2007年8月2日

Living in Abundance

Today, I got some invitation tickets to Sam's Club, one of membership-only warehouse clubs. With this ticket, I can enter the store. I am not a big fan of this kind of store actually..

Why I don't like those stores?

Big reason is that they sell everything (mostly) in a big bulk.

10lbs of onions, 10lbs of carrots, 3 dozen eggs, 4lbs of butter...
It's just too much!
Some stuff will last for a while, like flour or sugar or salt.

But 10lbs of flour?? That would last for years for me. Before I know it, it will expire for sure.

For a big big family or business, maybe it's worth it. But I am guessing that many people may be wasting what they bought. It's cheaper to buy in a bulk. So even they waste what they bought, it's possible that they are not losing much money. But it is still a WASTE. There are so many people suffering from hunger in Africa and other places. Why do we need to put ourselves in abundance? or more than necessary?

This big warehouse club is very American, I think. "Quantity rather than Quality" "Bigger is better" - these seem to represent America in many cases. Not only foods but other products and things.

I'm sure I am getting some advantages from these, such as housing. But it makes me wonder, is this really making my life richer? Do I really need to live in abundance? or am I?

2 コメント:

匿名 さんのコメント...

I am like you in this sense, I try not to get more than I need whenever I can, whether it's food or products (Other than the times I let my greed take over). Japan has Costco(spelling?) as well, and the trend here is that several wives (or friends) go there together, and split whatever they bought, so that they can all benefit from these big-bulk cheap items without producing wastes. Smart, I thought. Is it possible to split what all of you would like to purchase or even offer for free what you can't use yourself to your co-workers?! In Japan, making such deals are sort of mandated since huge bulk of products will fill up our small closet and shelves quick, lol.

Lothlorien(ローリエン) さんのコメント...

Tamakichi, is Costco popular in Japan? It is so here... I guess some people buy stuff together, but as far as I know, people just go there by themselves. Since space has little limitation, they buy stuff and just put them in their basement or something. It's great to have a big space, but it's not so great when we waste things later (forget that they bought those stuff etc)...