Black Friday Made Better
You couldn't pay me to set foot in a mall on this upcoming holiest-of-shopping days, but rumor has it that some people are pretty into it. And considering how insanely low Black Friday sale prices can be, I understand. Snagging a $150 pair of jeans for $39.95 is a high in its own right, and I have many fond memories of scouring discount bins with my mother for brands we otherwise couldn't afford.
But as a number of historians, activists, journalists, and other smarty-pants people have been pointing out for years, discount culture has its price. In Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, Ellen Ruppel Shell points out that the fallout of highly-discounted goods is detrimental indeed – low-quality clothing, suffering US small businesses, environmental degradation, and horrific working conditions for the people making these cheap goods are among the perils she cites. Full disclosure: I haven’t read the book yet. But when I caught the NPR interview a few years back, one quote in particular resonated with me:
“As I discovered, this bifurcation of price, this high/low pricing is a relatively new thing. You know, our parents and our grandparents were able to find pretty good value at a pretty good price. It might not have been a rock-bottom price, but it was a pretty good price because most of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents lived through the Depression...”
I've always had an idealized vision of what life must have been like for my grandparents and the generations that preceded them; namely, the American Girls-inspired notion that everyone had one nice Sunday dress, one warm winter coat, and a handcrafted leather satchel for carrying books to the village’s one-room schoolhouse. Although this is highly simplistic, it’s not that far off. Necessity required an emphasis on items that would last, because buying a new coat was expensive, which is no longer the case in an economy that allows the sale of highly-discounted, cheap goods.
The impact of discount culture extends beyond the exploitation of humans and the environment -- it also leaves consumers hard-pressed to find things that will last. And just as we deserve access to healthy food at a reasonable price, we also deserve access to mid-range clothing that won’t fall apart in a year.
Rethink the Big Box
Yesterday was the 50 year anniversary of the big-box store. How do I know this? I am addicted to NPR. On the way to work yesterday I caught an interview
with Marc Levinson, author of The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America. Levinson also spoke to the relatively recent phenomenon of the discount superstore, and points out that such heavy discounts were actually illegal 50 years ago:
"There were laws meant to prohibit big retailers from getting volume discounts, so they couldn't buy merchandise more cheaply than mom-and-pop stores and mark it down. The other thing was that the manufacturer could make a product, could tell the retailer, 'You may sell our good, but only at the price we set.' And so if a retailer wanted to sell a certain brand of camera or a certain phonograph record or whatever, it had to sell it at the set price. That started breaking down in the 1950s, and that really opened the way to discount retailing."
This was news to me. Although I knew that legislation keeping retailers from selling products at artificially low prices is currently weak, I did not know that that it had been much tighter in the past. And with Walmart putting on an exceptionally weak moral performance lately, I have very little desire to give big boxes my money.
The Good News
Ok, this isn't exactly new news, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past decade, online shopping is very popular! And because of the proliferation of online storefronts, big boxes don’t have the same advantage over small businesses as they once did. This is a huge perk for ethical companies whose bottom line isn't necessarily the top priority. Not only do smaller companies have the option of forgoing a storefront altogether, keeping overhead costs down, they also have an expanded market and relatively low-cost social media marketing opportunities like Facebook, Pinterest, and their brethren. Don't get me wrong, big companies have a BIG Internet presence (and big marketing budgets), but I do think that we're on our way to a more even playing field.
Perhaps more importantly, there is a powerful counter-culture emerging around quality, handcrafted goods that is, says this Pollyanna, only going to get stronger. Evidence is rampant here in San Francisco, with local clothing boutiques, jewelers, cobblers, old-timey barbershops, and a host of other small business thriving like you wouldn't believe (unless you live in the Mission, then you believe it while sighing, “This neighborhood is getting sooooo gentrified”).
As an emphasis on artisanal, more “authentic” goods continues to increase, consumers will demand more of it. And while there is potential for major, greenwashing-style exploitation here, I think it is generally a good thing.
So...
I’m going to resort to that annoying marketing trope that tells you to treat yourself. Indulge. You’re so totally worth it. But seriously, your money is worth more that the products of exploitative labor. It’s worth more than cheap, ill-fitting clothing. So spend a little more, buy a little less. Feel good, drink some kombucha, join a drum circle. I won’t tell.
While it may not be possible to find everything on your gift list at a small local business or an ethical online retailer, I’d be surprised if you couldn't find a few gems. For online shopping, these are some of the most comprehensive sites I've found:
Fair Trade men’s and women’s clothing; one of the pioneering brands in this realm. You can also find some items on ASOS’s US site.
This members-only site provides ethical alternatives to brands like the Gap, J. Crew, Tori Burch, and a host of others. Each item is profiled with information on social responsibility, country of origin, philosophy, and more. The site is in beta right now, so you’ll need to sign up to browse the store.
TOMS’ style score has skyrocketed in the past year with the addition of some seriously cool sunglasses. They’re pricey, but non Ray-Ban pricey, and are part of the same one-for-one model as TOMS’ shoes.
If you want to splurge on something fancy-yet-ethical, Ted Baker is your sexy British savior. A Made-By partner brand, Ted Baker puts an emphasis on sustainable sourcing of materials, improved factory working conditions, and impeccable quality.
I’ve officially gotten over my distaste for AA’s styling and slightly-creepy CEO, and embraced that fact that I really like a lot of their stuff. Namely, their chiffon blouses, workout leggings, and up-cycled vintage frames. I also recently discovered that they teamed up with NYC-based Tic-Tac-Toes, whose shoes are not only adorable, but made domestically in their Gloverville factory.
More Ethical Shopping Resources...
I'm working on compiling a more organized, comprehensive directory. Please let me know if you have any stores or brands to contribute!