IDEAS
Shop Till
Drop
Bargain buys, it turns out, aren't such a good deal. Ellen Ruppel Shell,
the author o f
C heap,
explains the high cost o f discount culture.
in t e r v ie w
by
Shannon Sharpe
N E W IN T E R S E V E R A L Y E A R S
ago, Ellen Ruppel Shell did
something unremarkable, for
the average American - she
went shopping. The Boston
University journalism professor
and
Atlantic
correspondent
already had an outfit for a New
Year’s Eve party she planned
to attend. All she needed was
a pair of boots to go with it.
The store’s selection was
disappointing, until she asked
the manager if he had anything
special. He produced a pair of
handmade leather boots. Shell
fell in love. Then she looked at
the price. I can’t afford that, she
thought. So she settled on a pair
at a fraction of the cost. She
wore the uncomfortable, badly
made boots to the party, and on
New Year’s Day tossed them in
the back of her closet. Then she
did something, well, remarkable:
She reflected on her many years
of bargain purchases - the spade
that broke as soon as it hit dirt,
the iron that ruined a shirt
on first use - and decided to
pull back the curtain on what
“cheap” really buys us.
Shell embarked on a two-
year quest, speaking to
everyone from economists to
farmers, product designers to
retailers. Cheap goods are an
illusion, she discovered. While
we tell ourselves, especially and
understandably during hard
times, that we need bargains to
sustain our quality of life, in the
long run these products aren’t
helping anyone - in any socio-
economic bracket. To sell cheap
goods, companies need cheap
labor, which keeps wages low.
Discount goods also entangle us
in foreign manufacturing and
labor practices, which may run
counter to our ethics. There
are environmental costs, both
in how we produce cheap goods
and how quickly we discard
them. And bargains disguise
the fact that, in recent decades,
prices on housing, insurance,
and childcare - what we spend
most of our money on - have
skyrocketed.
Shell published her sobering
findings in
Cheap: The High Cost
of Discount Culture
(Penguin,
2009). She recently took time
to talk to us about her book,
America’s bargain obsession,
and how we might begin to
change course.
CHEAP
The
High Cost
\ 0f Discount Culture
ELLEN R U PPEL SHELL
066 american craft jun/juln
