The Virtues of Thriftiness.

So buy one get one free, buy two get third free, buy 3 for 3 pounds, 20% off, value pack, family pack, econosave, 1st choice, sale all choices that assail you when you go anywhere be it on the street, in the shops, on the television, and even when I close my eyes.

What is the point? Why do we care are we really getting more value for our hard earned cash? Break it down to a unit price and soon you will discover that they are the same price or more than the ‘regular’ products. To which you must add value!
Value now that is a far more important criterion. Let’s take the example of tissues, whichever kind; the choice is down to your mental level; top to bottom honest. Ok I digress again, there is value single ply, normal double ply, exclusive triple ply and of course embalmed, aloe vera (that sounds like a bad French person greeting your long lost aunt Vera); what do you choose? The cheapest will give you sores and burst into shreds as soon as you approach it. The exclusive will run out before you find them and cost more than a plane ticket to Ibiza. So we exclude those from our selection as one has no value and the other is beyond our meagre taxed budget. We are now left with the multiple varieties of the ‘normal’ product. So what do you buy? You buy the same one you always bought! The boring plan normal product, so was your shopping experience more fulfilling by browsing the 30 or so varieties that you can choose from and reject?

Does buy the same old product make you a communist for believing that less choice is more? All things are equal. No of course not.

Well this brings me to the next item on the list. Is it green? Yes, is the categorical answer. Why scream the leftist non leather wearing hessians? Well you buy one value driven product and because it is the one that has been around for the last 50 years, it’s made in the same way with the same products in the same factory with the same packaging that it has always been composed of. HOW cries the leftish tie die hippy? Well dear Leftists, we did not make new factories, we did not find alternative plastic packaging for something, we did not make chemical ink that kills bees to print the flashy 3 for 2 or econosave branding. Oh and let’s be honest if you want to save the world stop us making infinite variants of the same things and branding it world saver. For everyone of the green products that we manufacture we have burned down 10 forest, killed thousands of bees and created some chemical compound that nature cannot assimilate all so that you can buy something that you believe is green. Yes it has value, green value but oh what did it take to make it?

All the boring standard products are still biodegradable, still use less packaging that the latest green craze.

So people the message today is be green and thrifty by buying the same products you always have. Change is sometimes evil, so save the bees by not changing.

Signing off

Lemon Tree Man