Western coprorate culture and money

All the shopping malls and department stores I have been in recently are Chinese junk stores. Either the goods are ultra expensive so-called designer goods for the ultra rich or rags for the poor. Actually all this stuff is put together in Bangladeshi sweat shops anyway. I used to go into department stores because they used to provide a one stop comprehensive shopping service for all your needs. They no longer fulfill that need. They are temples to the god Mammon; indeed we are all waiting for the birth of the son of Mammon on the 25th December.

So who here has been to Westfield? Avoid it if you can. I hated the place, I went with my wife. I expected to see stepford wives in there. The only advantage I can see is in the winter everything is under one roof.

Grumpy old woman. I have tried Joe Brown's in the past year and granted 99% of the stuff is not for me I have purchased two shirts which are great and different to all the other 'lads' retail outlets.

But thank you, we're on the same wavelength.

shakt it baby, try small mail order catalogues like Nomads & Joe Brown's for clothes. Nomads is fairly hippy tie dye & velvet, very nice if you like that sort of thing. Joe Brown's is aimed mainly at the young but I find a few things in there, even at my advanced age!

I agree with a lot of what has been stated. Every town centre in the whole of the U.K. has the exact same shops and when local councils unveil plans for: "An exciting new retail development" for the local town. It's usually a soulless retail park containing your dfs, pc world, halfords and the like.
Councils offer this because unfortunately, a lot of the people in the towns up and down the uk cannot accept change or to have something culturally different than the usual big corporate company crap. Then of course, these companies can afford to make ludicrous bids to beat anyone else and probably the odd back hander here and there.
What's worse, is, I don't know what to do about it. I've stopped shopping at Tesco now and some other places and yes I do wear some branded stuff but there's so little choice when it comes to fashion unless I want to dress like everyone else I'm pretty much screwed.

Finally, what Wally has written down below about an ex colleague of his does not surprise me in the slightest. I've met and worked with no end of people like that.

St Pancras station has just re-opened. It is a reflection of all the shopping malls and high streets in tourist cities in this country - another temple to Capitalism - the arch-cathedral to consumerism.

Literally all the shops that line the platforms and open areas in the new station are all high-margin shops, where a jar of marmalade costs twice to three times that anywhere else. What the dickens does one need champagne bar when there hungry and homeless in this country.

I can't help thinking that we've got western corporate culture, partly because we voted for it and partly because it has been forced on us.
I try to "rebel" against it, by occasionally buying locally grown food. Try and do this as many times a year as you can, even once is better than never. In addition I never go to Just Tesco for example. I will use Sainsbury's, Morrison or Asda. Once there I never buy the same brand of product be it toothpaste or tissues. If it's advertised do your absolute best to avoid it, this means go for the one that is advertised less or ideally not at all.
I do not buy NIKE products, they have been "outed" too many times for the use of child labour in Indonesia & Cambodia. This is blatant cheating and mass child abuse. If they get away with it there, then one day it might be your children or grand children. Yes other clothes producers do it, but NIKE have no excuse and the others do it because Nike do.

I think we get what we deserve, the majority of people do not like change and are too frightened to try new things.This is a story about an ex-colleague of mine who told me about her trip to thailand (a country I know a little bit and experienced as a wide eyed backpaker just 5 years ago).

Let me first say that she stated clearly that it was the best holiday she had ever had, and wanted to return next year. I quizzed her about her trip and got the usual responses
"the food was amazing", on closer examination I discovered that they had eaten british breakfast, club sarnies for lunch, roast on sundays, steak, chicken kiev etcetc.

"the people are so friendly" ,the only thais her and her family met were the ones who waited on them day and night , of course they were friendly.

Downsides to her holiday were the two trips she went on, one was to a local market which I remember well, selling everything from amazing fruits,spices to dried meats and live chickens. This she hated and felt ripped off by the tour organizers. "why would I wanna buy fruit or chickens"
The other was a visit to an elephant sanctuary where lunch was disgusting and the flys and mosquitos were everywhere.
A trip she did love was to a market which sold dodgy dolce and gabbana rip offs and cheap imitation watches.

I do not claim that everyone is like caroline but I get the feeling that there are many like her, to me they have never been to thailand (incidentally, probably the easiest and most western of far east countries). She didn't experience the food, the culture, or the people, even in their most diluted form. She wanted a home from home in paradise which is what she got and the sooner that market is replaced with a row of starbucks, mcdonalds and pizza huts, the more complete her holiday will become.
It may be a crying shame to some of us but to large portion of our lazy, consumer driven society, the sooner the better.

I like this gripe it all rings true, apart from I like starbucks and am happy to have the choice as to whether to drink there or in Costa for example. It may be expensive but I know what I am getting. The fact is big corperations like this dominate because they provide the best standardised product. You may find a small restaurant somewhere that does better burger than McDonalds, but then the next place you eat may be much worse. People like to know what they are getting.

On the other hand I do agree the big firms can have too much power and so get away with ripping off customers. But its buyer beware and when there is no other option they have got you where they want you.

You can be in any High Street in the Britain and you wouldn't know the difference. Starbucks, Tesco's. Mc D's etc.. It is a lot worse here than in most European towns and cities, at least for example in France there are goverment controls to protect small shops and local shopping areas. In Paris for example, if a bakery closes down then the local goverment ensures that it is replaced by another or similar establishment. In this country all that anyone is intrested in is money, so of course when high street properties become available they can only be afforded by these evil chains! Do we really need to have 6 different American coffee shops, 4 supermarkets and countless burger bars in every street? Of course at the end of the day the people whose fault it really is are the idiots who actually go in and use these ridiculous places. Why would you want to spend £4.00 on a very bad coffee? If people really think that drinking in American coffee ships is so great why don't they board the plane at Heathrow and sod off and live there!
Anguinished and CH O'Leric...i'm in total agreement.

CH O'Leric is absolutely right. Today's big international corporations are monstrosities, and they are largely out of control.

They profit only a very few by their operations, their Golden Circle. They rip-off any or all others involved. They rip-off

a) Their shareholders [who could be pension funds] by promising growth, but never actually delivering. In the meantime the Golden Circle inside the organisation profits enormously via stock options and all other kinds of scams.

b) Their employees by eventually sending work overseas to cheaper workforces, never actually increasing real wages back here at home, constantly threatening that if your productivity wavers in the slightest the operation will close down in this country.

c) Governments, by mispending Government grants, by fiddling taxes.

d) Customers, by producing uncompetitive goods with very confusing price plans, and hidden costs and charges.