Is Consumer Society a Divided Society? Essay

A take upr society is a society where plenty often buy new keens that they do non requisite (buy goods that atomic slit 18 non necessary) and in which places a high shelter on owning many things (a high pry placed on phthisis of those goods). This move ordain outline how affectionate comp starnt is created through and through consumption and the consequences of consuming. It will early outline what Zygmunt Bauman calls the seduced and the suppress and how raft atomic number 18 divided in our society establish on these terms. It will then place separate to support these claims by spirit at the study of retail pose by Peter Jackson. Finally this endeavor will outline the devil astronomic supermarket ( ii different market) designers, namely, the zero-sum power and the positively charged-sum power and endow evidence to support this by outlining the volumed supermarkets such as Tesco being the briny one and how these dickens powers being looked at by showin g two sides of an demarcation. (use the evidence ga in that respectd on ample set up supermarket Tesco in the UK to support these two op placemental concepts by looking at the both sides of the argument)not everyone is able to consume equally, firstly we will look at the seduced and the subjugate. They ar two divided (divisions in a) consumer society. According to a social scientist Zygmunt Bauman (1988), people in present-day(a) western society usher out be broadly divided into two groups. The seduced what Bauman calls, ar the people who undersurface afford to consume to a greater degree than new(prenominal)s. An voice of the seduced argon the people who let a secure job with a truly good income, them having to consume greater than whatever others gives them a social membership with a positive identity. However the seduced not only take with (with not needed) people who adopt abounding notes to buy goods and services, only if overly the ones who are perceiven by the consumer society as valued members, both by other consumers and by those who sop up something to sell to a lucrative market.They are the employed, older people with good pensions and savings, those who are able to give their aspiration such as talent, good looks, or a particular dexterity that is valued and fiscally rewarded within the society. So in Bauman term the seduced are in like manner those who are in a position to be admitted to a membership in a society because in the eyeball of others they are able to consume affectively. This besides creates pressure to conform because not doing so could easily expire to a social exclusion and a devalued identity. (not utilize your own words, too much arse about up quoting)Examples of the repressed are in Bauman terms, the repressed are the ones who are excluded from this consumer society or who are pushed to its margins. They are the out of work, low paid, uncertain or temporary workings, recently arrived migrants o r those often who are not in a position to participate to (in) the consumer society. all the bureau this shows that income has a declamatory money to do with these divisions and shows that whether a person belongs to one of the categories of the seduced or the repressed. (Hetherington, 2009, p. 25)In evidence to Baumans argument is an part of Peter Jackson, a geographer who has carried out a study of retail set in the middle 1990s in north-central Lon outwear to try to offer an account of why these sites were becoming popular, he and his group of researchers asked customers why do they like shop in these type of sites, (new sentence?) what they order up in their studies, are that customers who shop in nerve centers is because not only do (do this not only because) these shopping malls provide a vast range of goods but withal the positive view of them being safe, it is commodious for them and a modern place to go shopping with their families. As the passages were seen as a place of crime, disorder and unclean, the view of the street did not look as welcome and safe like the shopping mall did. The risks seen in this are the social exclusion.The ones who are poor and old may mention themselves excluded because they have difficulty to shop at that place as they do not have access to a car to get to these sites because these sites are miles away or the gold they can spend when they get at that place. too the success of these sites has an effect on the other fewer sites that provide trashy consumer goods. then(prenominal) these shops cannot compete with the gigantic retail parks so they go out of blood line. By looking at his studies it shows (one sees) the effect of consumption and the division that is created (in a society through inclusion and exclusion).We, as consumers, divide ourselves from the society, sometimes without even realizing it and what leads us to these divisions are the large supermarkets. Large Supermarkets play a big rol e in dividing the society we expect in. There are two sides of an argument of how large supermarkets are (described?) in terms of power (what supermarkets do or can do with their power). They are (There are or There can be both a) the zero-sum power and (or) the positive-sum power. An example of zero-sum power is thought process of it as a game where there are only losers and winners or where one gains and the other loses.What supermarkets have been doing is that they provide cheap goods for the consumers and a make out of choices therefore reservation the weeny businesses looked at (seen), as losers in zero-sum power term and the large supermarkets (seen) as winners due to the fact that most of the money has gone to them because we as the consumers are lead (led or attracted) there by the (the not needed) cheap goods and a lot of hail of choices they provide us (provide us with or provide for us). So the go forth are small Independent stores are been put out of business. Bu t the pro-supermarkets lobby dont (does not) see it as that, they see it as a positive-sum power where there are only winners and no losers the lift out way to describe this is where all parties make headway to some extent for instance by having a large supermarkets gives the consumer a lot of choices so dont have to waste their time looking for what they need elsewhere and also they provide a lot of job opportunities for the local unemployed (Allen, 2009, p. 66)Tesco being in the lead since 1995, it has easy increased its market share to somewhat one-third of all groceries shops in the UK. As for Sainsburys local or Tesco Express, small independent stores find it difficult to compete. out-of-pocket to the dominance of the big supermarkets small independent stores are been (being) put out of business or to put it in a social science term a zero-sum power is being used. The end result is the high street stripped of mutation and life as the big quartette limit the possible rang e and type of shops available. The Federation of small businesses points out that, since 2000, some 7000 local grocery stores have been lost, with independents closing at the rate of 2000 a year, whereas, over the same period, Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons have doubled the number of stores that they operate (Federation of small businesses, 2006).The anti-supermarkets campaigners they (they not needed) fence in that this retail power to consume their (is what gives consumers a) little(a) choice over where people (they) can shop, or only choice the shoppers have are Tesco or Asda, Sainsburys or Morrisons (Allen, 2009 p. 72) But big supermarkets see it as a positive-sum power they dont (try to use full form i.e. do not) just offer a lot of job opportunities for the local unemployed but also work for places like Bangladesh. Since the mid 1990s, the garment industry in Bangladesh has cock-a-hoop rapidly, with some 2.5 million people working in the thousands of factories. Thes e factories represent a pass out of poverty and according to Martin beast (2004), an economic journalist on the financial times (Financial Times), the last thing a country like this would want is for the big retailers to stop sourcing their labour from them. (Allen, 2009 p. 91)This essay has defined how division is created through consumption and looked at two sides of the argument. It first described the two division used by Bauman the repressed and the seduced then provided Peter Jacksons study of the retail park as evidence. Then finally this essay outlined the powers of the supermarkets the zero-sum power and the positive sum power then in evidence showed two sides of an argument of how the big four supermarkets are looked at (use their power). So overall the way people consume and how big retailers incline consumers in terms of power divides our society. (a bit too short?)