None of what follows is new. I know this stuff happens all the time. And yet somehow this insignificant thing shocked me and it’s been gnawing at me for the past few days. And today was the icing on the shit cake.
So my wife ordered a a foot massage machine. $50, typical el-cheapo thing made in China. The thing was shipped to our home out in the boonies in less than 48 hours. Wow!
My wife opened the box, got the device out onto the floor and… she couldn’t fit her feet inside. She’s not big, but apparently the device was designed for customers in the Shire. Unusable.
So she emailed the distributor who told her to cut the cord, send them a photo proving the destruction and throw it away herself. Not return the device. Not pretend to return the device and the device is thrown away behind her back. No no: this time, the distributor told her in no uncertain terms that it’s cheaper for them to let her destroy the thing herself.
And then it hit me: here is a device that was born in China, put together by some underpaid workers in a nondescript factory, designed by someone who didn’t give a shit, made out of materials that probably came out of the ground somewhere in Africa and in Saudi Arabia - probably involving child labor at some point or other - put on a boat, shipped halfway around the world, then put into a truck, only to be landfilled here.
It didn’t even see a single second of use. This is utterly absurd and completely depressing.
I’m not compatible with that. When I buy something, the thing has value and I want it to have a decently useful life. It’s not about ecology or money: it’s just basic respect for the resources and the human labor that went into this thing. The value of the object is what it cost the Earth and the people who toiled to make it and ship it to me. When I use my things, I show respect for those who made them and it justifies the use ot the materials they’re made of.
But here I was looking at that poor thing across the room, unloved and unlovable, whose sole purpose as an object was to be landfilled without ever seeing any use. It consumed resources and someone worked to make it, yet somehow it never had any value for anybody.
And the most depressing thing about it is, its very existence from Chinese factory to my local landfill is totally absurd and makes no sense at all, yet all the invididual steps that contributed to it being fabricated and ultimately landing on our doorstep were a series of perfectly rational economical decisions: someone found added value in designing and building a shit foot massage machine, my wife found it worth buying sight unseen, someone figured there was money to be made shipping it here, and the distributor decided to outsource its destruction to the customers because it’s cheaper than destroying it themselves - let alone shipping it back to Shenzen or wherever. And yet when you string everything together, the net result is senseless waste and production of things that have no inherent worth. How crazy is that eh?
I couldn’t throw it away. So I replaced the cord and I gave it to the local Red Cross store yesterday to give to someone in need or sell it for pennies. Today, I passed by the shop on my way to work and saw the damn thing in their garbage container behind the store. In the box. Unopened. I guess it will be going to the landfill after all…
That really put the final damper on my day today…
Sorry if this is the wrong venue, but I really needed to vent.
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One of the worst things about Capitalism is that many a time it’s cheaper to do the wrong thing, than the right thing. It promotes doing the wrong thing.
This isn’t just true of capitalism. Greed and laziness exists in most economic systems.
Imagine in 100 years that footbath is rotting in a pile somewhere. Some desperate little creature is being stalked by some terrifying predator. Just as the predator is about to strike the little creature spots a hole he can squeeze through and makes a mad dash for it. He makes it just in time and peeps out of the holes in your footbath as the frustrated predator lumbers off in search of an easier meal.
That’s how I get past the depressing aspects of the absurdity of our civilization- just imagine even more absurd extensions until you find something that’s more fun to imagine than it is depressing.
You do know that you are part of the problem right? Without demand and profit, none of these problems exist… Your wife probably went on Temu or Wish or some other app and knew exactly what she would probably get.
OP planned on using the device. They would not be complaining if it was crappy but usable…it was manufactured in a way that makes me unusable for 90% of people but marketed to 100% of them
So all the shit about sweat shop labor and sourcing is irrelevant. I’ll shut up
I get what you’re saying but I feel like you’re deliberately missing their point just to shame them…
The supply and manufacturing chain is fucked up for just about everything. OP is realizing that not only is it fucked up, all that effort in the mines and sweatshop endes up in a landfill without any sort of usable product or silver lining.
What does he expect ordering straight from China and paying basically nothing is my point. You get what you pay for (disposable bullshit products)and he’s actively supporting it. Everyone with half a brain knows that products from those apps are almost always some dollar store reject shit built with irresponsibly sourced labor and materials that very rarely work correctly or have any durability. He got exactly what he ordered, women’s feet, hats, men’s clothing, etc are notorious for being smaller than American/European sizes
You get what you pay for
This hasn’t been true since the 70s. Back when the price of an item was dictated by things like material cost and labor.
My wife followed this influencer who was selling an $80 necklace. This influencer had sold hundreds of them. It was from her “personal” style collection. My wife was hoping to find something similar for cheaper so she reverse searched the necklace. She found the exact pendants and chain for sale for pennies. The $80 necklace cost my wife $5 to make, with shipping.
Cost is not an indicator of quality anymore. Things cost whatever the company thinks you’ll pay for them, and not a penny less.
If that’s what you think I’m talking about then I’m just going to let you have this one. You are right, cost is not an indicator at all.
To be fair, they may have a rule about anything without the original plug/cord I know places near me do. Still a shame it ends up going to waste.
The only problem with that theory is, they didn’t even open my box. I know that because the box still had the tape I closed it shut with. So they couldn’t know I had replaced the cord.
Besides, it wasn’t a shitty splice: I actually opened it and replaced the whole cord. You could never tell it wasn’t the original thing.
My first thought too
I don’t usually read walls of text (attention span) but this was a good one, worth reading to the end. Well said tbh
Thanks!
It pisses me to no one end when i think to all the trash factories. Items designed to look good for e-commerce but they are poorly designed and unusable. Directly to the landfill…
Wanted to say that actually Hobbits have quite large feet, but as it turns out that was just something in the movies, and nowhere alluded to in the books.
https://www.thegamer.com/weird-things-hobbit-anatomy-lord-of-the-rings/
But yeah, too bad about your, you know…
I mean, yeah. All of this. Absurd.
But, FWIW, offloading cheap tat onto charity shops is not going to work well. It costs them money to put it on a shelf and it probably takes up more space than it is worth. Plus, they very likely can’t sell electrical equipment that has had its cord chopped up and repaired, or at least not without spending more on having it tested than they could sell it for anyway.
Next time, find a friend with small feet who would like to take it off your hands.
Plus, they very likely can’t sell electrical equipment that has had its cord chopped up and repaired
I did it proper. You couldn’t tell the cord had been replaced. For the rest, yeah I know what you mean. That doesn’t mean it’s not crazy that the Red Cross should refuse free shit. My Dad lived through the war and the food restrictions, and let me tell you, he would have been outraged.
Next time, find a friend with small feet who would like to take it off your hands.
The funny thing is, I’m a clear foot taller than my wife, but my own feet have been shortened surgically a few years ago and are now shorter than hers, and I fit inside the machine just fine. But I didn’t want the machine because I hate foot massages 🙂
I’m with you, there is so much waste in the world. I even feel bad throwing away a pack of ketchup, thinking of all that has to happen for that packet to get into my hand.
The problem with returns on a foot bath is probably no one wants a used foot bath. And also with shipping costs so high the return shipping would probably cost more than their cost to make the item.
What’s really insane is to think that it’s cheaper to manufacture something like this halfway across the world and then put it on a boat spewing god knows what into the atmosphere just to get it here. Something is broken when rinky dink items like this aren’t manufactured on your own continent.
someone found added value in designing and building a shit foot massage machine,
I bet they didn’t. Someone screwed up, and someone (maybe not the same person) is taking a loss on it. Chinese factory labour is cheap, but not free.
It’s still a bummer, though. Sorry this happened.
There’s a thrift store near me called Saver’s, and it’s stocked by donations to Big Brother. I have no doubt this would have gone into the store if they received it.
