I grew up in a suburban Long Island town where the (still) thriving main street included three little hardware stores. You could go into any of them, ask for any size nails or washers or bolts, and the owner would pluck it out of a little drawer for you.
Well, Home Depot has a lovely selection of washers. I'll give them that. BUT - they're packaged in little plastic bags, sealed and barcoded, 5 per bag.
Think about it. Some factory somewhere received a shipment of metal, which itself had been shipped. It made the washers. So far, so good. Then it shipped the washers to a plant to be packaged in little plastic baggies and barcoded. Then those little baggies were shipped to a central place from which Home Depot and other Megastores ordered them. They were, then, shipped to every Home Depot in the world, where they were sorted and displayed in a huge store on a huge display in a store in which you have to lie on the floor to see the ceiling. The customer, who has driven to the store unless she has the misfortune to live in an industrial court, selects the washers, pays at a self-serve checkout, puts the washers in a plastic bag, and drives home.
Almost every step from "Then it shipped the washers" could be cut out if we still had little hardware stores. All of the plastic, all of the gasoline used in all of the transportation, all of the energy to light, heat, and cool the Megastores, the plastic bags - all would be unnecessary.
Some of us still have little hardware stores - at least, littler than the Megas. I suppose this rant could be condensed into two words, green words: buy local.
(I'm still obsessing on those damn washers. Can you tell? The only step I managed to cut out was the plastic bag to carry the washers out of the store. It was not enough.)
Now as if we didn't already know this:
You Are 0% Republican |
 If you have anything in common with the Republican party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch liberal, and nothing is going to change that! |
