We can buy anything we want at the click of a button. But it is costing us more in other ways

详细摘要

We all went from being customers to consumers. It’s no wonder so many stores are failing.

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My grandfather ran a draper’s shop in Manchester in the UK before, during and after World War II. In those days, retailers had a relationship with those who purchased their wares, particularly if they were regular customers. The people behind the counter gave advice, to those looking to buy, about what would work best for their purposes, and so were often able to sell them a few other items that would make their task easier. The exchange between seller and buyer was not just monetary. It was social, mutually beneficial and human.

Shopkeeper and customer are both respectful terms, descriptions of roles in society that were important to keep the wheels of commerce turning. In those days, running a successful shop – my grandfather was about to expand his little draper’s empire into three until WWII intervened and put the dampeners on his plans; at the age of 39 he was called up to serve in the Eighth Army – relied on having a wide range of satisfied and regular customers. The customer, as they used to say in those days, was always right, and if you wanted them to return, you had to treat them courteously, no matter what.

Many decades later I can still recall my marketing executive father’s enthusiasm for what he called “self-serve supermarkets” in the 1960s. He also waxed lyrical about things in the United States called hypermarkets. I think they are what became the Kmarts of today. It was right around then that the word “customer” began to be replaced by the word “consumer”, and I suppose that makes sense because supermarkets and hypermarkets were all about streamlining the process of shopping and making it more efficient. Supermarkets would be better, consumers were told, because they would enable retailers to lower prices by buying in bulk and reducing staff.

When I think of a consumer I do not see a person. I see a worm-like creature with a gigantic open mouth being stuffed…

文章开头，摘自Brisbane Times。如需阅读全文，请前往媒体网站。