Meg rants about shopping!

For my younger readers:

My topic this week is shopping – and you, it appears, are the shopping generation! So tell me how you do it? Do you buy the cheapest version of the product you want? Do you prefer to pay a little more for better quality? Do you buy stuff because you need it – or just because you want it? Do ‘labels’ matter to you? If so, why? Is there any type of item you would never buy? I, for example, would never buy something made from real fur. Are you concerned about whether the people who made the product have been treated well and paid a fair wage? Do you know that sometimes children are employed to make the things we buy? How do you feel about that?

Loads to think about – if it makes you feel any better, I’m going to throw the same sort of questions at the wrinklies – because I don’t know the right answers to many a shopping question and I want to know what they think!

For my more wrinkly readers:

OK, have a read of this:

‘I can’t believe the idealistic naivety I’m listening to,’ a girl with short blonde hair said belligerently. ‘I mean, how old are we, twelve? You can’t compare conditions in the Third World with those here! OK, nobody here is going to work for a dollar a day, but the cost of living is dramatically different. Take Atoz out of the equation and most of those families would starve. It’s not Atoz or some nice benevolent employer, you know! It’s Atoz or nothing – famine in the countryside, starvation in the city. I mean, come on, face reality! Bring pressure to bear on Atoz now we’ve got the leverage with them to offer better terms and conditions, but don’t for Christ’s sake just go, ‘Sod off Atoz we don’t like your attitude!’ That gets nobody anywhere!’

Thus rants (girl after my own heart!) a young student in my friend Alis Hawkins’ newly published book ‘Testament’ (ISBN 978 0 230 700001 7) which I’ve mentioned before – and regular readers of this blog will have noted that she’s a prolific poster of posts! The students are contesting their college’s decision to accept sponsorship from Atoz for their running team (the college is almost bankrupt) as it has a very dodgy ethical record but Girl With Short Blonde Hair deplores their simplistic take on the situation. It’s not hard to see the parallel. Just drop in Adidas or Nike or Gap or Primark instead of Atoz.

So what would you do? Does GWSBH convince you? Or do you agree with the other right-on students – ‘Oh, come on, that’s like saying, “I’m going to stay in the Nazi party and change from within….”’ Or would you think the college is worth saving at any cost? Education is priceless?

B******d if I know! Part of my inspiration for ‘Piper’ was my horror at small children being used to weave carpets for so many hours that they went blind. But the brutal truth is that many families really do need the extra money. Should their children work or starve? Tough call. Project Mala provides both work and schooling for rug-making children in India – limited hours of work but enough to help a little with the family coffers. Now that sounds sensible. I don’t want to think of any child having to work for hours over a loom – but GWSBH would probably tell me that’s naïve!

Of course, it doesn’t stop with clothes and carpets. For me there is little or no pleasure in shopping any more and certainly the idea of a bargain is a poisoned chalice. Every purchase is an ethical dilemma. Should I go for a cheap deal on Amazon or support my local Indie bookshop (they kindly give me a good discount which helps!!!)? Should I buy fewer clothes of high quality at a price which suggests the workers are getting a reasonable deal and make them last? If I do, can I be sure that’s really the case and I’m not just being ripped off? Should I only ever buy Fair Trade clothing? (I’m a big fan of Bishopston Trading Company but their style is not suitable for all occasions and some of their garments don’t stand up to much washing!) Is it possible to get Fair Trade bras that actually do something for those challenged in the boob department?

I’m very lucky. I’m part of a wholefood co-operative which solves some of my store-cupboard dilemmas. ‘Essential’ stocks a wide range of Fair Trade, organic and animal friendly products and buying in bulk with others means the cost is minimised. But it’s an extra effort – the weighing and the sorting – it takes time – and time, of course, is money.

And then there’s the fruit and veg. Oh my goodness, what a minefield! Those who go to local Farmers’ Markets get the most Brownie points here. You’re buying local (you hope!) and possibly organic and possibly rare breed and free range. And you’re certainly supporting British farmers who earn a paltry amount and work every hour God sends. But if, like me, you cannot get to a Farmer’s Market and you’re trying to cram five fruit and veg into children who turn their noses up at English Coxes and Conference Pears, then you are doomed to spend a long time rummaging in your local supermarket, checking labels for country of origin, whether it’s GM modified, and, of course, whether it’s organic or Fair Trade. You will see a few others with furrowed brows rummaging too – and will despair at the number who couldn’t care less! Are they the same people who are happy to take twenty plastic bags home with them, at every single visit?

Meat…let’s just say that I have two free-range chickens, Edwina and Theodora, in my garden and I see that they are very happy. I see the sad little packs of bland skinned chicken breasts, two for the price of one – and I only buy them very occasionally and hope Ed and Ted can’t detect my guilt!

And I nearly forgot Nestle! As a long-term boycotter, I gave up such delights as Shredded Wheat ages ago and my children have never known the joys of, for example, Kit Kats. (Can’t say we’ve missed them!) I was a breastfeeding counsellor for five years and just don’t ask how long I breastfed my own children for – oops, I can feel another rant simmering…. But that the Nestle reach includes L’Oreal and therefore now The Body Shop - and a complete monopoly on condensed milk - is really irritating. When we occasionally eat Bannoffee Pie, we feel a penance is required!

The whole thing is one long fudge and compromise. I’d be a veggie if I could eat cheese. The challenge to eat so much fruit and veg tempts me into the exotic. The price of organic, free-range meat means we eat it less often. The lack of variety in Fair Trade chocolate means I take pity on the kids and buy a rationed amount of the Evil Stuff for their lunch boxes. With clothes, I’m very good for a while – and then I’ll go and fall for a bargain in H&M!

So tell me – how do you all resolve the dilemmas of shopping ethically? There’s more I could say – the topic seems endless. Fresh store-cupboard nightmares emerge all the time and there are bound to be loads I don’t know about! Finding your way through this particular moral maze is time-consuming and depressing. However hard you try, you’re just never going to get it completely right! Many Christians, of course, accept that state of affairs anyway – we can never achieve perfection in anything. But I would like to be encouraged to do the best I can – at 8am on a Saturday in Sainsbury’s, I begin to lose the will to live!

Write me a post! Tell me your tips for ethical consumerism – if that’s not a contradiction in terms!

And thank you, Alis, for allowing me to quote from ‘Testament’ – read it everyone!