Cheap is a comprehensive historical, sociological and economic account of our society's obsession with buying cheap goods. Shell begins at the beginning with a history of discount retailers like E.J. Korvette and Woolworth, explaining how and why they were able to sell goods for cheaper than other stores. We learn the psychology of how prices are set, markdown reasoning, and the truth behind all those "deals" at the outlet malls.
Shell moves on to cheap food, providing some surprising information. For example, Haiti once exported rice to other countries, but now imports it from the US because it is so much cheaper. In doing so, they've driven poor farmers away from their land and into city slums. Situations like this have happened again and again all over the world, including during the potato famine in Ireland. When disease wiped out potatoes there in the mid 1800's, people starved to death. What many don't know is that Ireland was actually exporting lots of food at the time - fish, beef, oats and wheat - that could have fed the population.
Finally, Shell touches on something close to my heart - where "cheap plastic crap" comes from. This section of the book is sort of an extended version of The Story of Stuff. We once manufactured so many of our goods here in the US but, because we constantly demand cheaper and cheaper prices, we've driven the manufacturing overseas where factory workers sometimes work for just a few dollars per week in extremely poor conditions to make our cheap plastic crap.
I have to admit that I renewed this book at the library twice. It's not exactly a page-turner, but it is filled with great research and will certainly make you re-evaluate (or re-re-evaluate in my case) your values.
2 comments:
I loved this book but completely agree that it takes some brainwork to get through. Have you read garbageland by Elizabeth royte? While reading Cheap, I kept thinking, "Where's Elizabeth Royte when I need her!"
Going to the library today and going to see if they have this. Thanks.
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