Sales... I don't like them! Mainly because "things" we buy are already too cheap.
I hate toy sales especially. I think of the person who sat at the desk making the components, how long did it take them, what did they have for lunch, where do they live? The chemical factory that made the plastic, the designer that made all the moulds. the factory that made the cardboard and the printers who printed the packaging. The eletricity needed to power those factorys... how was that generated?
I think about the ship that most probably sailed from China; that dodged the pirates, survived the giant waves that appear on those vast oceans which I've never experienced myself, the conditions the people endured on the boat. Who was the captain?
Who unloaded the container and drove the truck to the depot and onto the store? Did the driver stop for lunch and what did he have? Who printed and made the price tag on each and every product, all with their relevant barcodes and put them on the store shelves during the night when most of us (those without sleepless children) were sleeping? Then there is the assitant who sits at the counter all day putting "things" throught the till. And what about the bag it came in, who printed and made that? And how long do you use it for?
The cost of things are too cheap when you consider all the work it took to get them here. Isn't it amazing these things are here for us to buy? Shouldn't we be valuing them more? For them to be half price on the shelves in a sale designed to make us all buy more seems disrespectful to all those people who put in the hard work... especially those who sit in sweatshops in conditions we'd much rather not think about?
Of course in the case of children's toys, the child who receives the gift and is the whole reason the toy began its life, much prefers the box it came in.
I'm not asking people to stop buying (we are a running a shop afterall!) Just consider its life, who made it, and its real cost.
