ES&E November 1999; Editorial Comment

Please don’t save me any more money

“I can’t afford it,” said Otto Preminger

Editorial Comment by Tom Davey

The United States of America has an astonishing diversity of mountains,lakes, rivers and deserts. In a single day, one can drive through the snowboundnorthern states to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Another day’s drivereveals lush palm trees and vivid blue ocean at the beaches of the Carolinas,Georgia or Florida. Diversity par excellence.

But now a deadening sameness is creeping throughout US interstate highwaysas signage proclaims a soulless chant of low, low prices ­ Sale, sale,sale ­ Save, save, save. Factory outlets, sprouting up likerectangular weeds at intersections, take up the pallid visual assaultproclaiminglow prices and sales, like some fiscal tribal rites. Under thestars, as the intersections flash by, it seems like some giant relay race istaking place with a celestial baton of mediocrity passed on from town to town. Indeed, an alien Mr. Spock, sighting these flashing signs across North America,might logically presume they were the scriptures of a widespread religious sect.

The emphasis on saving money is so great that copywriters frequently forgetto name the manufacturer of the product. Burgers 99 cents, screams onesign while a few miles down the road, another sign screeches triumphantly: 89cent burgers. But even in the land of Thomas Jefferson, not all burgers are createdequal. What about cleanliness, hygiene, and service? Long orphaned from thesefrenzied sales pitches are the words: quality, durability and reputation, once the trinity of commerce.

There was a time when the very first adjective on new storefronts wasquality, usually positioned right after the owner’s name. As a boy,wandering around the main street of my hometown in England, I recall seeing theword quality preceding a wide range of goods and services. Whether thestores were selling meat, fish, game, poultry, footwear, hardware or clothing,invariably, the vendors stressed the quality in products.

But in our frenzy to save at any cost, two words ­ quality and value ­have been devalued by a marketing ethos which deems that saving money is a muchmore attractive option to consumers than the actual value of goods or services.

On a recent trip through the US, I read Robin Cook’s bookToxin. Dr. Cook, author of Coma and other novels, is an MD whomixes scientific reality with his fiction. Toxin is a fictitious story of how meat can cause death or seriousillness if contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and not cooked thoroughly. Properly butchered, aged and inspected meat is quite safe and I still enjoyburgers in restaurants with a reputation for quality and hygiene. But Toxinposited a horrifying scenario in which carcasses are processed in dubiouspacking plants while government inspectors looked the other way. After readingthis book, I wondered if the focus on low prices had even detracted buyers fromthe realities of quality .

It is ironic that we must go from literature to Tinseltown to get someeconomic common sense. While Hollywood is synonymous with lavish film sets andastronomical salaries, there is one quote which should be inlaid in theentrances to council chambers: “Don’t economise any more,” pleadedOtto Preminger, “I can’t afford it!” The famous director made hisplea after being highly dissatisfied with the second-rate results ofcost-cutting during filmmaking. Who would have thought that economic wisdomcould emerge from Hollywood?

The environmental industry has been beset with the twin problems ofprotecting public health while catering to the low bid ethos. For consultants,manufacturers and laboratories, price has too often been the deciding factor. Yet the life cycle benefits of superior pumps, valves, and piping can last halfa century, often more. Both in economics and treatment effectiveness, welldesigned environmental facilities can yield real savings for years. Amortizeany savings from inferior engineering over a decade and savings, if any, arelikely to be miniscule. Specify equipment onquality and you could get reliability as well as significant savings. Add innovative engineering and you could be saving millions.

It must be recorded that environmental professionals have usually beenexemplary in protecting the public health. Wherever well engineered treatmentfacilities and infrastructure are in place, both death and disease rates arelow. Where such skills and infrastructure are absent, the results are tragic,the death rates often surpassing the casualties of war. But back to economics. No wonder they call it the dismal science.

Assessing value

Analytical laboratories, some of which can find toxins at parts perquadrillion, are especially vulnerable to the low bid ethos. Their space agetechnology must be matched with stringent chains of custody and elaboratequality control systems. Over the last decade, many laboratories were startedup in response to growing awareness of toxic real estate, biological impacts,and industrial effluents. Some labs were set up with the splendid premise ofproviding quality data that would be legally defensible.

Huge investments were made in anticipation of a genuine need for qualityenvironmental data. However, some superbly staffed and equipped labs wererepeatedly undercut by poorly equipped labs, with the contracts often going tothe lowest bidder, rather than the best qualified. The result has been atriumph of price over quality.

Environmental labs and consulting engineers might tell clients to go totheir video store to see a list of Otto Preminger’s movies. None will betitled:The Low Bid Ethos. The basic script oflow bidding does, however, contain all the ingredients for both tragedyand comedy.

Many of Tom Davey’s editorials were compiled into a book, For Whom ThePolls Tell. Readers who purchase a one-year subscription of EnvironmentalScience & Engineering for $46.15 (includes GST) or $45 US, can get a freecopy of this book. Two-year subscriptions are: $74.90 Cdn. or $70 US. Weregret we can only accept orders from Canada and the United States.