A myth-shattering investigation of the true cost of America's passion for finding a better bargain
From the shuttered factories of the Rust Belt to the strip malls of the Sun Belt-and almost everywhere in between-America
has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little- examined obsession with
bargains is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time, having fueled an excess of consumerism
that blights our landscapes, escalates personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews of our
concept of time.
Spotlighting the peculiar forces that drove Americans away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and towards
quantity, quantity, and more quantity, Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the rise of the bargain through our current big-box
profusion to expose the astronomically high cost of cheap.