Consumerism: The Christmas scrooge

Christmas isn’t about good cheer and Jesus; it’s about consumerism and retail traders.

If you don’t think Christmas is getting close then you must be living under a rock. Department stores and retailers across Australia have made it abundantly clear that Christmas shopping begins in October with their passive aggressive decorations. And now it’s November and the Christmas decorations, sales, and jingles are screaming consumerism.

Five months out from Christmas and Australian retail trade figures showed a 0.1 per cent rise and by September retail turnover figures rose by 1.2 per cent. Australia’s obsession with consumerism over the Christmas period mutates, showing abnormalities as early as August.

Over the two days before Christmas Australian’s spend up big. In 2013 it was recorded that over the 23^rd and 24^th of December $1.46 billion was spent on last minute gifts.

Many say that the spirit of Christmas is lost in consumerism, but is Australia’s consumerism also losing control?

Australian’s are purchasing millions of new products each day, but those products are given shorter life spans and are often thrown out and replaced again and again. Consumerism helps our economy but it’s not helping our environment.

In 2007 it was recorded that Australia produced over 40 million tonnes of waste.

So this Christmas, give the credit card a rest and purchase environment friendly biodegradable products. Because lets face it, half of the presents you give end up in the trash.

By: Taylor-Jayne Wilkshire

Image: Foter.com

Source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/676AC4CC578D6559CA25773400204519?Opendocument