Second Idea for Thesis

I touched on it in the first idea, about how small, local stores are better for the local economy and cut down on transportation impacts of items. I started reading about Walmart and how they destroy small-town business and economy and appeal with their massive 200,000 square feet buildings. They support sweatshop labor and very harsh working conditions for extremely underpaid employees mostly in China. I'm not going to go into all the details because there is a lot of information on the web about it, including this site, www.walmartwatch.com, and this article, a little outdated, but gets the basic idea out and includes a lot of statistics, http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A17618 . I don't want to seem like I'm solely discriminating against Walmart, because many big companies outsource their products to low-income nations and underpay their employees and have big impacts on local economys.

That is why I want to design a retail store that sells only products made in the US. With our economy being in the state that it is, we need to keep money in the country and support our nation instead of sending everything to China and elsewhere. Also I think people get more satisfaction from buying products made in the US. It is rare to find products now that don't say "Made in China" and that's part of the reason our economy is so bad right now because we've been outsourcing everything to other countries for so many years.

Both of these issues, the sustainable lifestyle, and revitalization of small businesses are huge and very real issues. I know this is the first day I've started working on thesis ideas, but it is helping me to get all my thoughts out right now and try to narrow it down the more I work on it. Though I still don't know what kind store I want to design for I do want to incorporate the sustainable aspect and the local business aspect into it. I'm not sure if this would be too much to tackle both of these issues, or if I should just stick with one. I think having a small store that sold sustainable products, whether it be clothes made from organically grown cotton, or compostable trash bags would still address the issue of the sustainable lifestyle and also the economic issue of supporting local businesses.

I'm pretty excited to start working on this project. It's something I'm passionate about and it's something I'm doing entirely on my own. I guess I should be spending more time doing sketches for an educational facility that I could care less about designing. We all designed a school in second year. I'm just having a hard time designing something I'm not passionate about. Maybe as we get farther into this project in the second half of the semester and I can find something to work on that I'm actually interested in.