(Video clip here)
In Storper’s ‘Lived Effects of the Contemporary Economy: Globalization, Inequality, and Consumer Society,’ one of the points that I found most interesting and relevant is that in today’s economy, it is often the best practice to appeal to the ‘middle of the market’ to appease as many people as possible and maximize sales. This, he says, leads to a ‘massification’ of commodities, where, despite appearances of variety and distinction in many products, they are available almost everywhere to nearly everyone.
The example that I chose to share for this theory if from a CNBC documentary about Costco that I saw a few weeks ago. In it, they point out that Costco is one of the top wine retailers in the country, which may be surprising for a store whose top-selling product is toilet paper. They point out in the video that there is one woman who travels the world selecting which wines will be available in Costco stores. Along with this, they say that Costco has been responsible for developing and raising the nation’s taste in wine over the years.
This brought me back to Storper’s idea of massification because while it may be true that Americans are taking an interest in more ‘exotic’ wines because of Costco’s low prices and easily-selectable environment, what is really happening is one woman (or a team of people) is essentially deciding for the country which wines they will like. Storper mentions that ‘you can find specialty manufactured products in specialty stores if you know where to look’ (117), which is true of wines, but according to the video, this selection was overly intimidating for most, who prefer to essentially be told what to buy.
The video provided is only a clip, but the entire show is very interesting if you have time!