De-evolution

I was recently looking at picking up a couple of Bond’s T-shirts. They are so lovely and soft. An XS sized men’s one usually fits nicely. When I came to the reviews for the same old tees Superman and I have been buying for years, the first review I saw told me all I needed to know about the de-evolution of yet another great product and brand.

 

 

I heaved a heavy sigh because this review echoed my own thoughts about what has happened to Bonds women’s underwear, Sheridan bathrobes and anything from Kathmandu, Country Road…
There’s quite a few products and brands on my ever growing de-evolution list.

You see I am not a trend follower. I buy for comfort and look – my own look – and quality. So I have items in my wardrobe that are over ten years old. This fills me with immense satisfaction for many reasons:

• I LOVE wearing my favourite things.
• I enjoy having that long-past stretch-of-the-budget reaffirmed as good choice, an investment.
• I feel good about saving our planet from more junk fast fashion AKA landfill.
• I dislike the process of shopping, so owning quality items that last means less shopping! Yay!

But my consumer behaviour is changing, shifting away from old school favourite products and brands because they have lost my trust. Because I too have experienced JayPJ’s reviewed experience countless times now. I buy an item that I have always bought, in the size I have always bought and when it arrives, it is a poorer version, both in quality and sizing, than the item I am trying to replace!

Geez! As if shopping weren’t bad enough.
Why bother when it means spending time and money on something not nearly as good as your old one?

I feel this experience is proof of the de-evolution of our species. Look at it this way – if the fruits of our labour, what we as a species are choosing to contribute to our world, is a growing list of increasingly poorer quality goods and services, can we really say we are evolving?

Yes sure, just like JayPJ states in his review of his t-shirt, we understand costs need to be kept down in order to offer the product at a reasonable price. But it appears JayPJ has a limit, a breaking point at which even the low price of a Bond’s tee is not even worth parting with when the result is of such poor quality. And worse still, when the result causes us to feel bad about something about which we used to feel so good.

I mean this guy still has some 20-year old Bonds t-shirts that are in better shape than his new one!

For those of us sympathetic to long standing brands and products we have loved for many years, trying to pass off an inferior version as the original is tantamount to disloyalty and treachery.

When we have relied on a brand or product to deliver consistency, comfort and dependability and then they let us down, it is more than a transaction to be refunded. It is an emotional disappointment; something we connected to and believed in is now gone. It would almost be better to just go the way of something like Holden and die a commercial death, than to sell out, become cheaper and nastier and hope the lemming-like, throw-away mob of today’s society will not notice.

Better to die on your feet, than live on your knees.
~ Emiliano Zapata

Sadly it’s not just the clothing I mention that is de-evolving in our world, it’s also appliances, food products, cosmetics and personal care items…all sorts of things are just not as good as they used to be. Unfortunately, the list goes on. Where there is opportunity to cut cost by sacrificing quality, lots of businesses are choosing to take it.

But it’s not “businesses” is it?
It’s people. Human Beings.
These cost cutting, quality sacrificing, de-evolutionary decisions are made by Human Beings; someone like you and me.

Someone like you and me who, when faced with a choice, denies their values, forgets their ethics and how amazingly creative they actually are and succumbs to the weight of consumerism and capitalism and greed. “It won’t matter”, they say. Just a little bit cheaper here, a little bit nastier there. Creating products or services that are a little bit sadder and poorer of soul and spirit. Taking more from our world than they contribute.

It’s not just someone like you and me.
It IS you and me.

Each day we are presented with opportunities to BE our best, to make decisions in alignment with our values; opportunities to creatively and bravely express who we really are.
Do we always succeed?
Do we summon our courage and make a stand about what we feel is right?
Do we dream big and back ourselves in all the adventures and ideas we imagine?
Do we as consumers, make purchasing decisions supporting quality, innovation, uniqueness and positive contributions to our world?

Join me and let’s BE the change we want to see in the world.
Expanding, innovating, adventuring and evolving.
Becoming a better version of ourselves than we were yesterday.
Contributing more than we take.

LOVE
Rachel x
Your Life Changing Coach
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