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Cheap: The Real Cost of the Global Trend for Bargains, Discounts & Customer Choice
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 339.47
EAN: 9780749445348
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 0749445343
Label: Kogan Page
Manufacturer: Kogan Page
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 197
Publication Date: March 01, 2006
Publisher: Kogan Page
Studio: Kogan Page
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Editorial Review:
Manufactured goods have been getting cheaper, both in absolute terms and relative to services. Since the Consumer Prices Index was first launched in 1996, the prices of "goods" have fallen an average 2%; while the prices of services have risen 35%. The most talked about example has been in textiles: since 1996, the average price of clothes has fallen 36%. But it is not just clothes that have been falling in price: new cars are 1.5% cheaper than they were in 1996; household appliances are 24% cheaper; toys are 30% cheaper, and of course, in the audio-visual category, you'll find things are on average now 56% cheaper than they were nine years ago.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Bad Business
This book just goes to prove that it isn't globalizations or cheap labor that is ruining society (as the author would like you to believe), but the preposterous idealism that the author has. In a world where it will never be a utopia (no matter how hard we try), it is essential that every person is able to recieve value for a purchase. If something is sold for a dollar at a discount store, and it is worth a dollar that is an even trade. If it is sold for two at another shop, that is value loss. This ... Read More
Rating: - Poorly structured and exceptionally awful.
Although the subject matter is a timely affair which deserves a thorough analysis this work manages to deliver an exceptionally tedious,repetitive and downright dull arguments which at times degenerate to nothing more than a late night ramble.
Quite a lot of the statements are completely unsubstantiated and its awash with sweeping statments.Overall quite a boring work with no well defined points and completely devoid of structure.
Rating: - Awful
An awful, boring, badly-translated book that has neither structure, arguments nor any well-defined points. It reads like a rambling late-night conversation between two people with a lot of shared background knowledge; proper explanation of points is in short supply. Also, on the copy I bought here in Dublin, its back cover blurb is woefully misleading: "a compelling and shocking account of society's greedy over-consumption" that "paints a bleak picture of our increasing obsession with cheap goods". ... Read More
Rating: - Tripe
I basically agree with the other two reviewers, but with one exception. No, I do not think that Wal-Mart is evil. And furthermore, who really cares if "Wal-Mart wants people to shop there without thinking?" People choose to shop there, period. If several hundred people choose to shop at the local Wal-Mart Supercenter and not at Joe's Market (the locally owned grocer) then who is at fault if Joe goes bankrupt? Wal-Mart may have low prices, but customers must choose if they want cheap stuff now or ... Read More
Rating:  - Poor Translation, Weak Argument
Many of the rhetorical lapses evident in "cheap" may well derive from a poor translation from the German. It seems as though no effort was made to avoid literal translation - much of the text is awkwardly phrased at best, completely non-sensical at worst. For example, immigrants who cross borders to take low-paying caregiving job such as nurses aid, nanny, etc. are described as being in the "love services", a phrase that has a distinctly different connotation in English than that which its author seems ... Read More
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