Month: September 2023

A great compromise – style or sustainability

I really enjoy fashion and keeping up with current clothing trends. In a society when these are constantly changing, it is difficult to stay in the loop at times. It seems like trends are in and out of popularity like a flip of a switch. I often do find these trends cute, such as wearing a certain fit of jeans, wearing a puka shell necklace, or parachute pants. I want to wear these outfits and keep up with the trends, but it is difficult when these pieces are so expensive. Especially as a broke college student, I’m not really interested in spending $150 on a pair of pants. Hence why fast fashion websites like Shein, H&M, and Zara are so appealing to me and to other people in my same demographic. When I need an outfit for one occasion, for example, a football game, I do not want to spend a ton of money on it, as I know I will never need to wear it again and I don’t care about it being durable. I think that fast fashion websites are successful for people with the same thinking as me, I want cheap but stylish clothes, and I am willing to sacrifice on their quality.

While this is a very appealing concept, it comes with its downfalls, and a large one is the sustainability aspect. According to this video by The Economist, 30,000 tons of clothes are put in the waste in the UK every year, which is the largest growing category of waste in the country. A spokesperson for Savanna Rags, a sorting plant which sorts discarded clothes and distributes them to Africa, Europe, and across the UK, said that he has noticed a decrease in quality of clothes over the past few years. Because of this, the plant is forced to process a lot more clothing to get the same amount of clothes that are of the quality that they can actually pass on.

This contributes to so many clothes being put in the waste every year. Because these pieces are not of the best quality, people often put them in the waste after only a few wears. Because these pieces cannot be reused, they are simply thrown in the trash which has significant impacts on our environment. The severe impact of clothing waste was surprising to me when doing research because I feel that other aspects of waste are more talked about in society, like plastic waste.

This issue will be very difficult to solve because the fashion industry still needs to run and be successful, so it will continue to use the business model which is most successful. Others like me may have the same idea to buy cheap and poorer quality clothing, so these businesses will stay supported to continue this.

Stores also use the marketing technique of “if you don’t but it now, you won’t get it”. They may have sales which are only within a few days, or may insinuate that a product will no longer be available if one doesn’t buy it right when they see it.

Some brands are making improvements to this like Rent the Runway, which allows users to rent clothes for a few days at a time so that they can get more uses out of each piece of clothing. Patagonia also has many repair centers that they encourage people to send their clothes to so that they can be repaired and reworn rather than thrown away.

It will take great reform in order to change this problem. First, these businesses are so successful because of the ideology that people want cheap clothes. I don’t personally see this being changed any time soon, as people are always on a budget and looking for the easiest way to be a part of a trend. Additionally, businesses work on this business model, and because it works for them to get business, I don’t see them changing it any time soon. It would take great understanding of this issue from people in order to change the concept of fast fashion, and honestly, because of the stubbornness that people often exhibit I unfortunately don’t see this changing.

The truth behind a store that may seem like chaos

The idea of a messy store is quite familiar to me. My first and only job (besides babysitting if that even counts) was working at Home Goods. In case you are unfamiliar, Home Goods is a part of the TJX company which includes stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeSense, and a few others which are not as mainstream. The aim of the company is to sell high-end, often designer products at a reduced price.

Part of my job was to recover the store. This occurred at the end of the day (usually around 4 or 5 pm). Basically, each employee would get assigned a section of the store and we were responsible for going through each aisle and organizing it. This includes finding anything that was put in the wrong place and returning it. You would not believe how lazy some people are. The store itself is not that big, yet people refuse to walk back and put an item where it belongs so they just leave it in the wrong section. I would find soaps in the pillow section, pans shoved between sets of sheets, and even empty Starbucks cups in with the stationary. This truly is a testament to how lazy some shoppers are. It really is not that difficult to put a pillow back in its place, yet some people believe it is acceptable to leave it on the ground.

Managers and employees would receive many complaints about how messy the store was, often from Rae Dunn loving Karens. It was very difficult for us to constantly keep the store clean. On any given day we would have hundreds of customers shopping in the store, moving items around and not putting them back. This especially was a problem on weekends. We were often understaffed, and most of our employees were either ringing people up or putting new merchandise on the floor, so there was no one to recover the store at all times. Obviously, it was not going to be super clean when hundreds of people were moving things around from opening at 9 am until anyone was around to recover the section later on in the evening.

Most of us who did work on recovering the floor were people like me, high schoolers just looking for some extra money to pay for food, clothes, and school. Obviously, we do not owe our lives to the company, and many of these part time employees were not that committed to really making the store nice and clean for shoppers. This laziness can be reflected in the work of recovering. Because the store was often understaffed, no one would be fired for not doing sufficient work, and without this reinforcement, many employees believed that they could do the least amount of work in order to get by and still get paid. In reality, how can you really force 16 year olds to go above and beyond if they know they will get paid the same for doing a lesser amount of work?

The biggest money maker for TJX as a whole is their credit card. This was drilled into our heads as employees. We needed to ask every single customer if they were interested. Managers really pushed for this because if someone signed up for a credit card while they were on duty they would be rewarded with a bonus.

Psychologists like BF Skinner have explained how rewards and punishments can motivate people to accomplish things. This can be seen in environments such as the one here in the Home Goods and TJX stores overall. The company makes more of a profit if more people have their credit card (they don’t need to pay a fee to other card companies). Therefore, they reward their managers when they get cards, and their employees when they get a customer to sign up (we would get either a pin to put on our aprons or a candy bar!). This was really the key part of business; if it was the store’s appearance, there would be more rewards for doing good work on this end.

Because there was no real reward or punishment for doing great work in recovering, employees were not always motivated to do a great job. That mixed with lazy customers who do not care to put things where they belong or who are willing to mess up sections of the store and not clean up after themselves leads to the messiness of the store.

A good business strategy includes a variety of rewards and punishments for people at all levels of the food chain. Corporate workers deserve to be rewarded and punished, as do managers, and even part time workers. By using rewards and punishments, worker productivity and efficiency can increase in all business models.

Oniomania’s dangers

Back when I inquired of a few friends (all college freshman) what they are passionate about so that I could get some inspiration for this blog, many alluded to the concept of shopping. While I agreed that I enjoy shopping, I also noted the guilt that I often feel after making a purchase.

As it turns out, compulsive shopping, also known as oniomania, is quite popular in women of the college age. According to Dr. Hindie Klein in this Psychology Today article, about 90% of those with oniomania are females, and the condition typically begins in the late teens or early teens. Evidently, this is a condition which primarily affects college aged-females, which epitomizes its relevancy and interest in my current life.

While to many this may seem to be just a silly problem that teenage girls like to quip about, it is in fact a psychological disorder that should be classified and treated in the same way of which we classify more serious conditions. Dr. Klein illuminates how making purchases awards the shopper a sense of euphoria, similar to the high that a drug user may feel after a hit. When someone with oniomania purchases something, endorphins are released and they undergo an adrenaline rush. This feeling is addictive, revealing why these shoppers are constantly drawn back to the store to make another purchase.

The article also touches on how people often shop to rid themselves of the burdens of life. These include but are not limited to anger, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues. Being able to shop may make someone feel better about themselves, and while it may seem foolish, even a new outfit can make someone perceive themself as “prettier”, more confident, and more willing to complete their day to day tasks.

While the high of shopping can definitely foster coping with underlying problems, it does not abolish these problems all together, which is why this establishes an addiction. People strive to feel that “high” again, causing them to go back and repurchase. A lot of the time people don’t even utilize the item — they might not take it out of the packaging or may just return it. This goes to show why people often describe it as retail therapy. But no matter how much they buy, the realities of life will always be in the background.

In addition, a shopping addiction can produce additional problems for those suffering. The obvious one would be financial issues — perhaps a shopper overestimates how much they have to spend on their own personal shopping. This then may be eating into their budget for things that are essential such as food, mortgage, utilities, and more. If an individual shares  financial responsibilities with a spouse or a family member, these relationships may begin to take a toll as the financial environment may alter with a shopping addiction.

Now this isn’t me saying that you should never shop. It’s definitely fun to go shopping, and there are times when it is essential (I need a shirt for white out, obviously). But when it transforms into a coping mechanism, this becomes a dangerous way of life. It is not appropriate to try to take the weight of life out in shopping. There are many more effective ways to improve your mental health such as exercise, talking to friends, therapy, fresh air, support groups, and more. When this becomes the solution to problems is when it should be reconsidered.

 

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