THE NEWSPAPER by Alexandra Masters

CHAPTERS Te l l i n g G l o b a l S t o r i e s

CHAPTERS: No.1 01.01.2015

DALSTON KINGSLAND by Alexandra Masters

CHAPTERS: No.1 01.01.2015

Editor | Alexandra Masters Art Direction & Design | Alexandra Masters Printed in | London, UK. Contributors | Gabby Harris, Poppy Millet, Lottie Webb, Jack Woodcraft and James Woodhouse Published by | Alexandra Masters Copyright ÂŠ 2014. Alexandra Masters All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Every possible effort has been made to locate and credit copyright holders of the material reproduced in this publication. The publishers apologise for any omissions or errors, which can be corrrected in future editions.

C O N T E N T S -------------------------------------------------------------------------------PAGE 06: FORWARD

PAGE 08: £1

PAGE 10: SHOULD FOOD COST MORE?

PAGE 14: LIDL CARPARK IS FILLED WITH VOLVOS, AND ITS GOOD

PAGE 16: POUNDLAND PATTERN

PAGE 19: ONE POUND

PAGE 21: COME HITHER AND GIVE ME YOUR MONEY

PAGE 23: UNDERLYING ISSUES

PAGE 25: THE PATRON SAINT OF FRUGALITY

PAGE 27: POUNDLAND NATION

PAGE 28: SHOPPING

PAGE 30: DECUS ET TUTAMEN

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Editorial

THE FIRST CHAPTER Alexandra Masters

The below extract rambles the first thoughts when the project was at its most embryonic stages, but offers an initial overview of what Chapters stands for:

I want to mock-up a paper that entices a more youthful readership with a strong focus on images and design. A more beautiful news. Not that the information will be dumbed down or more trivial in tone, I just think that the amount of young people that base their knowledge of the world on the Daily Mail’s insidious and bigoted site is concerning. Particularly with Instagram’s new 15 second news feature, more questions are being posed about how we consume news. These are not poisonous as additions, but if they are the sole platform of understanding the world, they are dangerous. On Radio Four’s Today Programme the other day Helen Lewis said it’s a bit like sugar and ‘a bit of sugar on top of your porridge is lovely, but if you only eat sugar, that’s very bad for you’. We all seem to know a little about a lot – we only consume the sugar.

The catalyst for this project is that I have been eternally shocked by young peoples lack of knowledge, including myself. In a General Studies exam at college, when asked about ‘The role of the monarchy in a democratic society’, numerous people thought the monarchy was a statue. What does this say? To me, it says that the news is not as attractive as it could be. Pages of the black and the white are no longer enough in a world full of distractions. I suppose, to be hyperbolic, the news is failing society if future generations are only being encouraged to take interest in the superficial…reality stars private lives, celebrities walking a dog, or putting on a few pounds…etcetera, etcetera. However, that is not to say that more serious, disaster news should be the sole focus either, as constant catastrophe is equally damaging for a societies mental stability. There was recently an article in New Statesman titled ‘Why newspapers have failed us’ that stated ‘for all the cacophony of information that surrounds us, no medium now reliably performs the service of the early modern pamphlet, giving us a narrative news with a beginning, a middle and an end’, or in the words of philosopher Alain de Botton ‘news as it exists is woefully short on the

work of co-ordination, distillation and curation’. I may pick a paper of a given day and re-create and ‘curate’ it.

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matured into a service of news storytelling that puts quality before immediacy.

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The story of Chapters began with strong personal views, which have

Botton continued to say that the news needs to focus on art – ‘Art makes big and important ideas more powerful’. I suppose if you look at the church, their stained glass windows, fine art and painted ceilings were not just decoration, but persuasion. We are in a (seemingly) threatening and fast-paced digital age. My perspective is – we have cameras, but we’re still painting. Though it is a key consideration for the future people take the easy opinion that digital will replace everything.

This launch issue of Chapters aims to tell news stories in more interesting and engaging ways. The story this first issue focuses on is the domination of Poundland, which has and will prompt shifts in Britain’s high streets that will change their look and feel ostensibly. Not only that, but it will also alter the psychology of society, the state of the economy and ethical trade. As our consumer behaviour changes, what does this mean? Zadie Smith’s observations of such a society are ever resonant: ‘On the way back from the chain supermarket where they shop, though it closed down the local grocer and pays slave wages, with new bags though they should take old bags, leaving with broccoli from Kenya and tomatoes from Chile and unfair coffee and sugary crap and the wrong newspaper.’ THIS IS CHAPTER ONE.

CHAPTERS: No.1 01.01.2015

£1

TOBLERONE (170G) KINDER HAPPY HOPP COCOA (5 PACK) QUAVERS (5 PACKS) PORK SCRATCHINGS (2 70G BAGS) BRAZIL NUTS (150G) FRUIT LOLLIPOPS (250G) SEMI-SKIMMED MILK ( 2 LITRES) WARBURTONS MEDIUM SLICED WHITE (600G) EGGS (10 PACK OF BATTERY) KETCHUP (342G) TURKEY BREAST SLICES (100G) QUAKER PORRIDGE OATS (500G) SMASH INSTANT MASH POTATO (280G) CURRY SUPER NOODLES (2 PACKS) DURAM FUSILLI PASTA (1KG) REGGAE REGGAE JERK BBQ SAUCE (310 G) SUN PAT SMOOTH PEANUT BUTTER (227G) TYPHOO ROUND TEA BAGS (100) COFFEE MATE (180 G) TUNNOCKS TECAKES (6) MCVITIE’S DIGESTICE (500G) FOX’S MINI PARTY RINGS (6 25G PACKS) HEINZ BEANZ IN TOMATO SAUCE (160 G) WIKINGER HOT DOGS 300G (6 JARRED) GOBLIN CHICKEN IN A WHITE SAUCE (390G CANNED FRUCTIS 2-IN-1 SHAMPOO (250 ML) DIAMANTE OCCASION PINS (6) FAUX HAIR DONUT MASTPLAST WATERPROOF PLASTERS (100) ASPIRIN (75MG) DISH DIVA WASH UP BRUSH FAIRY LEMON WASHING UP LIQUID (500ML) DAZ (5 WASHES) MR MUSCLE TOILET ORIGINAL (750 ML) BRILLO SOAP PADS (10) MR SHEEN LAVENDER AND CAMOMILE (300ML) STARWASH HOUSEHOLD GLOVES (2) MOP BUSKET AND WRINGER (10 LITRE) GLADE SOLID LILY OF THE VALLEY SILK SOFT WHITE TOILET ROLL (6 PACK) VALUE REFUSE SACK (40) PRO CHEF POTATO MASHER DELUXE CAN OPENER TEA TOWEL 1 PRINT AND WAFFLE DESIGN 2 PACK NON-STICK ROASTING TIN 20CM BY 30 CM ALUNIMIUM FOIL (10 METRES) QUICKACHIPS COOKING MESH WOODEN ROLLING PIN MICROWAVE CONTAINERS (8)

GOOD DEAL by Poppy Millet

£1

FOIL PLATTERS (3) DISNEY CHARACTER LUNCH BOX POPPY DINNER PLATE (10.5 INCH) POPPY CONICAL MUG (10 OZ) SKITTLES SCENTED CANDLE STRAWBERRY PLASTIC CLIPPY BOX SUIT BAG FASHIONABLE STORAGE BOX PREMIUM QUALITY HAND TOWEL ONE DIRECTION POSTER ARTIFICIAL PEONY CREAM VEGETABLE SEED STARTER KIT ROSE BUSH (5 ASSORTED) BARBECUE COVER CAR BOOT LINER WITH HANDLES PRUNING SHEAR BAMBOO CANE (10 PACK) GARDENING FLEECE BLANKET MULTIPURPOSE COMPOST (15 LITRE) SLUG TRAP MEERKAT SOLAR LIGHT MEERKAT WELCOME ORNAMENT PARTY FOOD COOKERY BOOK BABY ANIMAL STORY BOOKS CAMILLA’S CARDIO DANCE WORKOUT DVD PRODRIVER LEATHER CHAMOIS SAFETY GLASSES 151 FIX AND GROUT TUB (500G) NON-WOVEN WORK SUIT CAMPING TORCH TRAVEL WASHING LINE BAKERS TREATS MINI STEAKS FOR DOGS (150G) INITIAL KEYRING LADIES LEOPARD DESIGN HAT WITH BOW GIRLS PONCHO TRAVEL SEWING KIT DIAMANTE HORSE CLIPPERS CRAFT ASSORTED POM POM KIT DIAMOND STICKERS (240) 14 HARD BACK NOTEBOOK PARTY BAG FILLERS MIX ‘N MATCH (3) WEDDING CENTRE PIECE GIRLS NIGHT OUT NECKLACE 2 PACK GIRL NIGHT OUT FEATHER BOA LONG EXTENSION HAIR GLITTER COWBOY HAT PARTY DOILIES (60 PACK) DISPOSABLE THERMO PLATES (20) WINNIE THE POOH EASY SIPPER

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SHOULD FOOD COST MORE? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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On the 6th of May 2014 Radio Four’s Tom Heap asked the question ‘where will food come from in the decades ahead?’ The world population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050, which apparently means we have to think radically in order to feed the extra 2.5 billion mouths.

Poundland and budget stores are making millions out of £1 foods, but when looking at the macro patterns of the food industry as a whole, questions are posed regarding food waste, resources, GM crops, biotechnology, nutrients and the idea of empty shelves in the future. Though food prices are rising, hence Poundland’s ever-apparent domination, the most important topic is whether we should value our food for more than just the price tag. The rush to Poundland would suggest that increasingly the value put on well-sourced food and foods high in nutrients is being forgotten. Moreover, does Poundland do a great thing in reducing waste by flogging discounted foods, or in its abundance, and by putting such low value on foods, does it mean that a Poundland society will therefore place lower value on foods?

Looking aside of genetic modification and lab-grown protein to what we have now, the latter may be the biggest concern. The amount of food that we waste can be up to a third of what we buy, meaning that the idea that we need more food to feed the 2.5 billion mouths is a myth and that we simply need to improve attitudes to food. Today, we have the greatest surpluses that we have ever had, and though the waxed-apple trend of throwing away any imperfect fruit has disappeared, there are still more that are going to waste. This does not mean the supermarkets need to be awash with fruit flies, but if the middle classes are flocking to discount chains, perhaps we are opening our minds to apples that aren’t quite spherical. If food started to cost even more than it does, which though for ideologists heralding a biotechnological revolution may be good to therefore improve technologies, agriculture and innovations, we the public would be put in a bit of a pickle. There may be two things that need to happen: the value of food needs to go up and waste needs to go down.

There is a presumption here that budget supermarkets offer lower quality in order to justify such low prices, which is not always the case. However,

DALSTON KINGSLAND by Alexandra Masters

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Poundlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s canned sausages and curries are not claiming to be anything other than they are: cheap, lacking in nutrients and full of e numbers. The worry would be that if food prices do rise, then society will increasingly rely on canned sausage, therefore cultivating wider issues of health, food production, and again an unhealthy attitude towards food.

Should food cost more? Regarding price, with high living costs it may cause more problems, and in effect decrease the value of food as society flocks to budget supermarket for quavers. Regarding value of nutrients, good food should have high-perceived value in society. This is where the responsibility lies with budget supermarket where instead of piling crisps and chocolates in bargain bins and lining the tills with sugary sweets, there should be a focus on affordable, well-sourced foods that are high in nutrient value. Society at large should take Poundland for what it is in buying dishcloths there, but to rely on cheap foods is damaging to everyone involved, and will add to a culture of unhealthy eating. The value of food is more than just the price tag.

Alexandra Masters

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DALSTON KINGSLAND by Alexandra Masters

CHAPTERS: No.1 01.01.2015

L I D L C A R PA R K I S F I L L E D W I T H V O LV O S , AND ITS GOOD

LIDL by Alexandra Masters

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I distinctly remember the first time I went into Poundland as a student. I was outraged by Tesco with its trolley dodgems, overpriced sliced pineapple and screaming mothers in the snack aisle. Poundland however, had everything you could ever want for a single pound: glitter cowboy hats, diamante occasion pins, plastic wine glasses, quavers, paracetamol and even a meerkat welcome ornament. Even now, away from a student budget, I have retained the same sense of glory as I walk out of Poundland with a bag of bargains. I understand that there must be a dark-side where products of low quality are being thrust before our poor shopping trolleys, however, when times are really tough, Poundland is a valuable presence on our high street. When the economic downturn took hold of Britain, Poundland, Peacocks and Greggs saved us. They saw the gap as middle classes walked out of Waitrose, unable to afford their fois gras. Ever since, the Lidl’s and Aldi’s are equally becoming stronger as the stigma disappears. In 2014 Tesco lost £4 billion in sales whilst Aldi’s profit grew by 33.5% and Lidl saw a rise of 16.5%. Such budget stores have made a concerted effort to target the middle-market with brandy, fillet steaks and fresh produce. This has cause predictions for budget supermarkets to soar from the £9.5 billion today to £18.6 by 2017. Budget stores will continue to rise and stigmas will continue to disappear as long as wages remain low in comparison. Even wishfully thinking that the economy will even itself out so we are more secure, our habits will have changed so it may not even affect the budget market much at all. The thrill of a bargain is now engrained in our deep consumer souls, if we have them. There was a time when I would run into Lidl with a hood up, but now I proudly take my Lidl bags into Marks and Spencer and put in the self-service ‘using own bags’.

Alexandra Masters

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POUNDLAND PATTERN by Alexandra Masters

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PRICE STARS by Alexandra Masters

ONE POUND Says the street-seller, the smell of chicken sizzling; fried chicken, I shouldn’t, maybe I will. Dishcloth, that’s what I came for: two toothpastes for a pound: four loo rolls for a pound: Toblerone, I used to like that: a scrunchy, I need a scrunchy: a puzzle, I do love games: tinfoil: obligatory biscuits, six packs: energy drink, I need that for later: soup in a tube, four: plastic plates, five packs, that will save washing up: I saw a woman on Wife Swap do it: dishcloths, three for a pound; Done. Oh, batteries: yes, a notepad – maybe I will become a list-maker: a shower-cap, spaghetti hoops, that’s tea sorted: pink waffles for dessert: then hot chocolate: look at the little monkey key rings, four, one for every key. - That’s forty-five pounds please

Can’t afford chicken, but

WHAT VALUE! Alexandra Masters

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GOOD DEAL by Poppy Millet

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Now, I’m all for a good bargain, but I can’t help but be a little cynical of the imminent Poundland domination. How much money are we really saving? I wonder whether we are in fact just spending the same amount of our newly precious disposable income on loads of small, cheap things rather than one luxury item. Budget buying: easing guilt since 2008. It allows us to give ourselves a smug little pat on the back, under the sunny little illusion that we have saved our overdrafts and conquered the recession. A more likely story, and reality is that we are really all under the spell of yet another genius marketing ploy which craftily and subliminally says ‘come hither and give me your money’, turning us into a worse kind of consumer monster than we were before the crunch. We are now under the warped belief that we are becoming frugal! Poundland’s domination mimics the rise of other bargain stores such as Primark and TKMaxx which have already taken over the fashion market. Having risen above the snob factor, they are the strange consumer hotch potches where both yummy mummies and the socially underprivileged roam like rampant hungry shopping monsters. Darling little Cecilia now has a hair scrunchie to accompany each one of her more expensively sourced dresses and more ‘spare’ pyjama sets that would ever be necessary thanks to Primark. So, whatever your social status or bank balance, there is one thing we all agree on: Cheap is good. But I still struggle to believe we are really saving. This is not an economic study, but rather a multiply tried and tested analysis of my own shopping triumphs and disasters (often with direct correlation to my attempts to look ‘trendy). My bank statement where Primark always manages to sneak onto is the only economic evidence I need. I might buy one slightly overpriced ‘going out top’ for £30 from Topshop which may have felt like a pinch at the time. However, I have loved this top, worn it every time I have been out and managed to adapt into different outfits for at least a year – it is good, durable quality. Crazily, I can end up reluctantly handing over the same amount of money on a ‘quick pop to Primark’ which all I have to show is hair bobbles, a tee shirt in every colour (long and short sleeved) and a pack of sickeningly sweet Coca-Cola flavoured lip balms. All I needed was a new pair

of tights! But once I’m at the till it’s too awkward to turn around so I make the purchase – they’re essentials, right? The hair bobbles snap after one use, tights rip on the second and the t-shirts cling in all the wrong places, so that I find them, shoved to the back of the wardrobe with the tags still on a year later on my annual clothing cleanse. Perhaps other shoppers are savvier than myself, but I can’t help but think that the success of businesses like Poundland in the recession doesn’t reflect a genuine shift in spending habits, rather a transferral of the more snobbish greediness of pre 2008. Our desire for more ‘stuff ’ instead of being filled with one or two mid-priced pieces is filled with the deception that we are grabbing a load of bargains and therefore spending less. That’s not to mention their down-right craftiness! Sure, I can get Shampoo that would usually be £3 for £1. But suddenly when you are buying a pack of milk buttons, a pound seems like a lot of money! Don’t worry folks, I’m pretty sure they make up for their seemingly low profit margins. The company’s floatation for sure indicates an incredible growth in bargain shopping, but oughtn’t we really tackle the crazed consumer mind-set? For that, I have no easy solutions, but it would surely be a more sustainable solution to the economic hardships of the crash. Poundland seems merely to be the next corporate giant to dominate our high street. I’m sure many will argue against me to say that spend spend spend is the solution which boosts the economy. Does this really fix the problem? Or are we sticking a plaster over a far deeper wound?

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C H G Y

True story: I have left a Poundland shop from which I intended to buy Shampoo with 5 bags of multipack crisps and chocolate, a couple of towels and a sheet, ‘in case I need it for fancy dress (!??) Consuming all the chocolate I had justified to myself would ‘stock up’ my cupboards for the next three months in sorry sitting, I am left fatter and as poor as I might have been had I gone to Boots or Superdrug. Now none of my clothes fit and I can’t afford (or fit into) that dress I really wanted from Topshop. The cycle continues - better pop to Primark!

Lottie Webb

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POUNDLAND STREET by James Woodhouse

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Articles announcing the increasing consumerism in shops such a Poundland present an admiration for these businesses who are thriving under the current economy and business owners seem to be congratulating themselves on accumulating middle class shoppers. But it seems to me as though they are somewhat missing the point; yes it is good that we continue to have some businesses bringing in profit, yes it is good that the expansion of these stores will undoubtedly create numerous job opportunities and most likely in more deprived areas but why are we overlooking the fact that this increased consumption in cheaper stores signal more underlying issues of poverty? The move of some consumers from Tesco and Morrisons are shown to be because people are having to tighten their disposable income in line with wages not rising with inflation (look at the current strikes happening in universities) and our current economic instability yet surely this shows a more structural problem in which large companies and government authorities (for example continuing expenses scandals) have financial security and money to spare, whilst hardworking individuals and families are experiencing increased levels of poverty. I would advise journalists to start addressing these problems and using their articles to challenge those in power to create fairer living wages to bring about more equal pay scales so that one can shop at a store because they choose too, not because they have to. Gabby Harris

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLASTIC by Alexandra Masters

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T H E P A T R O N S A I N T O F F R U G A L I T Y

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‘Everything’s £1’ is a strong business strategy, for there is no scrambling around for pennies at the cash-desk, there is no need to ask ‘how much is this?’ and there are no money worries – it’s only a pound. Or so one would think.

Poundland is growing, having made £23 million pounds in 2013 and with plans to double its stores around the UK; Poundland domination is just around the corner. Through manipulative psychology we are all increasingly drawn to a receipt with a round number, and the notion of ‘good value’. When walking through London’s Dalston Kingland the streets are diverse, yet every other store has the sales ploy of the pound shop, or even the 98p store- worth saving 2 pence. That said, if you go into any one of them, the ploy is apparent as there are loo seats for ten pounds and baskets for four, and garden gnomes for five. The items are piled on top of one another – a mountain of pound + delights. Where once Starbucks was the demon of the traditional high-street, today we have the 98p shop, the pound shop, the pound + shop and the robber baron of them all – Poundland.

Poundland may stay true to its ploy, but any person that goes into Poundland and only spends a single pound has the self-restraint of the Patron Saint of Frugality. The concept of such budget stores should be the saviour of a financially struggling society, but it could be argued that they are anything but. A Poundland society may end up a society that looks over their accounts on a Saturday afternoon, astounded at the figures having thought their choice to go to a budget store and buy 50 items for £1, rather than 10 items for £25 was a good one. We are all trying but still struggling, though I don’t blame a society of consumers, I blame a false economy that is seducing the middle classes to budget stores. Chicken goujons have become chicken-mulch nuggets, fairtrade coffee has become un-fair coffee, strawberries have become strawberry laces and the newspaper has been replaced by ‘Take a break’ magazine. I do not advocate snobberies or expect society to sit down to haute cuisine every night, but quality and ethics seems to have been replaced by the thrill of a bargain and a culture of hoarders. I would personally rather a single chicken goujon from a sustainably sourced and happy chicken, then eat fifty breaded bits of animal mulch. I can also listen to Jamie Oliver and think that though he’s right, maybe he isn’t acknowledging how little many of us are living off and that coriander is not an essential. But I think fundamentally creating a land of pounds is and will produce greed and a lack of empathy for the world we live in.

Upon expressing such thoughts it was once said to me ‘What do you expect?’ The figures prove that we are a nation of Daily Mail and Sun readers, therefore this notion of quality is perhaps not universal and maybe even self indulgent. There are some great deals to be had – glitter cowboy hat for a pound is indisputably great value, but to form a society that behaves like Poundland sells cannot be healthy. Alexandra Masters

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POUNDLAND NATION by James Woodhouse

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DALSTON KINGSLAND by Alexandra Masters

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AN ORNAMENT AND A SAFEGUARD by Jack Woodcraft

CHAPTERS: No.1 01.01.2015