The great toilet roll Dash – Never under-estimate how lazy we consumers really are －トイレットペーパー大競争 ～我々消費者がどれだけ怠け者か過小評価するな～ －

lazy – adjective:

unwilling to work or use energy; idle

consumer – noun (plural noun – consumers):
A person who purchases goods or services for personal use; purchaser; buyer

dash – verb:
Run or travel somewhere in a great hurry

Dash – an Amazon product:
A device which allows extremely lazy consumers to have individual products delivered to their home within 24 hours simply by pressing a button

 

How lazy have we consumers really become?  What damage are we willing to do to the environment, what extra financial costs are we willing to accept, just to save a tiny bit of effort?

Some years ago the remote control became popular.  It saved us the effort of standing up and walking five steps to change the channel, or adjust the temperature in the room, or to get out of the car and open the garage door by hand.  Consumers ignored the wasted electricity caused by having a house full of appliances constantly on stand-by.  Our houses now sit, demanding electricity while they wait to be used.

Now people who can’t be bothered going to the supermarket for toothpaste, toilet rolls and shampoo no longer need to go.  They don’t even need to connect to the internet and place an order at a local supermarket for these items to be delivered.  Instead they just go to their Amazon Dash device and press a button.  If they have run out of toilet roll, they press the toilet roll button and an order is automatically placed with Amazon, who will deliver that one item within 24 hours.

Well, nobody is excited about going to the supermarket to buy toilet roll.  But what environmental or financial costs are we ignoring just for a little extra convenience?  If we use Dash, we will not be able to choose the brand of toilet roll or shampoo we want.  We have to buy the one that Amazon provides.  Perhaps it is more expensive.  Perhaps it has damaging plastic particles in it.  And how much energy is wasted by Amazon sending a truck, or maybe a drone, to your house to deliver a single tube of toothpaste?  Wouldn’t it be more energy efficient to buy a lot of items at once and either have them delivered together or even pick them up yourself?

Where will this consumer laziness end?  Need to brush your teeth?  Can’t be bothered?  Press AmazonGo! And a robot will rush to your house to brush them for you within 24 minutes.  Gone to the toilet and need to wipe your bottom?  No problem!  With AmazonGo! This service will come to your door within 24 minutes, all at the touch of a button.  What a wonderful, futuristic society!  My baby son would feel right at home.

Vocabulary:

to be on stand-by – of an electrical device, worker etc., to be prepared to be used whenever needed

can’t be bothered doing something – feel that it is too much effort or feel unwilling to make the effort to do something

a (plastic) particle – a tiny piece (of plastic), too small to see [many shampoos and cleaning products contain thousands of these, and they end up in the sea, damaging the environment]