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5 comments about Cheap: The Real Cost of the Global Trend for Bargains, Discounts & Customer Choice.

1. Many of the rhetorical lapses evident in "cheap" may well derive from a poor translation from the German. It seems as though no effort was made to avoid literal translation - much of the text is awkwardly phrased at best, completely non-sensical at worst. For example, immigrants who cross borders to take low-paying caregiving job such as nurses aid, nanny, etc. are described as being in the "love services", a phrase that has a distinctly different connotation in English than that which its author seems to have intended, judging from context anyway. "Love services" might well mean "caregiving" in the German vernacular, but the lack of proper translation certainly does lend credibility issues.
   
   Aside from translation, I found the book repetitive, poorly organized and at times hysterical. (And this is from someone who agrees that "cheap" isn't necessarily a good thing in our current economy.) In this book, "Axis of Evil" means Wal-Mart, China and the Internet. Does the author really mean "evil" or is he being clever? We're never quite sure, although "evil" pops up in the text repeatedly, none of the context supplies any information that seems to warrant such a designation. Again, there may be a translation problem.
   
   Bosshart is no fan of the Internet is seems, and regards the time that consumers spend seeking information and weighing choices using the Net to be unaccounted for costs. Well, maybe. But I, for one, fail to see how customer-empowerment is a problem that must be traced back to one of the "Axis of Evil" as defined in the book. We're never told why, precisely, it's a bad thing other than if people are using the Internet to explore purchasing options than they're not doing anything else. But what alternate activities might be preferable is never made clear.
   
   As for the Vlasic issues, it's now apparent (in early 2006) that the company did, in fact, endanger itself to please Wal-Mart and nearly immolated itself on the altar of "low prices everyday". It's a shame and a situation that bears examination, but Cheap doesn't even try. It throws out the gherkin comment as an example of evil with little explanation and expects that readers will nod along in agreement.
   
   And that's my primary complaint with the book - so much criticism is leveled at those (corporations and consumers alike) who would interact economically with a lack of critical thinking. Unfortunately, the book expects the same from a reader as Wal-Mart from a customer - Wal-Mart wants us to buy merchandise without thinking, and Bosshart wants us to buy his thesis without thinking. In the absence of any real value from either, I fail to see the point of engaging on either front.



2. I basically agree with the other two reviewers, but with one exception. No, I do not think that Wal-Mart is evil. And furthermore, who really cares if "Wal-Mart wants people to shop there without thinking?" People choose to shop there, period. If several hundred people choose to shop at the local Wal-Mart Supercenter and not at Joe's Market (the locally owned grocer) then who is at fault if Joe goes bankrupt? Wal-Mart may have low prices, but customers must choose if they want cheap stuff now or Joe's Market to still be around tomorrow. If you want Joe's Market to stay in business, buy Joe's stuff, even if it costs more. Wal-Mart then wouldn't have any money, and no one would feel sorry for "bullied" suppliers because the bully would have empty pockets.
   
   That's the opposing argument, now here's reality: people buy cheap socks at Wal-Mart and expensive pants at Saks Fifth Avenue. People buy cheap cereal at Wal-Mart but expensive produce at health food stores. Not many people buy luxury-priced everything and not many people buy cheap-priced everything. I personally have never met anyone who falls into either category (not even homeless people, and yes I've known a few). Inexpensive and pricy are two sides of the same coin, not opposing forces locked in mortal combat.
   
   It all boils down to what Steven Landburg wrote in The Armchair Economist- "people respond to incentives." If there's an incentive to look at Internet porn, or to buy a cheap shirt, or to buy a cheap book on marketing, then there will be people likely to do so. But other people (and sometimes the very same people) also have incentives to pay a premium for prostitutes, haute couture, and higher education. The incentive for one does not necessarily cancel the incentive for the other.
   
   But, to the author's credit, he found someone who actually paid him to write this. He had an incentive to rant because he knew he'd make money by doing so. Nevermind the fact that he can't argue his way out of a wet paper bag.
   
   In conclusion, I will make some recommendations for alternative purchases that are more interesting, better argued, and based on reality rather than a bizarre delusion.
   
   Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods... And How Companies Create Them by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske, and John Butman
   
   Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer by Michael Silverstein
   
   Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt



3. An awful, boring, badly-translated book that has neither structure, arguments nor any well-defined points. It reads like a rambling late-night conversation between two people with a lot of shared background knowledge; proper explanation of points is in short supply. Also, on the copy I bought here in Dublin, its back cover blurb is woefully misleading: "a compelling and shocking account of society's greedy over-consumption" that "paints a bleak picture of our increasing obsession with cheap goods". It is not! It's a how-to for retailers and businesses who want to negotiate the sticky world of cheaper, cheaper, cheaper, not an account of the real cost of low-price goods.
   
   A waste of money.



4. Although the subject matter is a timely affair which deserves a thorough analysis this work manages to deliver an exceptionally tedious,repetitive and downright dull arguments which at times degenerate to nothing more than a late night ramble.
   Quite a lot of the statements are completely unsubstantiated and its awash with sweeping statments.Overall quite a boring work with no well defined points and completely devoid of structure.



5. This book just goes to prove that it isn't globalizations or cheap labor that is ruining society (as the author would like you to believe), but the preposterous idealism that the author has. In a world where it will never be a utopia (no matter how hard we try), it is essential that every person is able to recieve value for a purchase. If something is sold for a dollar at a discount store, and it is worth a dollar that is an even trade. If it is sold for two at another shop, that is value loss. This book is aswim with critisizms of value and percieved value that frankly are unjustified.

No comments about The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith's Response to Rousseau.

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