What's wrong with America - in a shrink-wrapped nutshell

This weekend, I was visiting someone near and dear to me who shall remain nameless. Looking through her pantry, I made an astounding discovery - a prewashed shrink-wrapped barcoded potato.

Naturally, I was taken aback. I asked my moth...errr...friend, I mean, what on earth would possess her to buy such a thing. She said, "Oh, they're so convenient. You can pop them right in the microwave." Excuse me? I don't claim to be an expert on food, but aren't all potatoes microwavable?

She said, "But I don't want to buy a lot of potatoes, just a few." OK, but potatoes are sold by the pound, so you can buy as few or as many as you'd like here in America. I did not have that luxury in Kenya. At the market, I could either buy the small bucket or the large one. The small bucket would work for 3-4 meals, while the large bucket, I'd estimate, would feed a family of four through 2008. But here's the great thing about potatoes. They keep for ages! I could come back to my little bucket a month later and still use it.

The cost of this convenience? Giant sells them for 89 cents a pop. Double or triple the cost of simply buying a potato and washing it yourself. Add the fact that you have to take the shrinkwrap off to eat it, and you haven't even saved yourself any time at all.

I don't mean to call out my friend on this. The product wouldn't be on the market if people weren't buying it. But as consumers, we should consider the true cost of convenience when making purchases.

In my quest to find that picture above, I ran across an interesting article on just this subject. The author said it best: "Because we rarely calculate the real cost of buying such products (and how little time we actually save), we've become a nation of people who work long hours to make money we then spend to save minutes."

Check out the article, and let me know what you think about the "shrink-wrapping of America".

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05oct24b.cfm