The post-festive season still succeeds in serving up the traditional sales-rush stories. Just two days after Christmas - the biggest present-giving time of the year - 5,000 shoppers queued from 4.30am for the Next sale at Brent Cross in London. According to the Evening Standard, police had to break up scuffles among bargain hunters as tempers quickly frayed.
When it comes to finding the ultimate bargain, good manners, socially acceptable behaviour and personal ethics seem to be cast aside for the chance of getting a good buy. Unlike my grandparents' generation, I don't want a "good" coat that lasts for years. I want a red one. And a black one too - if I see it cheap enough. Disposable fashions and cut-throat competition drive the buyers of major companies to seek out ever cheaper suppliers to meet the demand their ever-cheaper products create. But is there another price to pay for such wanton consumerism?
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