Editor:
With the Christmas shopping season upon us, it seemed a good time to consider how we shop.
I was just looking at some reviews for a book from 2006 called The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman. It seems that our obsession with “cheapest” has been defined largely by this gargantuan corporation. As I look at our 30-year-old stove and 15-year-old toaster oven, I wonder how we have become mislead and cheated.
“Cheaper” is achieved by, among other things, using our environment as a dump and preying on the most vulnerable workers of the world. And how is something cheaper if we have to buy three toaster ovens in nine years when one should last that time and longer? Obviously it is not cheaper, and we have been bamboozled.
I am still waiting for more intelligent, progressive companies to make it to the front of the line by offering longer warranties for their products with a motto: quality, reliability and good value.
Obviously the toaster oven, fridge, washing machine, etc. can readily be made to last much longer than they do. It is time for us to demand that of our retailers and, by extension, the manufacturers.
Alan Sirulnikoff, Gibsons
