Ancillary #6

Despite the benefits from 3R(reuse, recycle, reduce), conscious consumerism has one underlying side effect: people don’t align with what they say. Consumers want to make more ethical choices when purchasing, but unsurprisingly, price and convenience remain strong drivers. In some cases, these are the determinants of product choice, so these consumers tend to choose the cheapest product, regardless of potential ethical issues. The massive success of Amazon is a case in point. Stephaine Plante argues “despite calls year after year to boycott Amazon Prime Day over factory conditions,” the retail giant breaks its sales records repeatedly. Although Amazon offers huge discounts and convenience to its customers, their workers undergo complicated lives even lack a living wage. Additionally, workers in amazon claim that they have been given heavy work in the warehouse. They have also vented their frustrations with intrusive surveillance technology, including automated tracking systems and cameras that monitor their every move. Given specific authentic evidence, conscious consumerism is likely to enable people to come into a paradox, which is not the one we predict. The gap between the profession of conscious consumerism and its practice still suggests that ethical consumption is socially desirable behavior. People tend to behave in ways that society values — when those behaviors are achievable. If people continue to consume consciously, more and more companies that are supposed to be boycotted and not eco-friendly will take up the whole market. Conscious consumerism is not on the pathway that we plan to trace.