(Holiday) Shopping as Though it Matters
December 6, 2008 by Julia King · Leave a Comment
Once, long ago, I asked a Wal-Mart employee if he could tell me anything about a certain $4 shirt in the store. I actually just wanted to know about the person who made it, or more specifically, about the working conditions under which the person made it.
My recollection is that he said something along the lines of, “Ummm…,” before turning his head first in one direction and then in another, slowly eyeing the sea of merchandise that surrounded us. I let him tread water for a minute before I tossed him an, “Oh, never mind.” Together we nodded our heads and shrugged our shoulders, silently agreeing on the absurdity of my request.
Somehow, mentioning a worker on the other side of the world as I stood in a Wal-Mart in Indiana made me feel like a nun at a swinger’s party. As an official Fair Trade goodie-goodie, what was I even doing in a place that preaches rock-bottom prices for shoppers?
It reminded me of the time my mother stepped up to the counter at a Kentucky Fried Chicken and asked, in her best health-conscious voice, “Do you have anything that isn’t fried.”
“Coleslaw,” I had said loudly in my best 40-year-old-teenager voice, “and baked beans, and biscuits. Those things aren’t fried, MOM.” Then I smiled at the kid behind the counter and attempted to telepathically send him the universal cuckoo sign.
The good news is that with so much information at our fingertips, Americans expect more of it all the time. Is that organic? Decaf? Low sodium? Is Jolie pregnant? Sure, a lot of what we seek is inconsequential, but we’ve definitely developed an appetite for information. Eventually our desire for cheap goods will bump up against our desire for information; and when that happens, the marketplace will change.
Happy Holidays! Shop like you mean it.
(More later on consumers, product labeling, and capitalism…)
