Off topic: What I think about consumption
Good evening!
You might be thinking, ‘surely this is not the correct day to be hearing from this woman’, and you’d be right. If you even pay attention to this newsletter like that -- I read a few newsletters and I know that they’re regular but I absolutely could not tell you what day of the week they come out on. If you’re of that party, this usually comes out on Friday evenings. I didn’t send one out last week because I honestly hadn’t read a lot, and I was really tired from working a lot.
I’ve sped up the reading, but that’s not what I’m going to be talking about in this edition of the newsletter. I said a couple of weeks ago that I was thinking of changing the format up a little bit and this is perhaps a foray into that. (I say ‘perhaps’ because I don’t know if it’ll be a regular thing). There are some things that I would love to write about but realistically know that they wouldn’t get commissioned because the idea isn’t solid enough, there isn’t a hook, or because I’m not enough of an expert for an editor to trust the vision. Plus, the landscape of freelance writing is not looking wonderful -- since the beginning of the year, gal-dem, Bustle and VICE (among others) have either shut up shop, are about to, or have made major redundancies.
With all of that in mind, I’d therefore like to occasionally inflict these thoughts and ideas on you all. Sorry.
I’ve spent almost the entire day thinking about shopping and consumption. I sometimes have a nosey on Instagram Reels, where I’m suggested all kinds of shite because the algorithm doesn’t know what to do with me -- by all accounts, I don’t think Instagram’s algorithm technology is as intelligent as TikTok’s is. As an example, I mainly post about books and it has perhaps once suggested a book video to me. Today one of the first videos that came up was made by someone shopping, showing all the new pyjamas available in Primark. The first few were a rip-off of the classic Victoria’s Secret striped sets, and the remaining were a mix of Disney themed and floral sets.
I watched the video twice, not because I was interested in buying what was being shown to me, but because it held a kind of sick fascination. Firstly, I was drawn to how we have somehow made ‘going into a shop and looking around’ into a convenience experience -- like food delivery, grocery delivery, online clothes shopping, taxi apps and other ‘services.’ (Before you make noise, I know that lots of disabled, elderly and other people rely on these services, but they are now used en masse and have encouraged terrible business models because they appear on the free market.) If this kind of video is popular -- I don’t know if it is -- then a person could easily decide on whether or not they want to go into a shop by searching for one of these and seeing what’s on offer. Which could be seen as a good thing as it theoretically could discourage excessive consumption, but in reality the opposite is probably true. If someone who is easily influenced watches the same video I did, who did not need another pair of pyjamas, they would probably feel the urge to go into their local Primark and buy one or more of the sets shown to them, plus other clothes they see. It used to be that influencers would buy massive ‘hauls’ and try them on or take pictures of them wearing the clothes out, but now, apparently, they don’t even need to do that -- they can just show the clothes hanging in a shop.
The second reason why this video stuck out to me was the pyjamas themselves. Apart from a couple of cotton-based items, almost all of them were made out of plastic-based materials, and quite frankly they looked awful. The fluorescent Primark lights were not doing them any favours as they had a kind of sickly shine to them, something that has stuck with me all day. They didn’t look practical for their purpose, as you would most definitely sweat profusely in them and they would be uncomfortably stiff after one wash. They weren’t even presented well; one set of the VS rip-offs had a massive crease on the shoulder from where they had been unfolded after delivery to the store. For what reason are these a coveted item? For what reason was a video made about them?
The word ‘sustainability’ has started to lose meaning. Primark themselves say that they offer a sustainable range and some kind of ‘Primark cares’ initiative. Primark does not care, because they produce an idiotic amount of new clothes per week -- Primark only cares about appealing to conscious buyers. If one of the biggest mass-producers in the country can confidently use the word ‘sustainable’, then that’s how you know that it’s become another buzzword that has been written on a whiteboard in a room of people in suits who are looking to improve their next quarter.
As an aside, I should say that I do sometimes shop in Primark. If I see an item I like and need in there I’ll get it. This is, however, becoming increasingly rare for me, because I largely shop second-hand and only for things I believe I need. It, like other high street shops, serves a function to me, but it is one I’m trying to actively kick the habit of.
I most certainly do not blame people for going in and getting a few bits from shops, not just because I do that (lol), but because the alternatives are pretty slim. Sustainable fashion is expensive, which is justified, but people’s wages are not rising with the need to shop for those kinds of options. What I take real issue with is the kind of video content I saw this morning -- a promotion of shopping for shit that you do not need, is terrible for the environment, isn’t presented well and guises itself as streamlining the shopping experience. If the business models of Uber, Deliveroo, Amazon and other shopping conveniences are something to go by, ‘streamlining’ is a myth because they create more problems than they solve.
This got me thinking about the alternatives. I went into a couple of charity shops this afternoon and it struck me that this is, in our current system, the only ‘good’ commerce available. But even that is flawed, because a country that has a huge amount of charities, as Britain does, speaks to how its government fails to support and fund the needs of its people. I then went into The Vintage Store and tried on a few things because I have events coming up and have put on a bit of weight, so needed a comfortable outfit. I found an outfit, including a long denim skirt that I have looked high and low for. I cannot tell you how many long denim skirts I have tried on that have not even remotely fit my body shape, or have been so badly made I didn’t want to buy them. The one I bought fits perfectly and I’ve technically ‘saved’ an item of clothing from landfill. Looking around, however, I was struck by how expensive most of the items were -- Champion t-shirts that were not in good condition were £18, and a North Face fleece I tried on that had holes in was £50. This just isn’t an option for most people.
It would perhaps be fitting to the wider theme of this newsletter to recommend some reading on the topic, but if I’m being completely honest, you can’t read your way out of the climate crisis. You don’t even need to read about it, but can look at the photos from a beach in Ghana to see the direct impact overconsumption has. There is nowhere for these clothes to go, including the little pyjama sets that will last one season before they become unmanageable to wear or the buyer gets bored of them. This is not me shouting at anyone for buying stuff because I do that and I can see that the alternatives are really bad. Just please don’t be influenced by the kind of video that has haunted me so badly I had to write an essay about it.