consumerism definition Archives

Thoughts on Consumer Culture and Advertising

December 11, 2017 by Frugal Prof

Consumerism: the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods.

Thoughts on Consumer Culture and Advertising:

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Peak Consumer Culture: Costco on Circular Day

Don’t get me wrong; I love Costco. In fact, when I lived in Manhattan, I used to rent a car and go to Costco and stock up on all my supplies for the month. I loved those trips. I felt incredibly smart as I drove back to New York with massive quantities of discounted paper towels, toilet paper, frozen dinners, and protein bars.

Now that I live in California, I couldn’t pass up a groupon offer that came my way: $60 membership fee and receive a $20 cashback card as a thank you. Done!

One problem: I needed to join before November 30th.

So here I was on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, when they release their holiday circular, stuck at Costco trying to activate my membership. The definition of consumer culture. Shopping hell is an understatement. The parking lot felt like the parking lot for the SuperBowl, and not in a good way.

I signed up. I got some stuff. I didn’t blow my budget and I left.

Frugal Takeaway: I will share one new observation with you. In a world dominated by Amazon, Costco is no longer a great value. In fact, I think Amazon is now better than Costco, especially if you use Subscribe and Save.

Amazon Subscribe and Save: Amazon gives you a bulk discount of 15% on household items. In fact, if you use Subscribe and Save and then use an Amazon cash back credit card, the savings come to 20% Pretty great, right? You make a list of the items you use frequently on the Amazon page. Then, once a month they send you the items at a reduced price.

If you order more than 5 items, the cost is reduced by 15%. Because Amazon ships the items together, they save on the shipping costs. And they pass the savings on to you. I love it. It’s very convenient. The cost savings are huge and it saves me time as well.

What I bought on Cyber Monday

On cyber Monday, I bought an Amazon Echo with Alexa. It was difficult to pass up at $29.95 and I thought I might like it. Here’s what I discovered. It wasn’t really that cheap. I liked it. It seemed cool and fun. Except that I bought it for music and it had none. Specifically, you could Join Amazon’s music club. Or, upgrade to Spotify Premium, etc… I can use my IPAD to play music from a bluetooth speaker.

So, apart from telling Alexa, “Play music.” I wasn’t getting anything from this purchase. And I would wind up with an extra $5 or $7 monthly charge for music. The Echo was inexpensive and cool. Yet, it really didn’t add any value to my life. And I returned it. Products that don’t add value to my life go back to the store.

Advertising and Consumer Culture

There is a disturbing television commercial I keep seeing. Maybe you’ve seen it. The Parents watch their child in the backyard. It is clearly the West. Its Christmas, but there is no snow. The child looks sad. Shot of the mother clearly disturbed by her child looking sad. There is a problem here. What kind of parents don’t offer a child snow on Christmas?

Solution: Thanks to a new $90,000 Range Rover, the parents drive all night to solve this problem: they arrive just in time for their daughter to enjoy Christmas in the mountains with snow. The problem has been solved. The family is happy. All is well.

The ad is everything that is wrong with consumer society. It is manipulative and ridiculous. It is the essence of everything that is wrong with consumerism in America. Money is nice, but it will not solve all your problems. It feeds into the idea that I can always buy something to “fix” my problem. And I have been guilty of this mindset too.

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Consumerism: Buying to solve my problems.

I admit that in the past, I have tried to use money to solve my problems. It doesn’t work well. I can see how much mindless shopping I have done over the past few years. That is one reason why I suggest people unsubscribe from retail email lists. It removes temptation. I’ve been guilty of using shopping to cure things like boredom or stress. It doesn’t work in the long run.

Stoicism and Consumerism:

I read the book, The Obstacle is the Way recently and it was incredible. It’s basically a historical view of Stoicism.

Stoicism: There is a very simple, though not easy, way of living. Take obstacles in your life and turn them into your advantage, control what you can and accept what you can’t.

Essentially, you have to accept what is. We can’t make everything perfect. Its not a perfect world. Seeking to find solutions through money and shopping is a lie sold to us through marketing and advertising. We have to power to decide what messages are true and which are distortions.

Conclusion:

There is no perfect Holiday season. It’s odd how we pretend to be in a good mood during the holiday season leading up to gift giving. And by February, everyone is suffering a bit of a hangover. The gifts and presents haven’t kept us happy. We have bills. The cheer is gone.

The larger goal in my opinion, is to create a life that is fulfilling most of the time.

Becoming debt free and achieving financial freedom will create a much more fulfilling life.

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Consumerism: Do we even know Why We Want What We Want?

March 7, 2017 by Frugal Prof

Financial Freedom

I’m sure you can agree that you can’t begin a debt free journey without starting to re-think your relationship with spending, credit cards, and consumerism. It’s a worthwhile exercise.

This is an example from my own life. It’s a good example of consumerism and how it’s possible that we’re piling up debt on credit cards to buy luxury goods we want and don’t even know why.

I have nothing against branding or advertising. In fact, I have purchased plenty of designer clothes,expensive watches, and attended pricey concerts.

She was a very pretty girl who was used to getting whatever she wanted. That much was always clear to me. She worked as an assistant to a Wall Street executive and was used to having men with huge egos and bank accounts woo her.

She always wanted to have dinner at one of the three most expensive and or hottest restaurants in New York. Nobu and a few others I can’t even remember. Honestly, at the time, I was ok with all of that. She was actually very smart and insightful, but her financial expectations became frustrating even then.

Consumerism Definition: We spend money we don’t have, to buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t even like.

Why do I bring this up? We were dating during The holidays a few years back and she mentioned she wanted lingerie from La Perla. Think Victoria’s Secret but with a 700% markup. I had to research it myself.

I became really interested in this company and brand because I have almost never seen a markup like that for any other product. Their bras were like $100-$200.

As an investor, I was very intrigued.

Why was La Perla so good?
Is it the quality?
The fabric?
Why is it so much more expensive than every other brand?,”

I asked her. She was annoyed and defensive and I think she may have even intimated I was being cheap (Me Frugal?). I was very confused.

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And I quickly realized that she didn’t know what made it the best. She didn’t know why it was better than other luxury brands. All she knew was that her friends would be impressed. She knew the name and the cost. And that was all that mattered. This is the world we live in: consumerism, advertising, and branding.

She didn’t know why she wanted it. She just did.

This reminds me of a podcast of The minimalists I just heard where they talked about how Rolex became such a powerful brand.

Apparently, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, men used to go on vacation and dive using Rolex watches. These were wealthy, rugged, adventurous men who preferred a quality dive watch. And other men started to buy the watches and it became the huge brand it is today.

But, it is primarily a quality dive watch.

And most men pay a premium for a watch that can safely go to 2,000 meters. But many of them never use it in the water except, in the shower or a pool.

Rolex makes you feel cool, rugged, adventurous, and wealthy. But first, they need your $2,500.00

The smarter you are the more you realize how powerful advertising, branding, and social influences are in our decisions to spend money. It’s powerful.

Sometimes we don’t even know why we want what we want.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and consider joining 1,848 financially astute people who are on my email list.