we have ourselves to blame

The trouble with getting old is that you remember how things used to be!

And the trouble with Capitalism is that it caters to the lowest common denominator. I’m not sure how many Gen X’ers or Millennials will know what “lowest common denominator” refers to because I’m not sure how they teach math anymore but the thing about Capitalism is that it recognizes that catering to every taste is expensive and the safest way to make a profit is to give consumers the 1 or 2 products that the greatest number of people want and then hope that the ones who have more defined palettes will be forced to buy what is available.

Take jelly and jam for example. I remember going to LOCAL stores and being able to purchase jars of jelly or jam from any of 15 or 20 different FLAVORS. Usually there was only one supplier / manufacturer of some of the less common flavors — like maybe blood orange, or boysenberry — but there was at least one. Today if I go to a grocery I’m much more likely to find 5 or 6 different manufacturers all offering the same 2 or 3 flavors — but you can get them in three different sizes. There is no choice: you get to purchase what they offer.

The same phenomenon has happened with everything. No one wants to pay for real leather shoes that can be resoled three or four times; instead we buy running shoes or tennis that will need replacing every year or two — if they haven’t gone out of style first. I have sweaty feet. There’s nothing I can do about that. By the end of the day my shoes — any shoes — are soaked through and I need another pair to wear tomorrow so that today’s shoes can begin to dry out and on really hot days I have to wait a second day before I can wear them again comfortably.

Any kind of clothing, any kind of car, any kind of food — your easily purchased options have simply dried up and gone away.

Even cars, while you think you can get the car you want, once you look at the way accessories are bundled together you realize that the “choices” about what you want in your car are really a joke. And yet I remember going into a car showroom and sitting with a salesman and spacing out in detail just how I wanted my car. Yeah — it took 6 weeks to get it, but then it was being built here in the U.S. and didn’t have to come halfway around the world to get to me.

We’ve been on this pathway to monotony for 40 or 50 years — maybe longer. Customers who shop predominantly by price have killed most of the independent grocers and retailers around our country. When price became more important than your neighbor’s family it meant that it was OK to buy at the super stores even if your neighbor had to shutter their business because they couldn’t compete with price even though they offered service that was far more VALUABLE than what the big boxes offered.

We only have ourselves to blame. We have created the world that we deserve. And now there is no way to reverse the trends, the big stores are too big now to see any upstart independent as anything other than a minor annoyance that can be eliminated anytime they want.

Yeah…. we have ourselves to blame.