Kari Ojala - The Engineers Cookbook

There is a good-natured battle of wits between the engineer and the grocer. The engineer would prefer to follow the so-called boomerang model, which is to pick up what he needs and hurry back home. The grocer entices him deeper into the shop and tries to stop or slow the engineer down so that he would be excited to buy more.

The engineer is an informed consumer. He votes with his feet, or really his wallet. A good product will bring him back for more, and good service will make him a regular customer. Overpriced is never ok, and he is never sold a defective product twice. Try deceiving him, and he will kick up a fuss.

Out shopping, the engineer represents the consumer economy. He believes that one of the roles of the customer is to advance the market system by helping retailers to improve product quality, and to get rid of bad and overpriced stock. Indeed, the engineer uses his buying power to indicate what is best value for the customer. He believes that buying can also be a form of teaching.

The engineer understands that a low price among a selection of similar goods is a sign of efficiency. The shop or brand that sells at the lowest price has also built the least factory halls and retail outlets, requires the least number of fuel-guzzling and exhaust-spurting truck deliveries, and ties up the least amount of labour which could be doing something else useful. According to him, a company charging higher prices is wasting money on something, which with a very high probability requires more resources and energy, and produces more pollution and waste.

The companies that sell at higher prices never run out of excuses. When there is more money, you can supposedly pay closer attention to the environment or provide your employees with better working conditions than would otherwise be necessary. Believe it who may, the engineer will not! Especially as he does not have the time to investigate whether such claims are actually true or not. At least in the developed world, environmental authorities and trade unions exist to ensure that companies meet their statutory requirements with regard to the above. The customer should not need to do more than compare the prices and quality of products.

When choosing what to buy, the engineer knows how to resist image marketing he does not fall for illusions. The facts speak for themselves. Bottled water from France will not do if you can get equally good water from your own tap for almost free. The engineer also takes time to get familiar with product information, if only he has the moment to spare. That is how he knows how to avoid the products whose low price is based on merely processing a basic good by adding water, salt, flour or some other worse-than-usual ingredient. The engineer avoids brand names and products bombarded into consumers minds through advertising, especially if there is something available that does the same job for less.

When browsing through the shop shelves, the engineer tries to understand where the products come from if for no other reason, then at least to add to his education. Out of principle, he always buys products that come from as close to home as possible. But he also pays special attention to products made in countries that take advantage of their cheap and abundant labour. He will gladly buy them in order to help developing economies move ahead, but he will never pay too much for something.

If a shop or other intermediaries appear to him to be robbing customers of their money unreasonably, the engineer will seek a specialist store selling direct imports or go get them cheaply himself from their country of origin. It of course does not pay to travel too far, but visiting the much-cheaper Estonia from Finland, for example, is a short journey. Personal gain is not the only incentive here: it is worth teaching the shop a lesson.

The engineer is in every way a just, principled being. He does not suffer fools gladly. If he feels that he has been maltreated, he complains. And if he believes he is right, he will not back off. This keeps shopkeepers on their toes and shifts forward the structures of the economy. Sometimes though, the engineer needs to know how to give up. If a similarly stubborn individual crosses his path and their accounts of reality differ, holding onto his views to the end can have horrendous consequences.

Strolling around the shop, the engineer takes care not to get in other peoples way. In his mind, he understands which parts are designed to be walking ways and he will not stop to stand in them for no reason. As he is choosing what to buy, he first runs his eyes over things and then promptly selects what he needs on the basis of a quick visual observation. He does not waste time. On fresh food counters, the engineer has already made up his mind in advance and is therefore capable of rapid decision-making.

Having picked up the items he needs, the engineer starts unloading them onto the cashiers desk, all-the-while calculating what the end total will roughly come up to. This is made possible by his good head for numbers, which he in this way gives daily exercise to. Having reached the final tally quicker than the cash register, he will be able to point out any potential discrepancies immediately.