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A review by bookishheather
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell
4.0
It's safe to say that we all know the general idea of what this book is about. Externalized costs of goods production that make WalMart's "everyday low prices" include environmental degradation, outsourcing to developing countries, labor rates that exact their toll to save a few cents on a shirt...that sort of thing. And for what? We are trained to become a disposable society. Our quest for the "best price" trains us to accept sub-par quality that we can easily replace when it fails.
But this book isn't just about WalMart, the usual suspect. One chapter examines the outlet mall. Another the WalMart for liberals known as Ikea. The author gives us a little history about how this race to the bottom started, and sums up by profiling a chain grocer in New England that may have found a better place, a happy medium between profits and labor costs. After a very thorough examination of what is behind our culture's desire for the lowest price, the author implores us to change how we approach our personal shopping in aid of a more humane, and sustainable, world.
But this book isn't just about WalMart, the usual suspect. One chapter examines the outlet mall. Another the WalMart for liberals known as Ikea. The author gives us a little history about how this race to the bottom started, and sums up by profiling a chain grocer in New England that may have found a better place, a happy medium between profits and labor costs. After a very thorough examination of what is behind our culture's desire for the lowest price, the author implores us to change how we approach our personal shopping in aid of a more humane, and sustainable, world.