Sunday, March 04, 2007

Shopping shame


A spokesman for the supermarket industry on Radio Four’s You and Yours programme (an inducement if ever there was one for gainful employment that restricts mid-day radio access) said: ‘We live in a consumer democracy.’ The statement rolled off his tongue like melted cheap chocolate.

We do not. We are more than consumers, more than shoppers. To reduce us to one function rather than human beings with an unknown purpose on a planet in a universe no one can comprehend apart from in bite-size portions is pernicious.

He went on, proudly: ‘Ninety-five percent of people in this country shop in supermarkets, regularly.’ If he’s telling the truth, there’s something sad about this.

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