Shrouded by the responsibility fog of their ethical sourcing, ‘me too’ environmental credentials, job creation and taxes pledges (or not…), retailers have somehow convinced us and their shareholders that they are doing their bit to help us live well.

Ensconced in this warm cloud the reality down below is somewhat different. Ever smaller margins, shorter product cycles, cheaper stuff, consumed faster, kept for shorter lengths of time. Big retail faces a battle for survival that has made the race to the bottom – based on cost and volume – the only game in town. We are being served up the dregs of our supposed accumulation fixation that lives on in terminal decline to (almost) everyone’s detriment.

Happiness (for big retail) is staring at a Geiger counter

Cloned high streets and and crappy products have left us gasping for more, hunting experience and engagement elsewhere. More often than not what we buy will disintegrate, be usurped by a better model moments after unboxing and end up in landfill or the charity shop. An unrewarding experience for all, including the materials these items are made of. Big retail uses all the tricks of the trade to dupe us into momentary lapses of concentration to fork out at the till and then send us on our way, arrogantly presuming that we will come back soon (for the reasons detailed above). And so the tawdry business rolls on. We are locked into a weak system that is totally gamed in big retail’s favour that gives us less and less. And who are these retailers? Pension fund controlled public groups whose idea of gains (as recently explained by the head of Aviva) is somewhat different to yours or mine. Disoriented by the responsibility fog, they are content with the current setup. Oblivious (or complicit?) to the pitiful returns of this gamed system, they are happy for the half-life counter to continue its never ending death spiral towards zero. Read More…