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 THE PINK COTTON BLOUSE by Barbara J. Olexer A pink cotton blouse hangs in a lady’s closet. It is a simple little blouse, sleeveless, with buttons down the front and narrow laceedging on the collar. She paid $19.99 for it. How did the blouse getthere? What are the processes by which it materialized in her closet?
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The lady bought the blouse from a sales associate in adepartment store in the mall.The store owners pay rent, lighting, advertising, insurance of many kinds, security, and taxes. They pay staff in accounting,sales, purchasing, and maintenance. The staff uses displayracks, chairs, desks, and other furniture.The landlord, electric company, advertising company,insurance broker, insurance company, governments, outsideaccounting firm, stationer, security firm, and every other  person or firm who does business with the store have similar expenses.
 
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A seamstress constructed the blouse. Another worker cut thefabric into pieces – fronts, back, and facings. Another personcut the lace into lengths. Another person brought the thread, buttons, etc. to the workroom.These people do their work in a factory building, which isheated, lighted, cleaned, repaired, plumbed, insured, secured,and taxed. The staff uses benches, chairs, desks, tables, handtools, and machines of various kinds. The seamstress and other workers are supported by other departments: executive,accounting, design, buying, supply, sales, shipping, andmaintenance.
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A lacemaker manufactured the polyester lace. Polyester ismade from oil. The oil is pumped from the earth, trucked,stored, trucked again, and processed into polyester thread. Thelace manufacturer, the oil company and refiner, the truckingcompanies, and the thread manufacturer all have similar expenses to those of the store and clothing manufacturer.
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The buttons are made of oyster shell, which is a by-product of the oyster-fishing industry. The oyster fisher must use a boatwith all its accoutrements and equipment to harvest the oysters.He sells the oysters to a cannery. The cannery shucks theoysters and sells the shells to the button manufacturer, whotrucks the shells to a factory, turns them into buttons, andtrucks them to the clothing manufacturer. The fisher, thecannery, and the button manufacturer all have expenses similar to the other companies.
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A weaver made the fabric to specifications of the fabricdesigner, using thread from the ginning, spinning, and dyeingdepartments. These people also require a factory building andsupport from various departments, similar to all the other companies.
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The fabric mill acquired the cotton from a brokerage firmwhich requires buildings for offices and storage. The broker has expenses similar to all the other companies.
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