InsaneJournal

consumerism

Working in a gift shop at a major tourist attraction leads to some interesting thoughts. Never mind the people who can't speak English, the drooling toddlers, etc. I'm disgusted by the level of waste in our society. I'm selling things which are completely unnecessary. They're mostly cheap trinkets, useless toys, and so forth. Most of this merchandise is likely to break within a year, if it even makes it that far. It's more likely to end up thrown away. Very little of it is useful in the first place. (How many shot-glasses can you use? Do you need another refrigerator magnet? Is it even possible to put all twenty of those iron-on patches on your clothes without looking like a whore?)

And yet yesterday I sold a thousand dollars worth. On Wednesday. That's a slow day. At one of four registers.

And here's a completely unrelated fact, to round out your day! Every day, the city of Seattle sends a mile-long train full of trash to eastern Oregon.