andygardener Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I agree, saving money is always useful. That's one approach, but if enough people had information on what human suffering the supply chain to produce their products entailed then retailers would have an incentive to reduce their margins in favour of producers delivering living wages to their employees and thus gain market share offsetting the reduced margin. So improving the living standards of hardworking people both overseas and in the UK in the case of food could be raised without possibly any increase in cost to us. The percentage of the cost price of many imported goods that goes to the actual producers is in many cases a tiny fraction of the margin the retailer makes so a relatively small reduction in margin could result in a lifechanging increase in the standards of living for producers to a genuine living wage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey123 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 More recently I have also tried to stop shopping at large multinational companies which seem to be killing off our highstreets. It's not easy, takes more time but I don't particularly think supermarkets give any better value than traditional highstreet shops. They do, I recently visited the town my Mum lives in and the high street has nearly disappeared since a large ASDA was built 2 minutes from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 if enough people had information on what human suffering the supply chain to produce their products entailed then retailers would have an incentive to reduce their margins in favour of producers delivering living wages to their employees and thus gain market share offsetting the reduced margin. No they wouldn't. Your idea would create a price war that would result in even lower wages paid to those that are desperate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey123 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 No they wouldn't. Your idea would create a price war that would result in even lower wages paid to those that are desperate. That depends entirely on the answer to the original question. If more people DO care about the suffering of others, they would choose the shop that is being fair to all workers involved, others would follow. However, if people aren't too bothered, you're right it would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 That depends entirely on the answer to the original question. If more people DO care about the suffering of others, they would choose the shop that is being fair to all workers involved, others would follow. However, if people aren't too bothered, you're right it would. Yep, sad but true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 No they wouldn't. Your idea would create a price war that would result in even lower wages paid to those that are desperate. I think you've missed the point of the idea. By having to provide more information consumers would be able to make ethical decisions. Example - Thing A costs £2 at Supermarket 1 and £2 at supermarket 2 If that's all you know that creates an incentive for supermarket 1 or 2 to reduce the price and to maintain margin by further sqeezing suppliers. That creates a price war, and results in even lower wages. That's the situation we have now. With more information we can see while it costs £2 at both that supermarket 1 pays 12p at source and supermarket 2 pays 16p at source, so we unless we really hate people would buy from the supermarket that pays the producer a third more. Their market share grows and they make more money even though the price is the same. Now supermarket 1 might reduce their price in response, even try to sqeeze their supplier further, but if it's clearly labelled how do you think that would work publicity wise? It's more likely they would raise the price paid to the producer at the sacrifice of 2% margin to get on a level playing field with their competitor. Some people will always buy the cheapest regardless of how much information they have, those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. But most people if given a zero cost choice between decency and exploitation would chose decency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 people will always buy the cheapest regardless of how much information they have, those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Exactly my point. I enjoyed reading your ideas but they are not realistic. Not your fault I might add, just a sign of the times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Exactly my point. I enjoyed reading your ideas but they are not realistic. Not your fault I might add, just a sign of the times. Selective quoting to change the context of the quote, slapped wrists sir! Obviously people eating lots of gristle-burgers and mashed turkey-style product are not going to give a damn as long as they get their frozen foodstuff replica at the lowest price. But they are not the biggest demogrpahic in the country and certainly not the most financially important for the big retailers. Put it this way, if we had informative labelling what could it hurt? Worst case scenario is we discover Britain is filled with sadists who would rather starve the guy who makes their stuff and give the spare 5p to a marketing executive called Chad Nadbag so he can afford fractionally more cocaine over the course of the year. Maybe I'm overly optomistic about the general decency of British people but I honestly think they would rather supermarkets make a bit less profit and the people who actually produce the stuff have a bearable existance. As it stands they have no way of using their buying power to achieve that end, with labelling they would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syne Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 i think every product should be packaged with a video showing the exact process of its origins to its arrival on a shelf. A fancy video label would be cool or failing that a photo story of its journey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Are you prepared to pay an extra £1 per item for the video? What are you going to do with all the old DVDs once you've eaten the food? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.