Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell

Walmart is an easy company to hate, but Shell's book Cheap gives an eye-opening perspective on the dealings of other large discounters, such as Ikea and even our food industry. She describes, quite succinctly, how the economics of Cheap creates great divides in the quality of goods. Mostly, we have either poorly made, cheap goods and well made, expensive luxury goods. There is no longer a middle ground.

• "The discounting [of price, and thus,] skills leads to their further decline and a further devaluing. And because discounters hold so much sway, this means that skilled and experienced workers of all varieties -- tailors, cobblers, butchers, store clerks, travel agents -- are increasingly rare."

The book is also informative regarding marketing strategies and really highlights methods used to lure consumers, and how, over time, we have allowed merchants to sell us poor quality products at what we think are discounts.

• "If customers know the milk is watered, there is no problem; they pay less for it and get precisely what they bargained for. ... But when dishonest brokers add water to the milk and sell it for less without telling customers they've watered it, the unwitting public believes it is getting a great deal. If enough dishonest merchants water their milk, more and more customers will forget what normal milk tastes like and buy only the cheaper--watered down--variety. Eventually, honest brokers are forced to water their milk, too, or get pushed out of business. ... Shoddy clothes, unreliable electronics, wobbly furniture, and questionable food have become the norm."

Also contained within is an estimation of the true long-term societal cost of cheap food and disposable goods. However, I think the main message of this book is that our Cheap economies are not sustainable.

The content of the book is very up-to-date, which makes me think that it was published in a bit of a rush, and would account for the numerous spelling errors. There is also an extensive Notes section at the end of the book where Shell backs up her claims with specifically in addition to the bibliography.

My Rating = 0