Consuming Values of a Bankrupt Society
A slow but steady revolution has taken place in society, that of the WalMartization of the economy. Wal-Mart, that clever marketing scheme of pushing merchandise at a low- to medium-income public as a great cost-saver, is now the world's largest employer. One, furthermore, so complacent in its coveted place in marketing as the engine of social-engineering-consumerism that it feels its employees owe it the same undying loyalty as its vast costumer-base. Unions, should they prove to find support in the courts, are the single cause of shutting down union-afflicted stores.
A not very subtle message that it's their way, and no other way. They've been successful in shoving supermarket retailers to the wall, inciting them to try to beat them at their own game, so that supermarkets, in response to Wal-Mart's invasion of their territory have turned the tables, and themselves built huge box stores devoid of character, selling merchandise normally seen in department stores. Shop at Wal-Mart for your children's toys, your footwear and garments, and pick up all your groceries at the same time.
Conversely, go to the nearest supermarket Superstore to shop for the week's groceries, and while there, you can pick up clothing, television sets, bedding, and anything else sold traditionally by department stores - a fast-dwindling resource, unable to cope with the challenge that Wal-Mart brings to the industry - in a cost-reversal of shopping expectations. And it's a bit of a toss-up where the lower prices and the higher quality resides.
All the while traditional shopping emporiums are reeling under the merchandising and pricing assaults, to transform themselves into specialty shops, desperately trying to stretch out their existence in a price-averse shopping world where customary shoppers' allegiance to quality, brand names, and a traditional shopping experience at respected old department stores has gone by the boards, become history. Traditional merchandising opportunities are steadily dwindling, leaving one powerful marketing entity triumphant, the rest disappearing into obscurity and closure.
It's the triumph of sameness, of mediocrity, of cheap imports, low service wages, and buyer expectation of rock-bottom prices. Only the last of those expectations remains in question. A culture of acquisition, a passion for shopping, relinquishing old cautions about buying only what you can afford, what you need, for the new reality of buying anything you would like to acquire, and put it on credit. Nothing to be denied the consuming appetite of a credit-culture society. It's the pathology of rampant consumerism.
This has become what humanity aspires to; the never-ending acquisition of newer styles, electronics, vehicles, whatever happens to be most heavily advertised to a willingly brain-addled consumer. Built-in obsolescence through poor engineering and sub-grade materials, along with the ongoing introduction of newer technological improvements ensure that the consumer is never quite satiated, never satisfied with what they've surrounded themselves with. Something is always breaking down or operating under expectations and requiring replacement.
Society has developed an overpowering, passionate anxiety to consume. The skills of marketers and producers in encouraging this excess greatly aids the GDP of most countries. Is there no end in sight to increased expectations, and ever-growing consumption of unneeded and redundant products? Haven't we lost something in the process? The ability to discern quality in life? To recognize that acquisitions do not denote quality, that satisfaction isn't really to be found in object ownership?
Society descends to the lowest common consumer denominator when people line up outside stores for hours in an advertising panic-induced resolve to own the latest electronic gadgetry. When stores advertise special sales at special hours, so be there on time, for limited amounts whose costs have been slashed. And when the doors open finally, the throng of waiting customers overwhelm the store staff by their rush to enter and splurge.
Resulting in situations where there is no dignity, no decorum, no grace in the occasion, merely panic and the shrilly anxious need to acquire. People losing all sense of personal responsibility toward others, trampling one another in their manic rush to enter a sales arena and fan out to grab at the sales offerings. Where, case in point, a young clerk was knocked to the ground and trampled to death in New York City at a Wal-Mart a month ago.
Four shoppers were hurt in the crush resulting from a waiting crowd of 2000 rushing to enter the store, at five in the morning, tearing the store's doors off its hinges in the process, knocking down the 34-year-old temporary worker. And, as a final condemnation of greed run amok, when people were asked to leave the premises as a result of the death, many ignored the summons to decently humane behaviour, and avidly continued their shopping experience.
A not very subtle message that it's their way, and no other way. They've been successful in shoving supermarket retailers to the wall, inciting them to try to beat them at their own game, so that supermarkets, in response to Wal-Mart's invasion of their territory have turned the tables, and themselves built huge box stores devoid of character, selling merchandise normally seen in department stores. Shop at Wal-Mart for your children's toys, your footwear and garments, and pick up all your groceries at the same time.
Conversely, go to the nearest supermarket Superstore to shop for the week's groceries, and while there, you can pick up clothing, television sets, bedding, and anything else sold traditionally by department stores - a fast-dwindling resource, unable to cope with the challenge that Wal-Mart brings to the industry - in a cost-reversal of shopping expectations. And it's a bit of a toss-up where the lower prices and the higher quality resides.
All the while traditional shopping emporiums are reeling under the merchandising and pricing assaults, to transform themselves into specialty shops, desperately trying to stretch out their existence in a price-averse shopping world where customary shoppers' allegiance to quality, brand names, and a traditional shopping experience at respected old department stores has gone by the boards, become history. Traditional merchandising opportunities are steadily dwindling, leaving one powerful marketing entity triumphant, the rest disappearing into obscurity and closure.
It's the triumph of sameness, of mediocrity, of cheap imports, low service wages, and buyer expectation of rock-bottom prices. Only the last of those expectations remains in question. A culture of acquisition, a passion for shopping, relinquishing old cautions about buying only what you can afford, what you need, for the new reality of buying anything you would like to acquire, and put it on credit. Nothing to be denied the consuming appetite of a credit-culture society. It's the pathology of rampant consumerism.
This has become what humanity aspires to; the never-ending acquisition of newer styles, electronics, vehicles, whatever happens to be most heavily advertised to a willingly brain-addled consumer. Built-in obsolescence through poor engineering and sub-grade materials, along with the ongoing introduction of newer technological improvements ensure that the consumer is never quite satiated, never satisfied with what they've surrounded themselves with. Something is always breaking down or operating under expectations and requiring replacement.
Society has developed an overpowering, passionate anxiety to consume. The skills of marketers and producers in encouraging this excess greatly aids the GDP of most countries. Is there no end in sight to increased expectations, and ever-growing consumption of unneeded and redundant products? Haven't we lost something in the process? The ability to discern quality in life? To recognize that acquisitions do not denote quality, that satisfaction isn't really to be found in object ownership?
Society descends to the lowest common consumer denominator when people line up outside stores for hours in an advertising panic-induced resolve to own the latest electronic gadgetry. When stores advertise special sales at special hours, so be there on time, for limited amounts whose costs have been slashed. And when the doors open finally, the throng of waiting customers overwhelm the store staff by their rush to enter and splurge.
Resulting in situations where there is no dignity, no decorum, no grace in the occasion, merely panic and the shrilly anxious need to acquire. People losing all sense of personal responsibility toward others, trampling one another in their manic rush to enter a sales arena and fan out to grab at the sales offerings. Where, case in point, a young clerk was knocked to the ground and trampled to death in New York City at a Wal-Mart a month ago.
Four shoppers were hurt in the crush resulting from a waiting crowd of 2000 rushing to enter the store, at five in the morning, tearing the store's doors off its hinges in the process, knocking down the 34-year-old temporary worker. And, as a final condemnation of greed run amok, when people were asked to leave the premises as a result of the death, many ignored the summons to decently humane behaviour, and avidly continued their shopping experience.
Labels: Environment, Human Relations, Realities, Values
posted by Pieface @ 6:48 PM
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