Reconsidering How You Shop: The Cost of Cheap
By Jonathan Bui
On demand, right to our doorstep, two day shipping, and even same day delivery: These are the pillars of a modern 21st century economy. The driving forces that are described most as serving the customer and increasing access to goods and services. Consumption has become exponentially easier year after year, where the limit would be outsourcing your consumption, because who would do that right? But the means to create consumption will be farmed out to the lowest bidder, as is the case in any booming consumer economy. The pace of demand seems ceaseless.
But there is a hidden cost behind the ubiquity of "always low prices," one that can be more potent than anyone would expect.
Sally Owen's Dragon's Nest is a relic of the monopolistic dominance of mega-cap companies like Amazon and Walmart. Nostalgic toys in "a land of magic and wonder" are slowly disappearing from communities, alienating bright eyed kids from a former world of curiosity and imagination. It has on the outside become what many would consider a battle for survival of the fittest, but in this environment it is undoubtedly a survival of the cheapest. Even for larger companies like Toys 'R Us, the changing landscape of attention has captured the young and old consumer in ways that would shift industries and close countless businesses.
The indie bookstores and metropolitan hideouts that infatuated the minds of many are also seeing the veil pulled over their eyes. Once a bustling place to discuss and explore new literature is now eroding faster with each last mile package placed at every doorstep. Small shop owners don't often have the luxury of providing continually improving wages, retirement benefits, and health benefits, even though they would love to. Warehouse workers at various third party fulfillment (3PL) centers are tracked like non-sentient robots, who are monitored with a microscope, from their bathroom breaks to lunches and volume they do day by day. Trends and timestamps are used to create a culture that is extremely taxing on the individual and chastises anyone who needs a moment of calm to maintain a sense of well-being. It is these full time workers who are ironically on governmental assistance because the privatization of profits has always had its own priorities.
Much like the food industry, the ecommerce age aims to remove the consumer from all the gore within its underbelly.
When community needs and costs are socialized, but business profits are privatized, communities become dilapidated both literally and culturally. Small businesses that preserve a conscientious and personal culture are eroded away, unable to sustain even basic operations. Roads and buildings that would greatly benefit from repair and renovation are left to rot and jeopardize public safety. Great businesses build up communities and raise the standard of living for everyone within. But planting a tree twenty years ago seems no longer the goal. It's the pursuit of mind-boggling growth, at the expense of everything and everyone around it. An internal growth engine that surely would not suffer if it slowed down even briefly for the sake of community.
Many people want consumption at a level of cheap that is both unsustainable and unreasonable. The cost of doing business can be incredibly high but unfortunately out of view. Amongst the many indisputable positives, it is important to understand that the premium paid goes to the welfare of the workers, the culture of the organization, the lights that provide the ambiance, and the commitment to value that small owners wish to serve. There is a consequence to only buying from one company or a few companies. The ultimate being the gradually irreversible loss of diversity and opportunity.
There is a suppressed exploitation that is more easily clandestine with every new dollar that is tucked away in their vaults. It breeds an overarching corporate culture that will eventually reach you the consumer in your own line of work, and make way to the plazas adjacent to your neighborhoods. Big business doubles down on anonymity to bring you cheap, but makes many cities inevitably anonymous as a result. Small businesses close, jobs are lost, people are displaced, and vacancy becomes commonplace.
When you shop, take the extra time to vote with your dollars. Support good business practices and legacies you want to see continue.
Altruistic finance is an inherent extension of good personal finance. The assets in your own community are a shared wealth that pays you dividends in countless ways. Spend a little more for small businesses that preserve value in your town. A cheaper product today could very well be a great social cost long term.