Consumer Confidence
by Fred ClarkThe recession of the early 1990s was often blamed on a lack of "consumer confidence." The economy slowed down, we were told, because we, the consumers, just weren't buying enough stuff. Economists, stock analysts and business leaders offered testy commentaries, lecturing the masses on their patriotic duty to go out there and buy something, anything. "Don't blame us," they seemed to say. "We did our job - we made all this stuff. Now it's about time you did your job and bought it."
Wall Street's whiny complaints about "consumer confidence" seemed to assume that we have no say in the matter. We are sheep, mindless consumers. Ours not to reason why, ours but to go and buy. They say "spend," we ask "how high?" Just do it. That, apparently, is our job.
But their talk of lagging consumer confidence also betrayed a desperation. We are important. They need us. If we're not playing our role - or if we refuse to play our role - the system doesn't work. We are the line workers of consumption, and we have the power to declare a strike or a slow-down just as surely as do the line workers in production. (That's one way to look at the Disney boycott recently made official by the 15 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Disney may just lock them out, replacing them with scab consumers.)
Our consumer choices have consequences. Our spending - even our routine spending - is an exercise of power. It may be only modest power, but it nonetheless must be used responsibly. This power is particularly important in an age of globalization and deregulation. There may be little or no legal limitation on the behavior of corporations, but if enough consumers demand they behave responsibly, they will eventually have to do so.
An important way of amplifying the effect of your consumer decisions is to write to companies, telling them why you did or did not buy their product. That lets them know your decision was based on more than their zippy ad campaign or the appeal of their celebrity endorsement.
Several years ago, to share one modest example, Suave deodorant presented me with a minor consumer dilemma. It cost about half as much as most of the heavily advertised brands, but unlike every other deodorant on the shelf, it also came in its own little cardboard box. Excess packaging creates excess waste, and uses excess resources. The box (unlike the industrial plastic basing holding the actual deodorant) was recyclable, but precycling beats recycling. Why did Suave need the superfluous cardboard box?
Since I was on a budget, I continued buying the less-expensive product. Simply choosing not to probably would not have had much effect - that wouldn't notice my $12-or-so a year was missing, nor would they know why.
But each time I bought the product, I also sent a letter to the company's headquarters, asking them to reduce their packaging (their address was right there on the product). To underline the point, I neatly folded each box and included it with my letter, suggesting that perhaps they could reduce a little waste by re-using it.
The second letter got a response. I received a nice letter from the company's consumer-relations department - a form letter. The "Dear Valued Customer" letter thanked me for being one the hundreds who had written about their excess packaging. Hundreds - there were enough of us to merit our own form letter! The company agreed that the box wasn't necessary and decided to eliminate the excess packaging.
Maybe they realized that cutting waste also cuts costs. Maybe they were persuaded that caring for creation was the right thing to do. Or maybe they just realized that taking a small step toward caring for the environment would be good PR. Maybe all of the above.
My personal consumer choice, by itself and without explanation, would not have accomplished much. (It sounds like Zen koan: what is the sound of one man not shopping?) But that choice, backed up with my letter an the letters of hundreds of others, helped change the behavior of the corporation. Only a small step, perhaps, but a small step in the right direction.
This article first appeared in the September/October 1997 issue of PRISM in the Shop & Save column. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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