New Zealand and the US share many traits in common as far as general amenities go. There is a lot of overlap between the music, food, and media. However, they have different attitudes toward many things. The most notable difference to me was their attitude toward consumption and waste. New Zealand does not have the same volume of mega-consumerist franchises. For example, there is no Target, Walmart, or Costco which provides everything a person could or couldn’t need in one place. Rather, they had stores for different items across the city. Instead of going to Target which has tech, grocery, cleaning, and beauty items, a person would have to go to five individual stores to get the same effect. Also, there are more sustainable waste removal options. New Zealand makes it easy to recycle plastic, glass, metals, and paper. They also use far less plastic packaging and favor paper packaging. Lastly, they make the donation of old books, textiles, and household items very accessible and highly encouraged. There are many of great secondhand stores (referred to as op shops).
It was very hard to adjust to this, at first. I was used to finding fully realized makeup sections in my grocery store but that was not the case in New Zealand. I found this made it easier to not over consume. I’m sure many of us have had the experience of going to Target for 5 things and leaving with 10. It’s a lot harder to do this when only the things you want are in your vicinity. It was a little bit tiring having to go to one place for groceries and having to walk into the heart of the city for technology or clothing stores. But it definitely saved me money and really made me think about what I was going to buy with more discernment. It also made me think about waste in America and how recycling is less accessible and more discriminating about what you can even recycle. New Zealand seems to have almost done away with single-use plastic. The little that they do have is most often recycled since every public and private bin has a compartment for recycling, glass disposal, and rubbish. It is also far less polluted as the country mainly uses sustainable packaging. This form of recycling was very easy and it was actually very nice to know that my waste would not be harming the flora and fauna of the country.
Many Americans would find this to be a bit of a nuisance, just as it lacks the same convenience of having a one-stop shop for our consumer needs. However, I think the country could benefit from a more intimate and less maximal take on shopping. If you had to walk 2.1 miles between stores for different things, you’d be less likely to get sucked into the void of a candle or home decor aisle. It was nice to not over spend on different things. I did miss the convenience of a large franchise, at times. But it was nice being somewhere without a car and without the overwhelming level of consumerism. It forced me to not indulge in consumption of goods and gave me an opportunity to slow down. In the future, I may not be as apprehensive about traveling somewhere and not having the same access to amenities. America is a first-world, heavily capitalist country. I believe we could benefit from a little bit of detachment from materialism and think more conscientiously about how much we waste.