We’re in the process of making some changes to our website and social media platforms, as we have to do in this day and age to not just appear au courant but out of necessity to stay in front of our present and (hopefully) future clients. My gentle readers will have divined that this very blog you so enjoy (hopefully I say again) functions as well as new website content when we post it to allow our site to stay well positioned on the search engines.
We are then mindful of our online image and our online competition, and I have to say, and as we all know, online our buyers are spoiled for choice. Period material, yes- but also kind- of- looks- like- but- isn’t period- Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Wayfair- all function to siphon something away from our online sales. Not directly comparable merchandise you say? And for our discerning reader, you would be exactly right.
But that’s the problem- when viewed online, it is sometimes a challenge to distinguish the differences that our more seasoned customers might think obvious. What is obvious to all, however, is price point, and it is the price point buyer who is victimized.
Yes, victimized and in very many ways.
Kate Wagner whose blog ‘McMansion Hell’ details all this in a recent post entitled ‘The budget furniture dilemma’ cites instances including the latest Wayfair fiasco when it was discovered the company was selling items for use by a government contractor for the controversial housing of children of undocumented migrants. Over 500 Wayfair employees walked out when this was discovered, and Wayfair’s response was to donate $100,000 to the Red Cross.
Kate’s point, though, is that not just Wayfair but very nearly all similar companies are engaged in practices that are, as she characterizes them in understatement ‘ethically questionable.’ She cites, for instance, Ikea’s union busting tactics in the US and Canada, and Target’s use of third-party firms who hire undocumented workers. And, perhaps most frightening of all, Ikea’s use of a huge proportion of the world’s trees for the production of furniture that will shortly after purchase be thrown away.
And that’s a lot of it- thrown away. We have over the years met with prospective buyers who wanted the ‘now’ look, by which was meant a complete roomful, if not a houseful, of furniture and decorative objects. So much of what’s available online caters to that very want- and at an ostensibly cheap price. ‘Cheap’, of course, in the acquisition, and easy, too, in the buying, as a suite of furniture can be had for something less than $2,500- but had at the cost of exploiting laborers and denuding the planet of the vegetation required to cleanse itself- and keep us alive.
It is ironic how, in this day and age of considerable voice about the fate of the planet, so many of those with much of their future ahead of them are placing that future most in jeopardy. It is those younger folk who are starting out their independent existence furnishing for example the first marital home with newly made throwaway junk bought online. But then, it is so often those selfsame X and Z gen types who increase urban pollution by crowding our streets with patronage of rideshare services and encourage the spoliation of residential neighborhoods by staying in often illegally offered vacation shares.
But then, all of these goods and services are offered online exclusively, and it is the facility with which they are offered and the ease in comparing prices that function as the hook. Price point shopping is made quick and easy with a click, and the speed at which this can be accomplished relieves any obligation to think about the manifold (negative) ramifications that are concomitant with that click.
In an example of synchronicity and interconnectedness, I’ve just received an email missive from my friend Dan Conner who several times a week supplies me with insightful and uplifting anecdotes. Today’s ended with the moral tagline ‘The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.’ With the modern penchant for price point only purchases, those exemplary trees will offer no shade at all ever, cut down to make throwaway furniture. ‘Price point ugly’ indeed.