Back in the USSR
by modern living editor Jason Capodimonte
Lately while visiting retail stores I have had a sensation of déjà vu (or, as one would preferably say, vu). Finally I realized what these stores reminded me of.
What they reminded me of was a documentary cum travelogue produced by David Suzuki for the CBC in the 1980s. The documentary featured the travels of an upbeat Dr. Suzuki through the Soviet Union. At one point Dr. Suzuki, speaking from the cab of a Soviet locomotive, merrily asked "Did you know that the Soviet Union has supermarkets?"
The scene then changed to a Soviet supermarket. The chief feature of this supermarket was a glistening array of empty shelves, with some action being provided at the back of the store by a group of citizens desperately fighting over the only bottle of milk.
Whenever I go the store these days, whatever I want is not all that likely to be there. I was looking for a new printer, and in Staples half the display models (the ones you can afford) had stickers on them noting they were out of stock. In Dominion almost a whole row of shelves was empty. In almost any large supermarket you go in many of the house brands are missing.
And then there was my quest last February for new leather gloves to replace the ones I had lost. It seems retailers can't be bothered to stock leather gloves when you need them. I ended up finishing the winter without gloves (and am beginning this winter without them).
How are these phenomena like the USSR? In both the USSR and the modern now à gogo society in which Canadians now live, production of consumer goods must adhere to a plan. In the USSR it was the Five Year Plan; in Canada it's the business plan.
In the USSR your priority was to meet the goals of the Five Year Plan. If the goal for a shoe factory was to produce a million pair of men's shoes, the quickest way to meet the goal was to produce the shoes all in the same style and size. Most men wouldn't be able to buy new shoes, but the Plan would be successful.
In Canada most business plans have as their highest priority pleasing the pension funds and market analysts. Pension funds and market analysts look for good bottom lines. To spruce up your bottom line you downsize. The downsizing cuts costs, so your bottom line improves for a while and everyone's happy.
In the longer run, of course, the Five Year Plan and the business plan founded on the bottom line sabotage production. Downsized staff produce less. In an age in which powerful computer technology runs production at every level, you can't buy a pair of leather gloves in February. In Sudbury (I looked). You can't buy a mass produced computer printer on University Avenue (the street of big corporations) in Toronto. You can't buy a two-litre bottle of ginger ale on a Monday afternoon in a Dominion store serving the prosperous Toronto neighbourhood of North Rosedale.
This is what the defeat of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has brought us – the Union of Slenderly Stocked Retailers. Like the original USSR, the new USSR is characterized by a lack of competition. Big corporations swallow little corporations, and choice in the marketplace is reduced. As long as you have no choice of where to buy, the marketplace doesn't have to provide fripperies like stock.
Oh, well. Maybe they'll let us revive that neat anthem the old USSR had.
Back in the USSR © Coolth, 2001
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