Essay Plan

Introduction

General statement on the question, who are the winners and losers of a consumer society?

Main body

Who are the winners in a consumer society?
Tesco’s are they a major player?
How supermarkets use their power of seduction.
Out of town shopping, how influenced are we?
Power – supermarket wars
Cheap labour
Who are the losers in a consumer society?
The seduced and repressed.

Conclusion

Bibliography & Referencing

Self Reflection

Who are the winners and losers in a consumer society?

Who are the winners and losers in a consumer society? We could ask what is defined as such. We can see it is about what people do for a living and how they live, but there is a divide, it shows how the rich …show more content…

Bauman (1988) concepts of the seduced and the repressed refer to his categorisation of consumers based on their ability to consume effectively in a contemporary consumer society. Bauman argues that the seduced are the consumers that are able to buy into a lifestyle and are able to fit into a certain social group, Bauman also believes that we could call the seduced those who believe in the idea that one can create a lifestyle and identity by consuming (Bauman. Z, ch 1, pg 46) but on the other hand the repressed are those who are excluded because of their social circumstance. This could include those who are poor, elderly and disabled. But it could be argued that you are not restricted in the places you can shop it may just be a matter of choice, it could include those who wish to reduce their carbon foot print by not driving a car, or only eating locally produced food. The use of extra packaging would also play a part as some consumers view this as more potential waste and could cause harm to our planet.

So in conclusion we can surmise that the winners of a consumer society are the larger supermarkets, mostly because they buy in stock that is cheaper so they pass the savings onto the customer; however this is at the cost of using foreign nationals and agency workers in getting the food from the field to store. They are the losers of the consumer society as well