Garbage Can Sociology

I stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond after work on Thursday.  We are having a house-warming party this weekend so the trip to BB&B was intended to help exorcise my demons of social anxiety.  Paxil may be more effective but Yankee Candles are more fun.


While I was there I saw it.  The object of an earlier round of gossip with an old friend.  We were "peeling onions" over a mutual friend and his wife who collectively have not got the good sense a dog was born with.  Case in point:  friend and his wife had purchased a $120.00 garbage can.  I hardly have any jewelry that cost that much.  And this was purchased by a couple who are on the financial ropes.


Yes, it was really there.  Actually it was $129.00 at the store I was in.  A kitchen garbage can with a 5 year warranty.  When your garbage is that safe and secure is it easier to sleep at night.  Okay, it was an extraordinarily well constructed garbage can and I think it has possibilities:  I can't decide if I want to be buried in one, or attempt a lunar landing in it.  It's exciting to imagine the potential of this object.


Now I can't look at my lowly plastic garbage can with anything but a jaundiced-eye.  My garbage can has become a social statement telling me with every scrap and peel I deposit there that I have just not made it in life.  It is sad to have one's social conscience brought low by such a lowly thing.  I think there is material for (another pointless) sociological study here:  document the correlation between the type of kitchen garbage can a person buys against their social/financial condition.  I bet you'd find that the people with the $129 garbage cans are just as broke and $clue-less$ as my friend and his wife.