Supermarkets’ own-brand lines of cheap food products are a
cruel idea sold in a cruel way. Not only do the retail giants make poor
(or stingy) people eat uneatable stuff, but they also subject them to aesthetic
cruelty by forcing them to suffer inhumane packaging. The depression-inducing
designs seen on the lower shelves at Tescos, Sainsburys, Asdas or other Lidls are simply rubbing
it in: “Yes, you are poor and your life, just like this packet, is drab.”
Actually, one wonders why they haven't put some ‘interesting facts’ on the packaging the way they sometimes do for slightly more upper-shelf products, e.g: “Did you know that children from
poor families are *three times more likely to develop alcohol addiction and *five
times less likely to go to university than those from well-to-do middle class
homes?” or attached a leaflet and asked: “Have
you checked yet whether your benefits haven’t been cancelled? (Enjoy your breakfast!)”
*say; because I haven't checked the stats - I'm quite poor now and can't afford a researcher (but really: I don't care what the figure is; I'm not interested how poor the poor are; I'm interested how to make tchem richer).
Winter - The Faggot Gatherers by J.F Millet (in Cardiff; bought and then bequeathed to the National Museum of Wales by extremely rich Davies sisters)
PS I bought some of this ostentatiously cheap**, poor man’s
stuff the other day (easy, easy - I’ve survived, somehow) and I don’t know what
depressed me more: the product, the design or the fact that I'd managed to
puncture that bag for life form Asda
(or Walmart, if you’re in the U.S.).
**obviously I don’t mind cheap, but discreetly or secretly
cheap.
