A man stands in a window display and adjusts the clothing on a mannequin. Reflected in the window, we see Buchanan Street, a pedestrian thoroughfare and one of the main shopping districts of Glasgow. Apart from a couple shops that sell tartan scarves and Scottish kitsch to the tourists, most of the shops here are what you find anywhere: Apple, Starbucks, Nespresso, Prada, Hermès, Omega, The North Face, Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret, GapKids. Living as we do in a global marketplace, the idea of shopping on holidays seems silly. The supply chains that bring us these products have probably circled the globe several times already, then we purchase them and fly them another 5,000 km to bring them home with us. They hang in our closets. We wear them twice. Then, when we decide they make us look fat, we run them out to Value Village.
