate feeling duped and this book pretty much confirmed that I am duped when making most purchases, particularly large, infrequent ones like furniture and mattresses. (Mattresses! Don't get me started!)
I'm in the habit of distrusting retailers who offer crazy-low prices on items. You know those prices come from unfair labor practices, environmental assault, and other practices I don't want to support (except that we ALL support them, as a society - who pays for emergency health care for citizens whose employers won't cover them?). But it seems that the higher-priced items aren't so different from the deeply discounted ones. What is a consumer to do?
What I, as a reader and a consumer, would LIKE to read is a book about how to identify products that are well-made and which do not harm the people who make them or the places from which the resources used to make them were taken. I don't mind paying a fair price as long as I understand how it is derived. It isn't realistic to pay $50 for each organic cotton US-made t-shirt my family wears, but surely there is a price point that is reasonable and transparent.
We have to find a way to talk about these issues without making consumers feel like crap. I mean consumers on both sides of this - the ones who like getting a "good deal" on Black Friday AND the ones who steer clear because they sense no good can come of it.
This book didn't help me with that conversation, though.
Why? I thought the author was redundant in her presentation. This book could have used some tighter editing.
But more than that, this book made me uncomfortable and anxious about buying anything. It confirmed my sense that generally, consumers are overcharged for just about everything, and that the quality of manufactured items has plummeted in recent years. I hate feeling duped and this book pretty much confirmed that I am duped when making most purchases, particularly large, infrequent ones like furniture and mattresses. (Mattresses! Don't get me started!)
I'm in the habit of distrusting retailers who offer crazy-low prices on items. You know those prices come from unfair labor practices, environmental assault, and other practices I don't want to support (except that we ALL support them, as a society - who pays for emergency health care for citizens whose employers won't cover them?). But it seems that the higher-priced items aren't so different from the deeply discounted ones. What is a consumer to do?
What I, as a reader and a consumer, would LIKE to read is a book about how to identify products that are well-made and which do not harm the people who make them or the places from which the resources used to make them were taken. I don't mind paying a fair price as long as I understand how it is derived. It isn't realistic to pay $50 for each organic cotton US-made t-shirt my family wears, but surely there is a price point that is reasonable and transparent.
We have to find a way to talk about these issues without making consumers feel like crap. I mean consumers on both sides of this - the ones who like getting a "good deal" on Black Friday AND the ones who steer clear because they sense no good can come of it.
This book didn't help me with that conversation, though.
October 12, 2009
Wow, this book made me feel bad about the fact that I was reading it while reclining in my IKEA bed. Though others have pointed to problems in copyediting, overall the author does a really good job of examining the shifts in culture that have led to our current "cheap is better" mentality.
There were a lot of good things about this book, but one of the things that stood out was her mention of social justice conflicts that exist in relation to cheap/discount culture. This was discussed particularly in context of local eating, and was treated as a systemic problem - that only the middle and upper classes can really afford to eat in the ways that nutritionists and food advocates recommend. This is not directly the fault of the farmers who charge too much at the markets, or of the consumers who are able to make these lifestyle choices - it's endemic in a system where the government subsidizes certain crops, which are then used to feed animals kept in lousy conditions, which are then processed into a burger that costs less than a green pepper at an urban farmers market. This makes NO SENSE AT ALL, but it makes a lot more sense in the context of the consumer/producer culture presented in this book.
Seriously, read it.
There were a lot of good things about this book, but one of the things that stood out was her mention of social justice conflicts that exist in relation to cheap/discount culture. This was discussed particularly in context of local eating, and was treated as a systemic problem - that only the middle and upper classes can really afford to eat in the ways that nutritionists and food advocates recommend. This is not directly the fault of the farmers who charge too much at the markets, or of the consumers who are able to make these lifestyle choices - it's endemic in a system where the government subsidizes certain crops, which are then used to feed animals kept in lousy conditions, which are then processed into a burger that costs less than a green pepper at an urban farmers market. This makes NO SENSE AT ALL, but it makes a lot more sense in the context of the consumer/producer culture presented in this book.
Seriously, read it.
October 20, 2017
Borrowing this book from the library makes me frugal and not cheap. This is an eye opening book on how low costs are hurting all of us. The author makes several good points on why we should look for value and craftsmanship and why value and craftsmanship is increasingly hard to find. Hard to argue with a race to the bottom. Her positive example of Wegmans is an interesting contrast to the others in the book.
October 7, 2009
The “Temple of Cheap” we currently enjoy in the West rests firmly on the modern global economy. In her excellent book, Ellen Ruppel Shell examines the global economic forces that bring us 3-for-1 deals at Target and All-You-Can-Eat shrimp for $15, and Shell assures us that at least a few of these forces, even we cheapos can appreciate with a clear conscience.
There is the Good: Advances in technology (computerized inventory, container ships) allow products to move efficiently from manufacturers to consumers and at astoundingly low cost, even when circling the globe. There is the Not so Good: By necessity, mass manufactured designs skimp on craftsmanship and selection, and retailers use aggressive discounting and intimate knowledge of consumer psychology to sell an ever-increasing volume of low-quality goods. And there is, of course, the Ugly: Our obsession with cheap means that manufacturing is regularly outsourced to lowest-cost bidders, usually operating in developing countries and offering desperately low-wage jobs, lax human rights, and deplorable environmental conditions.
Shell’s findings probably won’t surprise you, but she assembles her argument—why you should care about the spectacularly cheap prices we pay for consumer goods—from a diverse range of sources, and she does a fine job of condensing the history of retail and volumes of psychological research down to just a few easily-digestible chapters. Also, she weaves into her account some enlightening case studies of select markets and retailers. I found the chapter on Ikea particularly fascinating. I didn’t know, for instance, that flat packing (i.e. products designed for sturdy, low-profile shipment) is one of the innovations that has made Ikea such a wildly successful company.
Shell’s critique of consumer behavior here is of the very softest variety, and that sound you probably hear right now is an activist slamming this book down in disgust. Shell describes herself as unapologetically cheap, and aside from a few snips at capitalism apologists Thomas L. Friedman, her writing is uniformly light-hearted. While Shell is troubled by some of what she finds, she admits that she’ll probably go on seeking out great deals, though perhaps now with a bit more awareness. As others have pointed out, Shell doesn’t provide much in the way of solutions here. Nevertheless, she seems quite upbeat about the future. Shell may not think so, but if you believe that the world is governed by the forces of economics, for craftsmanship and global quality of life at least, the future looks rather bleak.
There is the Good: Advances in technology (computerized inventory, container ships) allow products to move efficiently from manufacturers to consumers and at astoundingly low cost, even when circling the globe. There is the Not so Good: By necessity, mass manufactured designs skimp on craftsmanship and selection, and retailers use aggressive discounting and intimate knowledge of consumer psychology to sell an ever-increasing volume of low-quality goods. And there is, of course, the Ugly: Our obsession with cheap means that manufacturing is regularly outsourced to lowest-cost bidders, usually operating in developing countries and offering desperately low-wage jobs, lax human rights, and deplorable environmental conditions.
Shell’s findings probably won’t surprise you, but she assembles her argument—why you should care about the spectacularly cheap prices we pay for consumer goods—from a diverse range of sources, and she does a fine job of condensing the history of retail and volumes of psychological research down to just a few easily-digestible chapters. Also, she weaves into her account some enlightening case studies of select markets and retailers. I found the chapter on Ikea particularly fascinating. I didn’t know, for instance, that flat packing (i.e. products designed for sturdy, low-profile shipment) is one of the innovations that has made Ikea such a wildly successful company.
Shell’s critique of consumer behavior here is of the very softest variety, and that sound you probably hear right now is an activist slamming this book down in disgust. Shell describes herself as unapologetically cheap, and aside from a few snips at capitalism apologists Thomas L. Friedman, her writing is uniformly light-hearted. While Shell is troubled by some of what she finds, she admits that she’ll probably go on seeking out great deals, though perhaps now with a bit more awareness. As others have pointed out, Shell doesn’t provide much in the way of solutions here. Nevertheless, she seems quite upbeat about the future. Shell may not think so, but if you believe that the world is governed by the forces of economics, for craftsmanship and global quality of life at least, the future looks rather bleak.
August 29, 2013
3.5 stars
Fascinating book about the effects of buying piles and piles of cheap crap. She took a while to get around to "the high cost of discount culture". The first half of the book is theory and backstory: things like the history of discount retailing and the phsychology of bargain hunting, which you may or may not enjoy. I found it intersting, but still it was kind of a slog at times.
The second half gets to the real-life, modern day examples: Wal-Mart, IKEA, cheap food, and Chinese sweatshops. Like others have mentioned, I closed the book and resolved never to buy another SNOGFLOG coffee table. I'll probably forget my resolve next time my sistes and I want to browse IKEA for an hour and then eat a giant $1 cinnamon roll, while our kids play at the free child care center.
The way we have agreed to dismiss quality for low prices on food astonishes me every time I read a book like this. While discussing farm-raised, antibiotic-laden, uber-cheap Thai shrimp, Shell says, "You need not be an economist to realize that food farmed, harvested, and processed in enormous quantities and sold at very low prices is unlikely to have been handled with great care."
Regarding Chinese manufacturing: "Americans don't like tainted dog food or exploding tires or other dangers traced to Chinese markets. We prefer our milk straight, not laced with melamine to artificially boost its protein content. We do not approve of spraying children's toys with lead paint. Still, increasingly, we are not willing to look too deeply at the causes or real solutions of these problems."
Ironically, this book has quite a few typos and minor errors. At one point, she mentions "Michael Madoff" when I'm almost certain she was talking about Bernie Madoff. Perhaps they used a discount proofreader?
Fascinating book about the effects of buying piles and piles of cheap crap. She took a while to get around to "the high cost of discount culture". The first half of the book is theory and backstory: things like the history of discount retailing and the phsychology of bargain hunting, which you may or may not enjoy. I found it intersting, but still it was kind of a slog at times.
The second half gets to the real-life, modern day examples: Wal-Mart, IKEA, cheap food, and Chinese sweatshops. Like others have mentioned, I closed the book and resolved never to buy another SNOGFLOG coffee table. I'll probably forget my resolve next time my sistes and I want to browse IKEA for an hour and then eat a giant $1 cinnamon roll, while our kids play at the free child care center.
The way we have agreed to dismiss quality for low prices on food astonishes me every time I read a book like this. While discussing farm-raised, antibiotic-laden, uber-cheap Thai shrimp, Shell says, "You need not be an economist to realize that food farmed, harvested, and processed in enormous quantities and sold at very low prices is unlikely to have been handled with great care."
Regarding Chinese manufacturing: "Americans don't like tainted dog food or exploding tires or other dangers traced to Chinese markets. We prefer our milk straight, not laced with melamine to artificially boost its protein content. We do not approve of spraying children's toys with lead paint. Still, increasingly, we are not willing to look too deeply at the causes or real solutions of these problems."
Ironically, this book has quite a few typos and minor errors. At one point, she mentions "Michael Madoff" when I'm almost certain she was talking about Bernie Madoff. Perhaps they used a discount proofreader?
September 14, 2009
This book got a lot of press when it was released so I was surprised at horrible editing in it, but we'll get to that in a minute. First I have to say that the book wasn't really what I was anticipating for the first 2/3. The last 1/3 was more what I was expecting in that it addressed the effect buying cheap goods has on society, which you would expect based on the title. The first 2/3 though was more psychologically based on why we are attracted to certain prices even if they don't make sense and how and why prices are actually set and things like that. I have a psychology background, so I'm not saying I didn't find it interesting because I did, it's just not what I was expecting. But back to the bad editing. Based on the references in the book to lots of studies and conversations with experts it appears that this book was fairly well researched, but I had a hard time putting a lot of credence in anything being said based on all the typos and misspellings in the book, not to mention calling Bernie Madoff, Michael Madoff. I've never read a published book that had so many errors in it. It was kind of embarrassing. So in the end my psychological perception of this book was probably altered by a bad editor and thus I can't really recommend it like I thought I might prior to reading it.
November 4, 2009
I picked this book up thinking it would likely be a repetitive, anti-WalMart critique that I'd lose interest in pretty fast. Instead it's a surprisingly engaging series of chapters detailing multiple causes and effects of the increasing trend towards discount retail over the last century in America. A couple of the more interesting topics:
- How traditionally blue-collar workers across the supply chain - in manufacturing and retail positions - have been downgraded from semi-skilled workers to minimum wage/unskilled labor with the advent of 1) assembly line production in the manufacturing sector and 2) retailers cutting costs in their own sales structures, with stocking and ordering jobs at outlet and low-service retail taking the place of sales clerks in decades past
- Environmental, safety, and human rights effects from increased pressure on suppliers/ manufactures to cut costs by effectively sourcing from the bottom
- Some interesting examples of consumer psychology - "irrational" price-based choices consumers predictably repeat - through academic studies in behavioural economics, psychology, and neuroscience
One last reason this book kept my interest - it was never preachy. The author acknowledges her own conflicting views as a global citizen vs price-conscious consumer, assuming the reader has a bit of both as well.
- How traditionally blue-collar workers across the supply chain - in manufacturing and retail positions - have been downgraded from semi-skilled workers to minimum wage/unskilled labor with the advent of 1) assembly line production in the manufacturing sector and 2) retailers cutting costs in their own sales structures, with stocking and ordering jobs at outlet and low-service retail taking the place of sales clerks in decades past
- Environmental, safety, and human rights effects from increased pressure on suppliers/ manufactures to cut costs by effectively sourcing from the bottom
- Some interesting examples of consumer psychology - "irrational" price-based choices consumers predictably repeat - through academic studies in behavioural economics, psychology, and neuroscience
One last reason this book kept my interest - it was never preachy. The author acknowledges her own conflicting views as a global citizen vs price-conscious consumer, assuming the reader has a bit of both as well.
December 8, 2013
A very insightful examination of our American obsession with getting a bargain. It is almost a reflex. Also, the myopia that Americans have with the human and environmental costs of buying cheap was startling. The awareness that downward pressure on prices not only squeezes the wages of unseen workers overseas but ultimately comes back to wring out the disposable income of American workers is maddening. If we were told that aliens were doing this to our world, we would build the laser to blast them out of our solar system. But we're doing it to ourselves. . .talk about masochism.
I found the expose a little depressing, but enlightening. While no magic bullet was promulgated, Shell's last few paragraphs provided me with the take away from the book:
1. "Know that my purchases have consequences". . .or you vote with your money
2. "Set my own standards for quality and stick to it"
3. "Understand the true costs of what I buy and refuse to allow them to be externalized"
4. "Enforce sustainability, minimize disposability, and insist on transparency."
5. "Rekindle my acquaintance with craftsmanship"
6. Don't be anxious whether someone got a better deal than me
7. Pay attention to what matters.
I found the expose a little depressing, but enlightening. While no magic bullet was promulgated, Shell's last few paragraphs provided me with the take away from the book:
1. "Know that my purchases have consequences". . .or you vote with your money
2. "Set my own standards for quality and stick to it"
3. "Understand the true costs of what I buy and refuse to allow them to be externalized"
4. "Enforce sustainability, minimize disposability, and insist on transparency."
5. "Rekindle my acquaintance with craftsmanship"
6. Don't be anxious whether someone got a better deal than me
7. Pay attention to what matters.
January 17, 2010
The book's central thesis, Gresham's Law applied to consumers goods (i.e. bad products, when seemingly indistinguishable from good products, will quickly dominate the market).
However, the book often veers into side topics, meandering into rants about, inter alia, IKEA's fall-apart furniture, the Levittown houses, and the perennial favorite for bashing: Wal-Mart's low prices/wages.
The book is undeniably biased and one-sided. Shell points out the social ills brought about by discount pricing, but ignores or belittles any social benefits.
The good: the history of discount stores was interesting, and informative. The central thesis is, IMHO, well-founded and fascinating.
The bad: Shell fails to focus on the main thesis, jumping from topic to topic within a chapter, often with side stories or unrelated subjects. For example, a large part of a chapter was devoted to summarizing Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" research, but not properly tied into the chapter's topic.
However, the book often veers into side topics, meandering into rants about, inter alia, IKEA's fall-apart furniture, the Levittown houses, and the perennial favorite for bashing: Wal-Mart's low prices/wages.
The book is undeniably biased and one-sided. Shell points out the social ills brought about by discount pricing, but ignores or belittles any social benefits.
The good: the history of discount stores was interesting, and informative. The central thesis is, IMHO, well-founded and fascinating.
The bad: Shell fails to focus on the main thesis, jumping from topic to topic within a chapter, often with side stories or unrelated subjects. For example, a large part of a chapter was devoted to summarizing Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" research, but not properly tied into the chapter's topic.
December 16, 2009
I wanted to give this book a higher rating based on its impact - it truly does provoke thought and, hopefully, thoughtful acton. The core premise, that Americans have disconnected the integrated relationship of worker-consumer-citizen and thereby created an ever-downward economic & cultural spiral in search of cheap, is potent and enlightening. We enable low price goods with low wage workers which then creates low income consumers who search for more low price goods. The other point I took from it was a reminder of the difference between a cheap culture (disposable) and a thrifty/frugal culture (reusable).
However, as a book, it doesn't merit more than 3.5 stars. It is rambling and would have greatly benefited from better editing. (I specifically read the acknowledgements to identify the editor and had to laugh at her hyperbolic praise of him. Ha!) As committed as I was to her ideas, it was a struggle to plod along to the end.
However, as a book, it doesn't merit more than 3.5 stars. It is rambling and would have greatly benefited from better editing. (I specifically read the acknowledgements to identify the editor and had to laugh at her hyperbolic praise of him. Ha!) As committed as I was to her ideas, it was a struggle to plod along to the end.
January 19, 2011
A provocative look at everything from the truth behind "discount mania", seasonal sales (and sales in general, for that matter), the rise and lies of outlet mall shopping and the psychology finding a bargain to the seemingly manic desire to be "bargain hunters" rather than "thrifty", Ruppel Shell's book is an in depth look at what drives our emotional buying.
Starting from Wanamaker, Woolworth to Sears and continuing to present day (well, 2009), Ruppel Shell gives such a fine history of "cheap" and its global ripple effect (no wonder we're so in debt to China), that is at times shocking, humbling but - above all - thought provoking. A few of the topics discussed: IKEA, Wal Mart, Whole Foods, outsourcing for cheaper labor domestic and internationally, Caterpillar, what happens when workers don't even make enough to purchase the goods they helped create, etc.
You will never look at outlet shopping malls, MSRPs or sale tags that same way again.
Starting from Wanamaker, Woolworth to Sears and continuing to present day (well, 2009), Ruppel Shell gives such a fine history of "cheap" and its global ripple effect (no wonder we're so in debt to China), that is at times shocking, humbling but - above all - thought provoking. A few of the topics discussed: IKEA, Wal Mart, Whole Foods, outsourcing for cheaper labor domestic and internationally, Caterpillar, what happens when workers don't even make enough to purchase the goods they helped create, etc.
You will never look at outlet shopping malls, MSRPs or sale tags that same way again.
February 12, 2015
I found it very hard to get into this book. I could not finish it as my tag shows. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but this was not it. I got to the middle of chapter 4 (I think) and started flipping through looking for something that wasn't super dry history of how Woolworth or Sears Roebuck etc. started and continued to make money. I get that part of the problem with "the high cost of discount culture" has to do with how and why people started creating these discount stores. I was hoping for more of a discussion on why people choose cheap and maybe that was coming up in another chapter but I wasn't having a good time climbing through the dreary history of early corporate America.
tl;dr
People want money and do anything they can to keep money. The end.
tl;dr
People want money and do anything they can to keep money. The end.
April 12, 2018
Important ideas to take into consideration. Sometimes I was bored with the narrative though. Major takeaways:
- The back-in-the day shopping scenario consisted of sellers and buyers who knew each other, belonged to the same community, and relied on each other, and therefore needed to trust each other. If someone developed a reputation of trying to cheat, no one would do business with them. There still exist situations like this today, and a tourist to such a place will not receive the same treatment. A local seller will likely try to get the tourist to pay a much higher price as a local, because the tourist is not coming back and there is no necessary relationship. The way things are set up for us today, we are all essentially tourists. Wal-Mart, for example, doesn't care if I feel like they've cheated me.
- Discount stores (Wal-Mart, Amazon, outlet malls, etc) dominate the shopping landscape today. They emphasize good deals ("30% OFF!" or "You saved $10 on your purchases today!") rather than products, leaning heavily on our psychological switch that compels us to get the most bang for our buck. This fosters a culture where we pay less attention to the quality of the product and pay more attention to what what a great deal it was, and we end up buying a lot of low-quality stuff that doesn't last long and likely actually costs more in the long run.
- How much something "should" cost is really hard to for us to have a good sense of, especially for products that we don't buy very often. This makes us easy to manipulate, thinking we're getting a great deal when we're not.
- We want just about everything to cost as little as possible, and discount stores keep our business by pushing their prices as low as possible. In turn, discount stores pressure suppliers to lower prices as much as possible. Suppliers have to comply, because stores can just find another supplier who's willing. This results in low-quality products, extremely low wages and horrendous working conditions (especially in China, India, etc), and disease-prone food. Everyone is trying to cut costs wherever they can to meet the demand for cheap stuff. In this drive to cut costs, it's easy to start treating employees like expendable materials. Similarly, customers are also expendable and not really the customers - the stockholders are the main customers.
- The more discount culture becomes the norm, the harder it is for any business who doesn't want to play the discount game to compete.
- The back-in-the day shopping scenario consisted of sellers and buyers who knew each other, belonged to the same community, and relied on each other, and therefore needed to trust each other. If someone developed a reputation of trying to cheat, no one would do business with them. There still exist situations like this today, and a tourist to such a place will not receive the same treatment. A local seller will likely try to get the tourist to pay a much higher price as a local, because the tourist is not coming back and there is no necessary relationship. The way things are set up for us today, we are all essentially tourists. Wal-Mart, for example, doesn't care if I feel like they've cheated me.
- Discount stores (Wal-Mart, Amazon, outlet malls, etc) dominate the shopping landscape today. They emphasize good deals ("30% OFF!" or "You saved $10 on your purchases today!") rather than products, leaning heavily on our psychological switch that compels us to get the most bang for our buck. This fosters a culture where we pay less attention to the quality of the product and pay more attention to what what a great deal it was, and we end up buying a lot of low-quality stuff that doesn't last long and likely actually costs more in the long run.
- How much something "should" cost is really hard to for us to have a good sense of, especially for products that we don't buy very often. This makes us easy to manipulate, thinking we're getting a great deal when we're not.
- We want just about everything to cost as little as possible, and discount stores keep our business by pushing their prices as low as possible. In turn, discount stores pressure suppliers to lower prices as much as possible. Suppliers have to comply, because stores can just find another supplier who's willing. This results in low-quality products, extremely low wages and horrendous working conditions (especially in China, India, etc), and disease-prone food. Everyone is trying to cut costs wherever they can to meet the demand for cheap stuff. In this drive to cut costs, it's easy to start treating employees like expendable materials. Similarly, customers are also expendable and not really the customers - the stockholders are the main customers.
- The more discount culture becomes the norm, the harder it is for any business who doesn't want to play the discount game to compete.
May 17, 2019
What I wanted this book to be was a concise exposé of unethical brands and cheap products, wrapped up with a practical suggested course of action for concerned consumers to follow.
Maybe it's not the book's fault, but this is not what it was. Shell deals more with the historical origins and economic results of "discount culture", and exhaustively so. Much of this content was simply of no interest to me (though perhaps others may find it more stimulating).
I do feel challenged to quit looking at all the stuff I buy as disposable. We do this without thinking, but the reality is disturbing, once you begin to consider it. That being said, I could not relate to many of the extremes Shell describes. Who buys an article of clothing that falls apart after one wash and doesn't care??? Who thinks nothing of furniture they purchase not lasting more than a year or two? Our culture is pretty bad, but I don't know anyone THAT wasteful and careless.
Instead of feeling educated and empowered by having read this book, I am instead more frustrated than before. How does one become a responsible consumer without spending extravagant amounts of money? I'm still trying to figure that one out. 'Til I do, I'll probably go on suspecting that living off the land and buying next to nothing is the answer.
Finally, a self-defending side note: I own a model of bookcase from IKEA that the author mentioned by name. It doesn't look like firewood. And after 5+ years of housing loads of heavy books, the shelves aren't bowed in the middle or falling apart. Maybe I won't be passing it on to my grandchildren, and maybe I'd make a different choice if I were investing in furniture now. But I also don't think my bookshelves are complete garbage, thanks very much.
Maybe it's not the book's fault, but this is not what it was. Shell deals more with the historical origins and economic results of "discount culture", and exhaustively so. Much of this content was simply of no interest to me (though perhaps others may find it more stimulating).
I do feel challenged to quit looking at all the stuff I buy as disposable. We do this without thinking, but the reality is disturbing, once you begin to consider it. That being said, I could not relate to many of the extremes Shell describes. Who buys an article of clothing that falls apart after one wash and doesn't care??? Who thinks nothing of furniture they purchase not lasting more than a year or two? Our culture is pretty bad, but I don't know anyone THAT wasteful and careless.
Instead of feeling educated and empowered by having read this book, I am instead more frustrated than before. How does one become a responsible consumer without spending extravagant amounts of money? I'm still trying to figure that one out. 'Til I do, I'll probably go on suspecting that living off the land and buying next to nothing is the answer.
Finally, a self-defending side note: I own a model of bookcase from IKEA that the author mentioned by name. It doesn't look like firewood. And after 5+ years of housing loads of heavy books, the shelves aren't bowed in the middle or falling apart. Maybe I won't be passing it on to my grandchildren, and maybe I'd make a different choice if I were investing in furniture now. But I also don't think my bookshelves are complete garbage, thanks very much.
August 29, 2020
This book was SO interesting. I wanted to talk about it to everyone and made my husband read it, too. Shell writes about the rise of discount retail and how we really lose out by spending less on the goods we buy. They tend to be of worse quality, meaning we have to replace them more frequently. Landfills fill up. Wages have gotten lower as retail employees require less skill and training than early store clerks and as manufacturing is taken overseas where labor law related to safety and wages are nonexistent or not enforced.
I wish that her research and conclusions were more widely known, because I do feel a little powerless to make positive change. There is a relationship between low prices and low wages, and so it can be hard for anyone but the very wealthy to actually afford to put their money where their mouth is and purchase items of better quality and let businesses know what consumers really want.
My mind is really just racing with all the different ideas in this book. I can't write about them! You just have to read it yourself!
I wish that her research and conclusions were more widely known, because I do feel a little powerless to make positive change. There is a relationship between low prices and low wages, and so it can be hard for anyone but the very wealthy to actually afford to put their money where their mouth is and purchase items of better quality and let businesses know what consumers really want.
My mind is really just racing with all the different ideas in this book. I can't write about them! You just have to read it yourself!
July 1, 2019
A book I probably would have had trouble with in paper but since it was on audio and listened to in 30 minute chunks or so it breezed by. Shell has a lot of history to get through regarding how we got to our current state of discount retail (as of about 2008, since the book was originally published in 2009). Suffice to say, everything is poorly made by an underpaid and abused worker in a developing country and that in turn drives down wages and labor advances in the United States. It's a whole vicious cycle and there doesn't seem to be much of a way out. I'd like to see an updated edition of this book now that we've gone through the 2008 recession, etc. Shell also really only focuses on discount retail, outlets, and the food industry - she doesn't even touch the big green A and other internet retailers. But a book worth reading to remind us of what we're buying when we think we're getting a deal - there's a difference between "cheap" and "thrifty."
September 22, 2023
Our purchases have consequences, as we all know. What are these said consequences? Generic, nebulous answers often follow.
This book attempts to create a detailed description of the myriad of externalities and of the low price, high consumption culture that is preeminent and how this has affected our community, economic, and individual wellbeing.
This book attempts to create a detailed description of the myriad of externalities and of the low price, high consumption culture that is preeminent and how this has affected our community, economic, and individual wellbeing.
April 6, 2017
Nu jā, baigi. It kā visādas vispār zināmas sakarības, bet kad savelk visus galus kopā, beilde nav smuka.
Vienā teikumā - ja darbinieki nevar atļauties nopirkt produktu, kuru viņi paši ražo, tad ir pakaļā.
Vienā teikumā - ja darbinieki nevar atļauties nopirkt produktu, kuru viņi paši ražo, tad ir pakaļā.
November 28, 2020
A lot of information and numbers to take in- probably better as an audio book. I did find this book eye-opening and I will question myself before making impulse purchases.
I wonder what the numbers would be like today in 2020- with internet cookies and alerts about deals being sent right to our phones.
I wonder what the numbers would be like today in 2020- with internet cookies and alerts about deals being sent right to our phones.
September 15, 2013
This is a book to make you think---think about how you live and the ways in which the surrounding culture has influenced your actions and the implications of those actions for the world. The author has laid out her arguments clearly and well so that the book is a challenge from which you cannot turn away. She begins by looking way back to some of the first discount stores. Before Wal-Mart, there was Wannamakers and Woolworths. These early experiments with "cheap" did away with knowledgeable clerks and displayed merchandise, with price tags, on tables for the customer to peruse. Because the staff did not need to be highly skilled, rates of pay declined. The Sears catalogue spread discount culture outside of urban centers. She also talks about one of the earliest merchants to use discounts to sell huge volumes of goods: Eugene Ferkauf, founder of the chain, E.J. Korvette, one of the discount stores that really came into its own after World War II. The business pattern for these stores was to do away with cash registers and clerks in each department; there were check-out registers at the exits instead. As the book says, "By cutting back on customer service and most other frills, discounters not only saved money but created the impression that their merchandise was cheap due not to low quality but to low overhead." (p.37). They also began buying heavily from European manufacturers, and carried a much smaller selection than traditional department stores. The author notes that many family-run department stores went out of business . "Of the forty-two department store chains in operation in 1980, only twenty survived that decade." (p. 46). She goes on to say, "Discount chains not only put untold numbers of small retailers out of business, they reshaped the American demographic. Since retail traditionally had one of the lowest median rates of pay, the expansion of discount retailers that paid even lower wages contributed to a spurt in poorly paid jobs. Discounters tended to flatten the employment hierarchy......Harvard cultural historian Lizabeth Cohen has pointed out that mass-market consumption offers the facade of social equality without forcing society to go through the hard work of redistributing wealth. Low prices lead consumers to think they can get what they want without necessarily giving them what they want--or need. The ancient Roman phrase for this is panem et circenses, bread and circuses, the art of plying citizens with pleasures to distract them from pain. Today, low prices are the circuses." (p.47-48). The author also looks at economics, pricing theory, and the psychology behind different theories. She explores outlet malls and whether "bargains" can really be had there. She travels to Sweden for a closer look at IKEA, and to China, where a class divide allows the rural very poor to be recruited into insufferable working conditions in the factories that churn out trinkets for the West.(She notes that "roughly 25 % of the global workforce is now Chinese". Also, "every year China will add more workers to its payrolls than the total manufacturing workforce of the United States."p. 202) She takes a close look at cheap food and obesity in our society. Really, she has gone at this topic with a fierce thoroughness that will change the way you look at our world. This quote really made me pause: "Because of the low-cost imperative, you have a vicious cycle, squeezing workers up and down the value chain," Robert Bruno said. "This impoverishes them and makes it impossible for them to achieve social mobility. What's happening is that we are creating low-income workers who become low-wage consumers who seek low-priced goods. Stores are built strategically to cater to these low-wage earners, filled with products that are there for the single reason that they are affordable. This is a diabolical strategy, an evil strategy. What it comes down to is one group of workers eating another while the big boys in corporate sit back and watch the carnage. This thing could take us down." (p. 214). Read this book and you will think twice before your next discount purchase.
January 30, 2016
Cheap
Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture
© 2009 Ellen Ruppel Shell
296 pages
A few weeks ago I read Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, which is a critical history of the 20th-century trend in business toward cheaper goods. The history begins in the 19th century, with the rise of bulk retailing department stores. The existence of a business atmosphere that didn’t prioritize the lowest prices possible seems surreal to someone like myself, who came of age in the era of Wal-Mart triumphant. But according to Shell, traditional businessmen were positively scandalized by the ambitions of new retailers, who opted to make their profits by selling an enormous amount of cheap merchandise rather than a respectable amount of more moderately priced items. The new business model transformed the world, but there are consequences to every action.
Shell covers some of the same ground as was covered in The Wal-Mart Effect: the new model shifts the balance of power in business relationships from suppliers to retailers, which is bad news given that the retailers tend to be more monolithic, concentrating power in the hands of a few. Consumer expectations for cheap goods has disastrous environmental consequences: cheap is an adjective that once meant not just inexpensive, but inferior, and that meaning remains valid. The goods manufactured and sold by Wal-Mart and IKEA are produced as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest – most inferior – materials as possible. Not only do these cheaply-made goods wear out quickly, but they can’t be made into anything else. Although they cost the consumer little, they are a grave waste of resources in an age that can’t afford such waste. The costs that the consumers are spared are paid by cheap, abused labor, and the global environment. Shell also writes on price mechanisms and the psychology of selling, opining that the retailers’ success in convincing consumers that items can be sold this cheaply has distorted our concept of what things should truly cost, and ends by extolling the virtues of craftsmanship – a value I'm given to share. I despise purchasing items that won't last, or visiting stores where service is nonexistent because there the only reason people are hired is to restock merchandise and check goods out.
How convincing this is, I can’t say: The Wal-Mart Effect familiarized me with most of the key concepts. I was struck most here by the notion that we are creating garbage goods from garbage materials. Unfortunately, I can’t see that most people will decide to start buying more expensive goods, even if the discount culture depresses wages and wastes resources. However, as the 21st century progresses, the scarcity of resources will force people to use them more intelligently regardless of their wishes.
Related:
The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why America Needs a Green Revolution, Tom Friedman
Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture
© 2009 Ellen Ruppel Shell
296 pages
A few weeks ago I read Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, which is a critical history of the 20th-century trend in business toward cheaper goods. The history begins in the 19th century, with the rise of bulk retailing department stores. The existence of a business atmosphere that didn’t prioritize the lowest prices possible seems surreal to someone like myself, who came of age in the era of Wal-Mart triumphant. But according to Shell, traditional businessmen were positively scandalized by the ambitions of new retailers, who opted to make their profits by selling an enormous amount of cheap merchandise rather than a respectable amount of more moderately priced items. The new business model transformed the world, but there are consequences to every action.
Shell covers some of the same ground as was covered in The Wal-Mart Effect: the new model shifts the balance of power in business relationships from suppliers to retailers, which is bad news given that the retailers tend to be more monolithic, concentrating power in the hands of a few. Consumer expectations for cheap goods has disastrous environmental consequences: cheap is an adjective that once meant not just inexpensive, but inferior, and that meaning remains valid. The goods manufactured and sold by Wal-Mart and IKEA are produced as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest – most inferior – materials as possible. Not only do these cheaply-made goods wear out quickly, but they can’t be made into anything else. Although they cost the consumer little, they are a grave waste of resources in an age that can’t afford such waste. The costs that the consumers are spared are paid by cheap, abused labor, and the global environment. Shell also writes on price mechanisms and the psychology of selling, opining that the retailers’ success in convincing consumers that items can be sold this cheaply has distorted our concept of what things should truly cost, and ends by extolling the virtues of craftsmanship – a value I'm given to share. I despise purchasing items that won't last, or visiting stores where service is nonexistent because there the only reason people are hired is to restock merchandise and check goods out.
How convincing this is, I can’t say: The Wal-Mart Effect familiarized me with most of the key concepts. I was struck most here by the notion that we are creating garbage goods from garbage materials. Unfortunately, I can’t see that most people will decide to start buying more expensive goods, even if the discount culture depresses wages and wastes resources. However, as the 21st century progresses, the scarcity of resources will force people to use them more intelligently regardless of their wishes.
Related:
The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why America Needs a Green Revolution, Tom Friedman
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