Consumer - IZATION

I get my daily fix of happenings in the world from the BBC News website, the following picture on there series Day in pictures reminded me of my childhood and got me thinking how things are changing everyday and small businesses are disappearing.

Sevian (Vermicelli) being dried in the sun

I remember as a child I used to help my grand mother make fresh sevian, which were then dried out and used to make a traditional pudding specially during the festive season. My grand mother had a hand cranking machine which used to be fixed on a table and she used to run dough through it, and my job used to be to put the soft fresh strands out to dry on the roof top.

It was a simple process but as a child I knew what was going into making some of the food I was eating and how it is made. My grand mother used to be more concerned about the quality of the product and her eye would watch the dough and the drying strands and she just knew from experience when it was ready for the next step.

Food made and touched by hand rather than a machine

Slowly as I was growing up and my grand mother was getting old I saw the transformation from making at home to buying from a local neighbourhood store. Local stores were just around the corner and they typically sold some national brands but a majority of there merchandise was product sourced from local manufacturers who had an expertise on one product. With the advent of television commercials with great pictures and messages started appearing and you slowly forgot about the local brands and wanted the ones you saw on television.

Fresh sevian being sold by a traditional shop

These days no one has the time or patience to try on anything like this at home, and the simple argument against it is how long it is going to take to do it when it is readily available at a store shelf. My eye now knows what is the color of the package of my favourite brand and where I can find it.

Most consumers get there sevian in a package now

Without even realising the transformation in our daily life, my household is now a consumer of a product with a neat package and a bar code from being a manufacturer of the same products a few decades ago.