For this assignment we were asked to shop for a product or meal with with someone that fits a certain “persona.” In this case, during a weekend visit to the new Costco in East Harlem, I talked to a parent who wants to protect their infant from toxins. She expressed frustration about the fact that “things weren’t labeled well” and that if you’re concerned about BPA in plastics, for instance, that you don’t see a “no BPA” label on the product.
Essentially she wished that along with nutrion information you’d have a box that gave information about levels of toxins or amount of BPA or amount of mercury. She said that’s information that it’s up to the parent to know.
I asked her if shopping at Costco gave her a better feeling of buying healthier products or was it for savings and she said both. She mentioned that Pathmark is bulk but you don’t get same feeling that products are healthier.
In thinking about what’s important to her, I thought of Bruce Sterling’s “Shaping Things” where he discusses the concept of “transparent production”… he imagines a new class of products with all of its production information available to the end user… “This bottle arrived in my possession seemingly stripped of consequences, but those consequences exist.”
When engaging others in the conversation the conversation generally turned to concern about toxins in the air, especially given that East Harlem has one of the nation’s highest rates for asthma.