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Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
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Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture Paperback - 2010

by Ellen Ruppel Shell

A myth-shattering investigation of the true cost of America's passion for finding a better bargain

From the shuttered factories of the Rust Belt to the strip malls of the Sun Belt-and almost everywhere in between-America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little-examined obsession with bargains is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time, having fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our landÿscapes, escalates personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews of our concept of time.

Spotlighting the peculiar forces that drove Americans away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and towards quantity, quantity, and more quantity, Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the rise of the bargain through our current big-box profusion to expose the astronomically high cost of cheap.


Summary

A myth-shattering investigation of the true cost of America's passion for finding a better bargain

From the shuttered factories of the Rust Belt to the strip malls of the Sun Belt-and almost everywhere in between-America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little- examined obsession with bargains is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time, having fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our land­scapes, escalates personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews of our concept of time.

Spotlighting the peculiar forces that drove Americans away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and towards quantity, quantity, and more quantity, Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the rise of the bargain through our current big-box profusion to expose the astronomically high cost of cheap.

From the publisher

Ellen Ruppel Shell is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Time, Discover, Seed, and dozens of other national publications. She is the author, most recently, of The Hungry Gene, which was published in six languages, and is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University.

Details

  • Title Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
  • Author Ellen Ruppel Shell
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition 59569th
  • Pages 320
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, East Rutherford, NJ, U.S.A.
  • Date 2010-06-29
  • Features Bibliography, Index, Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780143117636 / 0143117637
  • Weight 0.64 lbs (0.29 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.44 x 5.5 x 0.61 in (21.44 x 13.97 x 1.55 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Dewey Decimal Code 381.149

Media reviews

END

Citations

  • New York Review of Books, 06/27/2010, Page 20

About the author

Ellen Ruppel Shell is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Time, Discover, Seed, and dozens of other national publications. She is the author, most recently, of The Hungry Gene, which was published in six languages, and is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University.
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