Consumer excess

Sorry, here’s yet another ‘Grumpy Old Woman’ rant:
I went shopping today, hoping to find some towelling bathroom slippers. Found these in K-Mart. They cost $4. 
$4!    You know, I would have been happy to pay more for a pair of slippers; but slippers that lasted for a while – maybe a few years - and were perhaps made with a little more care and that were slightly more sturdy.
 I know that this sounds like a very minor complaint, but, as I watched as a woman bought two pairs, similar to those I bought, saying, “Oh, well, they’re so cheap, may as well buy a spare pair as well”, I couldn’t help but wonder about how many slippers were worn for a short while and then tossed out in the garbage to end as part of landfill. 
It seems the same with T-shirts and all other clothing items. Some T-shirts were on sale for only $3. No wonder people take big trolleys into department stores.
They buy in bulk.
The local Target store has a ‘buy 3 for the price of 2’ deal for baby clothes. I have no doubt that mothers and fathers think that’s a great deal and end up buying three items of clothing for the baby, when one would probably have done. And all this STUFF ends up being thrown away quite quickly, as there is no value attached to anything.
 I won’t go on about “When I was a girl..” and all that, but gee, there’s so much waste accumulating just because we can buy so many things for so little money, with nothing much of substance or quality, it just doesn’t make sense.
 And, of course, tjhis relates not just to clothing, it’s almost everything you buy.
 On a side issue, the biggest and best fruit cannery in Australia is about to close and dozens of farmers and hundreds of factory workers will soon be without income.
 I suspect that it’s partly because the major supermarkets, here in Australia, are not supporting local farmers and buying the (gorgeous!) local product because they can get cans and jars of fruit
cheaper from China and Swaziland. (True!)
 Words fail me.

---