...think about it!

It's so expensive!!!

How often do we say that? In my mind, anytime I'm in a retail establishment, that statement is like a skipping CD over and over and over as I shop and compare and decide what to leave on the shelf and what to take home ... and how do I determine what is expensive and what is affordable? By comparing items to each other, of course. I do this all the time!!

But I was just doing a little surfing (explained once again by the fact that I'm supposed to be writing a research paper!) and I was on the Me to We site... I heard Craig Kielberger in Winnipeg a while back, at the Delta (where all the best breakfast meetings were always held with the tastiest orange juice in the city!.. and a parking lot that took me ALL the years I lived in that city to figure out!)...anyway, Me to We is marketing clothing now, so I was having a look. and of course, it ran through my head.....These t-shirts ARE SOOOO EXPENSIVE. and then a post began to form in my mind.

I was remembering a video I watched on Jeff's site, all about the product chain from production to consumption to disposal ... and one of the things mentioned was EXTERNALIZING COSTS. -Fancy phrase for something that retailers and manufacturers conspire to do in order to make other (poorer) people pay so the wealthiest people in the world can have more stuff for less money. (Thats the kelly interpretation)

Think about it.. I'll tell you a little of my journey with thoughts like this. I have been thinking about it. You know those shoe boxes we send to children in developing countries? Our family did them for years, some years we'd do 5-6/year. Then, one year, there was this great new store to help us with the shoebox items... Dollarama. I shopped at the first one in Winnipeg, on N. Henderson. It was awesome! They had much better selection than other dollar stores we'd bought items from, and I could get stuff for boys or girls, all ages, all in one stop. Great! Doing good deeds and convenience all wrapped up in one nice package with big green and yellow lettering. Makes me all ready for the holidays.
But hold on... how can these toothbrushes and pens and puppets and books and flashlights and crayons and socks and dolls and masks and toys all be $1 each?!?!??! How can the overhead, the wages, the shipping, the marketing, the manufacturing, everything be covered by my measly little loonie?

Something is fishy here... It just doesn't make sense. Someone, somewhere is paying for this because there is NO WAY that the costs and profits (and you can bet your very last loonie that Profits aren't the thing being sacrificed for me to pay low prices!!) are being covered by the retail price I'm paying.

Hey... wait a minute... I wonder if the economic circumstances in all those countries where the thousands and thousands of shoe boxes are being sent are helped or hindered by my ability to buy goods for $1 and ship it back to them in a nice Christmas-y box? ... Hmmmm...

So back to Me to We... that 'expensive' clothing? Here's some info about it...

"Our product line is domestically produced, sweatshop-free and made using certified organic cotton and bamboo. In addition, 50 per cent of our profit goes to our charity partner, Free The Children, to support development projects in rural and impoverished areas across the globe. It’s responsible clothing for responsible living."

Not really that expensive, now that I think about it.

... when something is INEXPENSIVE for me... its likely EXPENSIVE for someone, somewhere. So comparing items on the shelf to each other... probably not really the right considerations to determine what is or is not expensive.

Happy Shopping.. and Merry Christmas.