Sincerely MGMT: Navigating the Digital Age

Author’s Note: Sincerely MGMT is a blog I started in 2020 to chronicle my journey as a General Manager in the restaurant industry and reflect as I worked to become a ‘Student of Leadership’ and build the skills necessary to become an inspirational leader. Shortly after starting the blog, I was laid off from the restaurant and have since become a technology department manager at my alma mater’s university bookstore. I still consider myself a ‘Student of Leadership’ and this new position has given me opportunities to learn more about the nature of products and the advancement of technology overall. As an alumni and a retail manager in the college campus environment, I want to share how I feel the digital age has changed the way we see the value of things and how it’s affected the way we shop. In this article I make reference to Karl Marx, a 19th-century philosopher, economist, and political theorist, who analyzed the dynamics of capitalism and the labor market in his works, particularly in “Das Kapital.” This analysis provides insights into how he predicted certain outcomes in modern labor markets and his perspective on the role of commodities in relation to attributed value and the cost of production, which I believe are timely and relevant to today’s discussions around economic systems and concepts related to value, labor, and consumer perception…

When I was a student at Kent State University, our campus bookstore meant a lot to us. We’d pick out textbooks, get advice from helpful staff, and feel like we were holding keys to knowledge. I would spend much of my time in-between classes, walking the aisles and searching for new books to read. Back then, textbooks weren’t just books or digital access codes; they were doors to understanding the world. We also had more local options, and that competition made finding your textbooks a learning opportunity for understanding the free market economy.

Now, things have changed. Online shopping, especially through large multi-national platforms like Amazon, is incredibly easy and illusory. As consumers, we’ve become accustomed to the convenience and immediacy of online shopping. With just a few clicks, we can have products delivered to our doorstep, often at prices that seem to defy the laws of economics. But it’s not always clear what things really cost.

Marx’s labor theory of value posits that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor time embodied in it. In Marx’s theory, commodities are goods produced for exchange in the market. Each commodity has two aspects: use-value and exchange-value. Use-value refers to the inherent utility of a commodity, while exchange-value is its value in terms of other commodities in the market. While his predictions have been subject to years of debate and revision, his insights into exploitation, alienation, and the relationships between commodities, labor, and capital remain relevant in understanding the complexities of modern labor markets and the global economy.

Behind every book on our shelves, whether physical or digital, is a lot of work. There are writers and publishers, of course. But there are also those that work in printing and production, shipping and distribution, marketing, and promotion and especially our own bookstore staff who make it all happen. But the students don’t see or care about all of that. What they see is just the textbook as an end-product on the shelf. Under capitalism, Marx argued that people’s labor becomes alienated from them as it is commodified and treated as a marketable entity. This leads to a sense of alienation from the products of their labor.

But this hyper-alienation from the production of goods and commodities is not just limited to books, I see it with school supplies, KSU licensed spirit gear and clothing, and especially in my own department, technology. Every day I get a first-hand account of the perils of the Ivory Tower. Students walk through our store, touching every item that captures their attention, unfolding sweatshirts just to set them back down, picking up products and placing them elsewhere once they’ve decided they don’t want them anymore; without a care for the combined amount of effort, labor, and expertise that went into getting that finished product there in the first place. They’ll just complain about the price and state “I can find it cheaper on Amazon.”

But we don’t always see the people working behind the scenes for huge online stores either. There are hundreds of people in warehouses, delivery drivers, and support staff whose combined energy and efforts help keep the system running. But as consumers, we might not know much about their jobs or how they’re treated. It’s easy for students to post hashtags calling for fair wages for Amazon employees or attempting to show solidarity for the plight of the workers, but when it comes to buying power, the challenge to consider up-front prices with their perceived exchange or use-value is unmatched. 

We live in a world where commodities that are massed produced, often just to fill a market demand, are more accessible than ever before. But the processes to produce and distribute those commodities are more costly than ever before. Regulations have been established over the years to ensure that commodities are made with more sustainable and fair-trade practices, and that’s a great thing. But consumers are largely unaware or unconcerned with how those practices have altered the costs of goods and disrupted global supply chains. With growing awareness of these issues, philosophers, economists, and politicians are examining the true costs of production in terms of their ecological impact. This includes discussions about the hidden environmental costs of consumer goods and the ethics of sustainable production and consumption.

The study of global supply chains has led to discussions about the exploitation of labor and how consumers in one part of the world may unknowingly benefit from low-cost labor elsewhere. A great example of this is the recent wave of large corporations moving their manufacturing facilities from China, which has historically been known for its dominance of exporting goods due to lower labor costs, to countries like India and Vietnam, where the costs of doing business and incentives for foreign investments have become very competitive. There are many other factors contributing to this shift such as the COVID-19 lockdowns, generational gaps in China’s workforce, and political unrest in China, but it’s also due to the increasing demand of American consumers who have fully embraced online shopping and now expect to have anything delivered, whenever they want it.

So, in this digital age, we need to think about the bigger picture when we shop. We can shape how things work in the future. It’s a chance to think and see beyond just what’s easy and cheap. As a retail department manager, I believe my job is more than selling products. It’s about helping customers understand how things are changing and making sure our store stays a place where knowledge is valued and the people behind it are respected.

I’m glad our physical bookstore is still here. It’s a place where learning is celebrated, and we recognize the hard work that goes into making it happen. The digital age is different, but learning and knowledge are still important. And that’s something we should always remember.

Thanks for reading! Sincerely, MGMT