Going Green's Dual Identity

I was recently in Laguna Beach at the Whole Foods Market, a place where consumerism is disguised as conservation. The Whole Foods Market is the first major retailer to offset 100% of its energy use with wind energy credits and embark on a true green mission  from its stock of 100% organic foods to the recyclable bags those foods are packed in once purchased. All the shoppers in the store looked eerily similar from their 100% cotton clothing, to their "smart shoes" (think Birkenstock's), to their lack of apparent grooming, they were all on the same holistic page. Idealistic in nature, the Whole Foods Market is promoting world sustainability pandering to America's egalitarians as being a small part in a larger effort to mend the broken pieces of consumerism, and refresh our world; practicing Shames' idea of the "new concept of more" (88).  The goal of America "was more, American’s have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, and ambitions that have to do with things other than more” (88). The Whole Foods Market Inc. has cleverly masqueraded their consumer's consumption as a new level of "conservation" which enabled their small carbon footprint to stomp on smaller retailers, thus, perpetuating the "modernized" go green movement, a new age diversion to actually going green.

 

 

Shames, Laurence. The More Factor. Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Maasik, Sonia and Solomon, Jack. 6^th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 86-92. Print.