For several weeks, the Old Navy bag sat on the hallway table. I had promised Charlotte, I would return her shoes. The prospect of going to a store did not particularly excite me. But it had to be done. Today, I finally went, promising myself it would be quick.
Along the way, a new state of mind overtook me, that turned this simple errand into a long shopping expedition. My summer tops were becoming ragged, and I could use some new ones after all. Came out of Old Navy with a dress and a top. All revved up, I set out to drive home. Could not help but notice the Target sign on my left. In a split second, decided to make a U-turn, and check out what used to be my favorite store. There was no stopping me. Made my way fast through an impressive assortment of cheap, ugly rags, all made in China, and still stiff from various dyes, of doubtful provenance. Until I hit the Converse section. I remembered seeing an ad on TV a few months ago:
Prad called. Wanted to know where I was. I had promised a beet salad with feta cheese for lunch. That would have to wait I told him. Too busy trying out stuff from the Converse company. You can’t be disturbing a woman in the midst of a shopping spree. Three pairs of shoes, and a dress, and a pair of jeans. I had done well. I was on my way to becoming a Star, all for only $163.75.
I thought I had left my Target addiction behind. Today’s experience proved otherwise. Once an addict, always an addict. The hardest part is giving up an addiction, that keeps being encouraged by our consumerist culture.
La Marguerite 
I guess many of us are addicted to something. I feel fortunate that I don’t generally have the shopping bug, and Target actually gives me a headache. But I deal with other addictions: food, alcohol, Internet, staying in the shower til my skin blisters.
How can we support each other to drop the addictions without criticizing or coming across as smug and superior?
If you feel that television ads are keeping you addicted, what if you stopped watching TV? Would that be a hard change to make? I really can’t judge, for my family never owned a TV and I never got into the habit. You could spend that time reading green blogs instead! 😛 lol
This is one reason that changing our energy sources and infrastructure themselves is critical. Humans can only change habits so much, and some habits we can’t change. But, we can change the energy sources that provide the energy for all those things that we think can make us feel like “stars”.
Marguerite, here’s another idea to try: purposefully “losing” the keys to your car, at least for a few days, until you regain your restraint.
Cheers.
mh, I actually watch very little TV, as I am too busy just living my life, working, playing, socializing, and blogging. That ad just happened to stick.
Beth, the best support I find is in discussing the behavior, as here on this blog. Not much different from 12-Step groups, when you think of it.
Jeff, I think I have had my dose of shopping for a while now. One good thing is I made room in my closet for my new purchases, and gave away the old things to Goodwill.
I totally agree – once again – with Jeff : we indeed have to change our habits and lifestyles but also the way we produce energy.
As a matter of fact, this is the very reason why I got interested in the energy sector in the first place. Even if we cut our consumptions, if the energy source is ugly (coal, anyone?) it still will be a problem.
Like you Marguerite I almost don’t watch tv. I spend too much time reading books, swimming (I love summer time), browsing the Internet and blogging…
Enjoy your respective days ! 😛
One thing that I really like from being at home almost constantly home, is that I don’t feel pressured about how I look. This pressure might be an illusion, but in this case, I think many people share this illusion with me. When you know for sure no-one will judge you on your clothes, they become completely functional… At least this has happened to me.
Also, fashion advertisements (the most I see are on bus-stops and billboards because I don’t watch tv) seem to be promoting a game of looking good to each other. I’m also really bothered by the idolization of youth. “I’m 50 yet I look 40.” – so what’s wrong with being 50?
I still think about clothes but only for one reason: having a distinctive style for a time when I need it. Because once you enter “today’s world”, everyone is looking at you again… Open up a magazine and there’s a page of “worst-looking celebrities”, you know.
Marguerite, I know that you’re very much embedded in “today’s world”, so I recommend to pay attention to your looks and style. Buy new clothing, get your hair cut, but do it with a clear purpose, namely to help others understand you better. Don’t do it as a victim of fashion culture.
In a sense, how you look is part of your voice. It will help you to pay attention to every part of it.
In general, I think it’s good to follow a strategy of conforming to all expectations except for your main message of change. If you want to become president, it’s wise to wear a suit.
Hi, I just started on here. Why is it that Old Navy and Target do not offer a wider variety of earth- friendly clothing. Given the fact that more people are aware now, you’d think they’d responde faster. Any thoughts? Anyone tried the various brands of bamboo pj’s?
Great point, Supermimo. We’ve considered Marguerite’s “weakness” for new clothes, and we’ve also pointed out that our energy sources should change, but you’ve hit on the other key dynamic: Why don’t the retailers carry more earth-friendly stuff? If retailers carried earth-friendly stuff, made with climate-friendly energy, then Marguerite could return to her days of relatively guilt-free shopping. Cheers!
Meryn, agree that looks matter. Just read article in latest Wired, on how to stage profile photo on social networks, for maximum impact.
Supermimo, Jeff, yes, it would be a bit better. Still it does not address the bigger problem of consumerism.
Jeff,
“If retailers carried earth-friendly stuff, made with climate-friendly energy” then Marguerite would not even have to use her valuable time to keep this blog operating. Consumers comprise about 70% of the U.S. economy, so when sufficient numbers of them want certain things, then markets will respond. If enough people start wanting Supermimo”s bamboo jammies, for example, then retailers will start carrying them.
Price, of course, remains the moderator between supply and demand. If “earth-friendly” stuff is too expensive, as it often is, then consumers will probably find substitutes, even if they might have preferred the EF stuff. We see this, for example, with organic produce all the time. On the supply side, EF stuff is often expensive in part because the demand is not sufficiently large to take advantage of economies of scale.
To some extent the same is probably true for climate-friendly energy. In today’s energy market CF energy has to compete with highly subsidized fossil fuel based energy in most places, and that is hard to do. In turn this would translate into higher prices for EF stuff that is made from CF energy.
But these are worthwhile goals, so we need to see what we could do to improve the situation. First, Marguerite and others could help educate people about the advantages of buying stuff that is EF and CF. That would help build demand for those products, and presumably would help bring prices down.
Second, as Jeff and others have suggested, we could encourage our sad lot of politicians to stop supporting subsidies that are distorting energy markets to start with. That would be difficult, but if enough of us continue to harass these people, then maybe they will begin to see that there are better things to do with our tax dollars than subsidize energy production that is not CF. Better yet, maybe some of that subsidy money could be moved from fossil fuels into CF energy. The sad thing is that there is lots of this energy out there, from vast quantities of solar energy in the southwest to the steady winds that sweep the Great Plains.
Third, people could insist on better labeling of consumer products, much as we have done with food products. Today, much to the chagrin of some food producers, a variety of information has to appear on nutritional labels, including such recent additions as trans-fats. Better educated consumers could not only demand such labels, they could make better choices. At that point retailers would follow–they simply go where the profits are, and that depends on what consumers say they want.
The bottom line with these and other problems is, in part, this: Americans are generally not very well educated, period. Anything that Marguerite and others can do to improve the education of Americans would go a long way toward solving some of the other problems that we face.
There are many fundamental paradoxes in our lives, and many of them can be traced to our vast ignorance. I would cite just one simple example. Americans have for years now rated Congress lower than the President. The last poll that I saw showed that only 13% of Americans felt that Congress was doing a good job. However, about 95% of Congressional incumbents are re-elected. That makes no sense at all!
Writing from the fashion Mecca, out here in rural Missouri, i can tell trends are ephemeral at best. As my silent friends, the Amish would say–no TV–no magazines– no billboards and only one Wall-Mart within fifty miles. we’re limited.
Case in point–consumerism is subjective–quality of material and workmanship remain primary concerns: to see people flock to city stores to buy substandard foreign goods and flimsy items saddens me.
Come fall, church and school will tell, the new clothes will flash the last of the local economy of stressed family finances; a pityful, prideful parade.
Renewed interest in recycling arts can save our green conscience–the sewing skills of home artists and vintage mania offer unique fashion perspectives. esty and other important crafting sites demonstrate the sporadic increase in genial consumer arts.
Gary, thanks for your many excellent points. The subsidies problem especially. We’ve got a system where the economic incentives are all wrong.
The two best things we can do as citizens are: 1) to vote with our wallet, 2) speak up with our votes, particularly in the elections that really matter i.e, President, Congress, Senate, secretary of states, etc.
Nadine, actually the Converse stuff looks pretty good to me! 🙂
About esty, and American crafts in general, I am still waiting for the aesthetics to catch up.
Bottom line, I will only buy products that look good, are affordable, and made with quality materials.
that’s a rather frightening ad – they are selling individuality? The two most interesting people in that ad were the two black guys dancing and they were not wearing shoes that I recognized as Converse… WTF???
I’ve noticed that our community likes to use the word “addiction” quite a lot — I would like to challenge the use of that concept. There are habits, compulsions and activities we engage out of boredom, laziness and such.
My laziness manifests in not sitting down and reading books — I find I can multi task better with a movie (ie, zesting and cutting up lemons). I really like both books and movies — as well as canning and making preserves — but I wouldn’t consider any of those activities to be an “addiction.”
It is my observation that what we have here is a community of folks who will support each other in behavior modification — we have some strongly culturally/societally ingrained behavior patterns related to consumption and physical/intellectual exertion. That doesn’t make them addictions.
Any recommendations on any other discussions of the conscious use of the term “addiction” in these kinds of situations?
[…] whatever Jennifer Mahorasy, or Wattsupwiththat, or Tom Nelson, or Climate Sceptic, or OnEarth, or La Marguerite, or the Sans Pretence, or DeSmog Blog, or Monckton or me, say, then we’re all bound by the […]
I am new to the blogging world and have enjoyed reading your blog. I have started a blog of my own called My Grandma Was Green or http://www.mygrandmawasgreen.com I am going to spend the next year unearthing attitudes and actions from my grandparents generation that were naturally more sustainable and often more simple – albeit with a bit more elbow grease required. The clincher is I am going to try to live like my grandparents too. It is all based on the premise that there is nothing new under the sun and I can learn a lot by simply looking back.
All that to say, my closet is full of clothes from the Gap, Target and Old Navy. I like to look nice but realize every time I shop, I get stuck in a cycle of shop, return, shop some more, return some more until I scream, “STOP!” The other day, I counted my summer shirts and came up with 43! Granted many of those are from years past and are still perfectly good, but many are also new.
When I asked my grandpa how many items of clothes he owned as a young man he could not recall. Trying to jog his memory, I asked if he had a closet of his own or a dresser to which he replied, “I did not have a dresser or a closet. Come to think of it, I had a chair next to bed and that is where I kept all of my clothes.” My clothes would not fit on a chair next to my bed. My grandpa joked that I would need a couch. We both got a good laugh out of that.
As a part of my year of learning to live like my grandparents, I will most likely refrain from buying any new clothes this year. I am a little nervous about it but relish the idea of stepping back, reflecting on my spending habits and how I define my personal sense of style (which isn’t all that personal considering I shop at the Gap, etc).
Although I will probably lift my no shopping ban at the end of one year, I know I can learn a lot from my grandparents. I am pretty sure the lessons I will learn will greatly impact how I view buying stuff in the future.
April, thanks for visiting La Marguerite. And congrats on your new blog. Great idea! I love how you are relating to your grandfather for this project. As mentioned in comment I left, I would love seeing you involving him more actively, and possibly doing a vlog about him. Older folks have a lot to teach us, but we are a video generation, and you could help bridge that gap! Just a thought.
Jenn,
Thanks for your question. I need to think about it some more. Maybe we should involve Tom Friedman in this discussion?
[…] resurgence of addiction to a positive big box store La Marguerite confronts the fact that there is no escaping our consumerist culture and how it is so easy to get […]
[…] resurgence of addiction to a certain big box store La Marguerite confronts the fact that there is no escaping our consumerist culture and how it is so easy to get […]