Jonathan Kotyk Steffen Guenzel ENC 1102 February 19, 2013 Why Has The Quality of Products Disappeared?

With the push for cheaper products, the skill's required for creating products is disappearing. Ellen Ruppel Shell looks at the "Death of A Craftsman" in her book Cheap. Using the furniture company IKEA as a model, she convincingly explains her claims on why being a craftsman in this century is a dying profession. Shell provides key information that supports her claims by traveling to the source and finding out first how the push for cheaper goods has created a new generation of craftsman. Let me look into how Shell approached her chapter, the "Death of A Craftsman." Shell begins the chapter, "Death of A Craftsman" by introducing the furniture company IKEA. She explains how IKEA's founder, Gillis Lundgren, revolutionized the way they packaged their products which he called "flat packing" (Shell 126). Reducing the packing material and compacting the product "not only saved money" for IKEA, it "unloaded the time-consuming and expensive chores of delivering and assembling furniture" onto the customer (126). After introducing how IKEA began revolutionizing the way they packed their products, Shell then travels to IKEA's headquarters in Helsingborg, Sweden, to give us insight on how the craftsmanship is disappearing. She was given a tour of the facility by IKEA's spokeswoman Charlotte Lindegren. Lindegren explained that IKEA continues to "find more cost-efficient solutions" to build their products (132). Craftsmanship requires takes time and cannot be crafted at low prices.

Kotyk 2 After looking into the way IKEA produces their products, Shell informs us that "the deskilling of labor is as critical to IKEA's business model as it is for every discount model: Centralized capital, not craftsmanship, is where power lies" (139). Shell concludes her chapter by looking into how mass manufacturing has caused the death of a craftsman. Looking into Shell's chapter the "Death of A Craftsman" with a critical lens, we can see her reasons for her claims. Shell's audience in this chapter is the American consumer. She wants everyone that consumes cheap products to understand that by choosing cheap products over products that took skill, will cause the skilled jobs to disappear. "Craftsmanship takes time, and time is the enemy of the discounter" (140). Companies are not wanting to wait for a product to be made, so they eliminate the craftsman and turn to mass production using unskilled workers. Shell being the rhetor wants convey her claims that cheap products are causing craftsmanship to disappear using IKEA as an example (128). This claim is made throughout the chapter as Shell provides creditable information that proves her argument. Shell makes rational appeals since she interviews people that are involved with the production of goods. Also, her use of inductive reasoning by making her claims from specific information supports her feelings that cheap products are causing the death of a craftsman. Using a critical lens to helps us better understand the chapter we are able to better understand Shells claims. Shell purpose for writing the "Death of A Craftsman" is to make an argument that with today's push for cheaper goods, the skill's required to create these goods has disappeared. Companies are making their "designs to price" (128). This means that companies are making their products for what they are worth. If a product like a cup is

Kotyk 3 inexpensive to make, then there is not much skill required to make it. Thus the product is sold in the market for a cheap price (128). She wants to inform us that the "designers work directly with suppliers to ensure that whatever object they dream up can be built for less money than the customers have any right to expect" (135). Since products are being built for less money, companies don't want customers to know how cheap their goods actually are . Shell feels that we should know this because there is almost not skill going into making these goods. Shell wants us to understand that, with our push for goods to be "cheap" they will be produced in the same manner, "cheap." Cheap goods "may be clever, amusing, and eye catching, but if not executed without craftsmanship, it does not sustain to us" (147). Products may look nice from the outside but if no skill went into making them we usually don't take care of them. Shell explains her purpose explaining why cheaper goods has caused the death of a craftsman. A craftsman creates goods that will last and show quality, but with everyone pushing for cheaper goods, product's won't last and the quality disappears as well as the craftsman. Although Shell occasionally brings up her purpose, her methods of going to the source back up her claims that the craftsman is dying out. Shell traveled to IKEA's headquarters in Helsingborg, Sweden, to look into how the furniture giant creates its products. IKEA purchases its wood from "Eastern Europe and the Russian Far East, where wages are low" (129). Shell is saying that by not investing much money into the people who develop the good, they are less concerned in how well they make the product which takes away from the craftsman aspect. Shell interviewed William Levitt a construction company owner who explained to her how he made each job on the

Kotyk 4 construction site less skill. "He broke each job into pieces so small that it required very little skill" (145). The jobs became very simple which did not require a craftsman to do. This allowed for Levitt to hire more workers and pay them less money. Simplifying the way the workers built things caused them to "forget how to build carefully" (145). Levitt's methods of construction have caused his workers to put less care into the construction of their building. Going to the source, Shell is able to provide us information that backs up her purpose. She Workers "must work smarter and quicker, which is to say, cheaper" (141). It is hard to believe that by working smarter and quicker will produce quality goods. Throughout the chapter, Shell uses her persona convey her views towards craftsmanship. The beginning of the chapter starts with Shell presenting her claims that craftsmanship is a dying profession. She uses IKEA and their invention of "Flat packing" to introduce the idea of cheap (126). After looking into how IKEA incorporated cheaper packaging into their company, Shell toured IKEA and looked at how they are using cheaper goods to produce their final product. Anders Dahlvig, the CEO and president of IKEA informs Shell that the wood they use comes from China and Russia, which is milled by low-wage workers (130). Shell questions Dahlvig whether the wood is illegally harvested, but he claims it is not. She hints that it should be investigated but he vaguely responds to her concerns. This tell the readers that Shell is concerned with illegally logging wood. She further develops her persona when she learns that companies have learned to reduce the craftsmanship in their goods. Mass manufacturing has allowed cheap goods even cheaper. Shell explains to us that we don't necessarily worry about

Kotyk 5 cheap goods breaking because we expect them to (142). She wants us to understand her views that cheap products are not meant to last. Concluding her chapter, Shell presents a short story about her friend. Her friend had to choice to purchase a cheap shelf from IKEA or a well made shell from a flea market (148). Shell's friend chose the well made shelf which presents her persona that people would rather have well made products over cheap ones. By presenting the evidence in the order that she did, Shell was able to convey that cheap products are causing the death of a craftsman. Shell has written an interesting book that looks into the term "Cheap" and how it has influenced how we view cheap goods. She presents her claims that cheap goods are causing the "Death of A Craftsman." By looking into Shells purpose, methods, and persona, we are able to better understand her claims. Cheap goods are causing the skills of a craftsman to disappear, and our obsession with cheap products is causing that. Word Count:1,379

Kotyk 6 Works Cited Shell, Ellen Ruppel. Cheap. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.