Useless

I’ve learned a couple of things this Christmas season. The first is that being a responsible consumer is difficult. By that I mean not only resisting the urge to purchase a load of crap that no one really needs, but that purchasing useful items from local merchants is next to impossible in my town. The corollary to that is if you want to buy something useful there is Kmart on the outskirts of town or Walmart over the state line and a couple of towns away, which offer umpty-thousand square feet to lay out their useful wares. Along with all the crap that no one needs.

Just for example—a pair of socks. There is not one local merchant in the downtown area who sells useful socks. Sure, there are the specialty socks that you can spit through and the gag socks that I wouldn’t be caught dead in and hand woven or knit socks made in Peru, but just plain cotton crew socks or ragg socks or boot socks...not a chance.

And how about underwear. The choices are Kmart and Walmart. No downtown merchants sell any. And that’s kind of funny, because I’m pretty sure that at least 95% of the people in this town wear underwear.

And how about nails or hammers or a drill bit? There is a hardware store way out on the edge of the town. And there is Kmart and Walmart. Nothing downtown.

Light bulbs? Walmart and Kmart.

A simple pen? Walmart or Kmart or Staples (over the state line) or CVS.

Just about everything that I use every day, simple little items that I use every single day, are simply not sold in the downtown shopping district in my town.

What is sold? Well, lots of specialty items imported from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Along with specialty handmade items from South American artisans, which is a good thing, I guess. But they’re not the sort of things that one needs, precisely. Nice to have, but they don’t make the household gears run. Instead, we have tons of posters, touristy tee shirts, decorative items, over-priced antiques, local art (which IS a very good thing), a year ‘round Christmas shop full of decorations, a couple of jewelry stores (which don’t repair watches), an over-priced candle store, and a Starbucks. Everything in the downtown shopping district is geared to tourists who arrive with pockets full of cash or holiday shoppers who aren’t looking for practical everyday items. In other words, our downtown is no longer designed to serve the residents who live here (with the exception of a few restaurants). If we want to buy something we need, we have to get in the car and go elsewhere to buy it.

I’m not really sure whether this is the result of Kmart and Walmart moving in or whether Kmart and Walmart set up shop because local merchants in the surrounding small seaside towns decided to appeal to the large tourist trade and Kmart and Walmart saw a ripe niche.

But the bottom line is that our downtown district is useless to the town’s residents except, possibly, during the holidays. And the downtown merchants, meanwhile, freak out every year wondering if the price of fuel or the economy is going to prevent tourists from arriving by the thousands or if the weather and other factors are going to keep people away during the holiday shopping season. Autumn and spring are pretty fallow seasons for the merchants.

At some point a long the way, between the global climate changes and the increasing cost and scarcity of fuel, that will have to change. Maybe we should get a head start. In any case, it really is astounding that an entire downtown shopping district in a small city of nearly 20,000 people does not offer anything useful for the town residents’ daily lives. I mean, it *is* astounding isn’t it? Is there a better example of commerce designed around conspicuous consumption?