Supermarket Morality

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Supermarket Morality
Not so long ago most shops had counters behind which assistants took orders from customers, found the beans and bread, and then cashed a bill up on a till. Someone had the bright idea of 'self-service' which allowed customers to find what they wanted and take it to the till. It allowed shop lifting to proliferate but was worthwhile. It reduced the number of assistants required. Now we have vast supermarkets and bar-codes and computerised check outs. A few assistants and a vast trade. Next step, is already begun with customers checking their goods out themselves and paying by card. What is the object? An ultimately crazy cut throat competition between shops for trade, by cutting prices, and yet preserving profits for shareholders. With technological innovation, it has been possible to move labour to other forms of work. There is of course a limit to this, and if computers take over not only menial work but also office work, we may be in difficulty. Ultimately work may need to be created in order to provide demand for goods, but how well remunerated if it serves no other purpose? The crunch may come very soon, if mother earth cannot take more and more exploitation. Unfortunately science may find the answer to even this, but in doing so permit unlimited social problems to arise, as in ever greater population and social disruption or breakdown.
What is the Altruist purpose of Supermarket economies? Not increasing wealth and power for the shareholders, not aimless cost cutting or supposed cost cutting that simply has repercussions in wages and salaries. It must be so as to divert the wealth made or saved from the supermarkets [etc] into social and medical work. It is not a question of what industry can afford, on the basis of cupidity, but a transfer of wealth.

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@RW Standing,

purchasing of sals commodities with an economy of scale, coupled with self service "groceraterias" is at least 100 yers old in the US nd Canada. urope took a bit longer to catch on (As late as the 1950's for UK)

In my mind, The original model(Piggly Wiggly Chain of the US SOuth) was well thought out and provided an increasing variety of choices and kept prices reasonable.
I find that more of the "boutique " nd specialty stores take more advantge of customers. Take, for example, "butcher shops" They buy the same cuts of meat at auction nd then charge maybe 2 to 3 times more for "trimming"

Ill match any of my own home raise grass fed and corn fed beef against anything out there. We will ofetn sell a half of a steer and we have customers lined up because of the tenderness and flavor. (Same thing with our lamb crops) (I sw this Easter that butchers were selling lamb crown roasts for over 30$ a pound. Thats outrageous to me.

"Morality"? I suppose , profit can be an evil thing if usery results. Hoever, I like the old Order Amish rules of retail, "Make a profit, but not too much so that you arent taking advantage of your customers"

This months consumer report rated supermarkets on the US nd several of the biggies are the loqest rated (LIKE the WALMART MARKETS)

We live in an ag area and yet many of the big boxes sell lettuce or winter crops that were picked 3000 miles away.
Weve got a growing "Locavore movement" where people are actually asking where their apples or radishes come from

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@farmerman,

Name any economic system based on moral principles?
Technology will always influence any economical system.
Changes in philosophies are, and always will be, lagging.
Look up the word Sabotage and how it became part of our lexicon.

from Dictionary.com:
1907 (from 1903 as a French word in English), from French sabotage, from saboter "to sabotage, bungle," literally "walk noisily," from sabot "wooden shoe" (13c.), altered (by association with Old French bot "boot") from Middle French savate "old shoe," from an unidentified source that also produced similar words in Old Provençal, Portuguese, Spanish ( zapata), Italian ( ciabatta), Arabic ( sabbat), and Basque ( zapata).

from widipedia:

Claimed explanations include:

That it derives from the Netherlands in the 15th century, when workers would throw their sabots (wooden shoes) into the wooden gears of the textile looms to break the cogs, fearing the automated machines would render the human workers obsolete.
That it derives from the French sabot (a wooden shoe or clog) via its derivative saboter (to knock with the foot, or work carelessly).[1] Sabot is the French name for the brake on a horse wagon; it was pressed against the outer rim of a wheel to stop the wagon. For the workers it meant slower work.
That it derives from the late 19th-century French slang use of the word sabot to describe an unskilled worker, so called due to their wooden clogs or sabots; sabotage was used to describe the poor quality work of such workers.[2]

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@argome321,

I assume you wish to make a relevant point. Defining a word that we already
know ,but has no relevance to the topic, needs to be explained more thoroughly .

Quote:

Name any economic system based on moral principles?

The "codes of life' The Ordnung of Pietist and Anapbaptist Chritians is but one.(One that I discussed above. Im sure we can easily come up ith others.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

I assume you wish to make a relevant point. Defining a word that we already
know ,but has no relevance to the topic, needs to be explained more thoroughly .

I was only trying to point out how these workers felt and that they believed that they could some how disturb, figuratively speaking, the wheels of progress.
That technology also helps shapes the economy. If people don't have the skills to meet the changes and or if a different philosophy to meet these changes isn't adopted then they are less likely to succeed.

Quote:

The "codes of life' The Ordnung of Pietist and Anapbaptist Chritians is but one.(One that I discussed above. Im sure we can easily come up ith others.

You see, I learned something.

I looked it up. for groups like the Amish it works, but on a global scale ...hmmm I don't think so much.

p

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@argome321,

Amish and pietists have nicely blended into society. They even vote in local elections .

The issue of"avoiding usery used to be a big Catholic Tenet of the Law.I dont know if it still is.

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