Costco on a Saturday morning forces some uncomfortable observations upon society. We went yesterday to stock up on paper towels, TP, etc. and after leaving I felt bad about myself, others, and the world.
The place is mayhem. My immediate judgmental self observed:
- Uncomfortable to start with, but many people are extremely overweight.
- Devices are used to placate children (came up with that word on my own).
- There’s an every-man-for-themselves mentality which feels a little apocalyptic.
To tie those three together, I saw a 7 year old scrolling through TikTok on a phone while his very overweight mom knocked something over by accident and didn’t pick it up. Solicitors await when you walk in. $10 pizzas are peddled at checkout. You can say you’re not judgmental but these are hard to ignore. This felt like the dark side of capitalism.
Am I over-generalizing to make a point? Of course I am, but that’s not the point, the point is the point. I’m the classist elite saying I’m ‘too good’ for the common person, a dynamic that has existed for thousands of years.
Then it occurred to me; am I perhaps PART of the proletariat? (another word I came up with on my own I do not care if it’s used incorrectly).
My very presence at Costco on a Saturday signals that I am no better than the other folks spending their weekend hunting for bargains. Who am I to say these people are beneath me when I am literally, physically among them in the place I’m deeming too low for my standards? The true elites would never step foot in Costco!
Though there are millions (billions?) between me and the true elite, I still left convinced that there’s daylight between me and the average Costco shopper, which isn’t a revelation.
My initial instinct was that COSTCO is the problem. It encourages a type of behavior that is not aspirational and promotes no communal good (again, a massive over-generalization, but bear with me); the store itself personifies the elites holding down the masses, wanting to keep them docile and content without them realizing how stuck they really are. Bulk buying and consumption feel dystopian. Costco was probably in Brave New World. It’s literally in Idiocracy.
But then I realized, Costco is NOT the problem. These people exist whether Costco is there or not! Costco is responding to incentives the same way it’s customers are. It’s the system in place that fosters this relationship. I didn’t begin this post with the intent of critiquing capitalism but somehow that’s where we are.
I am a capitalist. I think capitalism and democracy have created wealth and raised the floor for general well-being in ways the world has never seen before. But the US’s need for ultimate cost cutting & efficiency comes with an unintended price when unattended to. For example, big companies make food cheaper to increase profits, that also typically means making food much less healthy. Poorer people buy the cheaper food, become unhealthy, the big food companies profit, and society is worse off. The free market has cracks!
So while I left Costco feeling down and judgmental about individuals, with reflection, I feel slightly more down about the system. This is the liberal view. A conservative would say these people should do more for themselves. But if you extrapolate this out, say 500 years like Idiocracy, you will almost certainly get some not-so-good results. It’s easy to say “well that’s the individuals’ fault!” but the free market needs SOME guidance when it’s clear things are heading the wrong way.
Or maybe I’m wrong completely and scholars look at Costco on a Saturday as a sign of the progress we’ve made. These things that were previously unattainable for the lower class are now super accessible. You can buy a 50 foot TV for like $100. Someone from 1900 might tell me I’m a fucking idiot and should actually applaud the state of society.
I’ve ended up with a philosophy / economics 101 paper. I’m not sure how I got here. Do I think I’m better than the average Costco shopper? Yes, I do. Do I think that’s entirely their fault? No, I don’t. My first recommendation is to ban kids from using smart phones.
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