• Cheap Cheap 19th Apr 2010

  As we continue to develop a new range of products for release in early summer, we’ve been immersed in the mysteries of organic and non-organic materials, scheduling, and the workloads of our production team. Amidst the hectic activity, it’s sometimes a blessed respite to turn to our e-mail.

  We were recently delighted to be contacted, out of the blue, by an architect, Juliette, who wrote:

  “I wanted to thank you for the work that you do, and especially for the manner in which you do your work. This may be strange since I haven’t purchased one of your products yet, but I’ve started to save up so that I can buy the Field Bag for my husband. But I enjoyed your section of ‘Scribbled Thoughts’ so much that I thought I would pass this passage along”.

  Juliette went on to quote a passage by an influential early 20th century economist from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. It seems that Simon Nelson Patten was one of the first economists to argue for a shift from an ‘economics of scarcity’ to an ‘economics of abundance’.

  Photo courtesy of Epsos

  He has some harsh words for ‘the capitalist’ whom he distinguishes from ‘the frugalist’:

  “The discipline of the capitalist is the same as that of the frugalist. He differs from the latter in that he has no regard for the objects through which productive power is acquired. He does not hesitate to exploit natural resources, land, dumb animals, and even his fellowman… The frugalist… stands in marked contrast to the attitude of the capitalist. The frugalist takes a vital interest in his tools, in his land, and in the goods he produces. He has a definite attachment to each. He dislikes to see an old coat wear out, an old wagon break down, or an old horse go lame. He always thinks of concrete things, wants them and nothing else. He desires not land, but a given farm; not horses or cattle or machines, but particular breeds and implements; not a shelter, but a home…”

  This put us in mind of Ellen Ruppel Shell’s book, Cheap, an entertaining broadside railing against discount culture and the notion that cheap is better. “A cheap price is a shortcut to being cheated”, inveighs an ancient Chinese proverb. Shell distinguishes between cheap, disposable culture and thrifty, reusable culture. Most tellingly, she targets Ikea whom she accuses of using illegally harvested hardwoods from the Russian Far-East and Asia, and sourcing production to some of the lowest-paying companies on the planet. When she cites a table that sells for $69 to a master craftsman, he has to admit that he couldn’t buy the wood for that price, let alone build the finished table.

  Photo courtesy of Kouhoku

  Now, it’s easy to become pious and to surrender to Shell’s sometimes soundbite rhetoric. We’re as guilty as the next person when it comes to the mix of local, homespun stores and retail chains and supermarkets that we use. Much as we’d like to be 100% dedicated frugalists, we actually live with a mixed economy, prizing the hand-crafted while often reaching for the mass-produced.

  But, slowly, we are trying to chip away at the block of our reliance on the mass-retailed and cheap. And all our efforts at Millican are spent trying to develop the most hand-sourced, hand-finished products that we can.

  
  Take Derek the Drinks Cooler. His insulation is made with 100% Herdwick sheep wool, harvested from the coats of Borrowdale flocks at local Yew Tree Farm . Then, Vera , our dame of sewing after forty years at Pringle and Kangol, hand-stitches the insulation.

  We could cut costs drastically in terms of both product and production. But we prefer to take a leaf out of Simon Nelson Patten’s book, valuing the individual goods, tools and human beings in the process. In the words of Ellen Ruppel Shell,

  “Craftsmanship cements a relationship of trust between buyer and seller, worker and employer, and expects something of both. It is about caring about the work and its application. It is what distinguishes the work of humans from the work of machines”.

  
  Like any work, Millican life can sometimes feel like an automated treadmill, with a host of converging lists, pressures and demands. But our priority is to keep the accent on the human wherever possible, on the good health of our employees and ourselves, and on Shell’s ‘relationship of trust’ between us and our buyers. As with all work-life balance issues and any ethical business, this is never going to be simple.
  But, then, outside nature, silence and star-gazing, what ever good really came ‘cheap’?

  By Jorrit
  
  

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