A CHEAP SHOT AT ETHICAL SHOPPING

24-04-2007

Now that he’s moved out of his parents’ house and into his own pad, Edward Cameron wonders if he can still afford a conscience about what he buys.


It’s easy to be ethical when you live with your parents. You just let them sort out all the bills and if they buy non-fair trade coffee, if they don’t recycle or if they buy the Daily Express you can lambast and chastise them for it.

But there comes a point when you’ve moved into your own place and you’re trying to kit it out, whilst paying council tax, broadband and the electricity bills, that the pull of a good bargain becomes too great.

I know that all the clothes from Primark are so cheap because they’re put together by children who are so young they’re covering for their own mums who had to take time off unpaid to recover from giving birth to them. And I know that Tesco is gradually destroying both the corner shop and the farmers with atrocious procurement tactics.

But trying to furnish a house on a month’s salary is just impossible without them.

And I love Tesco. I really do. Sunday morning, when others might be in church, I can do a fortnight’s food shopping, get spare keys cut, get my contents and car insurance, buy a toaster and microwave and even get a couple of cheap t-shirts in an hour.

By bankrolling Tesco I am able to buy myself the luxury of time to read my Sunday paper, including the heart-wrenching expose about child labour in India, and even have time left over to mow the lawn with my cheap mower and wash my clothes in my cheap washing machine.

Tesco is killing the high street, but do we really care? We started this. We were the ones who got so irate at not being able to find anything open when we wanted, who got so frustrated that we couldn’t afford things, that we egged them on to do it cheaper and 24 hours a day.

Actually I suppose we do care to some extent. Having briefly enjoyed the bargains of Tesco and its peers we now find ourselves wasting that new found free time on the phone to a customer service call centre, possibly one in another country, whinging because the poorly made cheap washing machine doesn’t work anymore.

And then we complain about the lack of personal service. We long for the days when the butcher would have put us a prime piece aside because we were regulars. In places like Primark we miss the feel of clothes that were made with decent quality cotton and lasted more than one wash without turning into crop tops.

Shopping in Primark is a de-humanising experience, but only because it’s always so damn busy. It’s got nothing to do with those kids in Bangladesh who would have to work a week just to afford a sleeve of that t-shirt. No it’s the queue we resent first and foremost. We’re the customers, we’re paying for this and we deserve better.

What’s that? You can do it cheaper? OK great. Oh, it means a few kids will have to work for less than 10p a day. Well, their country’s taking all our jobs anyway so sod ‘em.

Is ethical shopping possible if you live on a tight budget? Leave a comment on our messageboard.