“Reading Consumer Culture”Project: Part I—SHOPPING
from NETWORKED
A Project Approach to Writing
Pamela Gay
This material may not be copied or distributed without permission from the author.
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Shopping
America has changed from a country that makes things to a country that buys things.
Danny Schechter, journalist, media critic, and director of the documentary “In Debt We Trust,” which shows how “the mall replaced the factory as America’s dominant economic engine.
Shopping is My Cardio
Barbara Kruger (1987) Mary Ciaramello, Editor
BUZZ entertainment guide
Volume 3, Issue 20, p. 2
Hi, my name is Mary, and I’m a shopaholic. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but I never realized the full extent of my obsession until recently when I was looking at a scrapbook of my wedding and I came across the speech that my sister-in-law/maid of honor gave at the rehearsal dinner. It was a modern fairy tale about a princess (presumably me) with magical shopping powers and who was felled by a knight from the realm of Xbox…not too far from the truth, really.
What really struck me about the story was that my loved ones see shopping as a big part of my identity, and it is.
I guess I learned it from my mother, who can shop for days without getting tired of it. For me, shopping was always more fun than going to the park. It was how my mother and I bonded, and it’s how I bond with most of my friends. If you haven’t hung out with me at the mall, then you haven’t met the real me.
And it’s not like I’m a spender, really. I’m totally fine about leaving a store without buying anything. I just like to walk around and look at all the stuff.
Chances are, if you’re going to bump into me somewhere out and about with my friends, it won’t be at a bar or coffee shop or any place like that. It would be at a place where I can shop.
See you at the mall,
Mary
Where do you like to shop? E-mail me at
[Insert “Let’s SHOP!” cover from Oprah magazine.]
Much of the joy of holiday shopping can be traced to the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health….Dopamine can cause someone to get caught up in the shopping moment and make bad decisions.
This Is Your Brain at the Mall:Why Shopping Makes You Feel So Good
Tara Parker-Pope
Wall Street Journal
December 6, 2005
When Wazhma Samizay and her friends have a bad day, they go shopping, a ritual dubbed "retail therapy."
"When you are shopping to buy a gift or get something for yourself, either way it's kind of a treat," says Ms. Samizay, who three years ago opened a Seattle boutique named Retail Therapy. "The concept of the store was about finding things that made people feel good."
Science is now discovering what Ms. Samizay and many consumers have known all along: Shopping makes you feel good. A growing body of brain research shows how shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting our mood and making us feel better — at least for a little while. Peering into a decorated holiday window or finding a hard-to-find toy appears to tap into the brain's reward center, triggering the release of brain chemicals that give you a "shopping high." Understanding the way your brain responds to shopping can help you make sense of the highs and lows of holiday shopping, avoid buyer's remorse and lower your risk for overspending.
Much of the joy of holiday shopping can be traced to the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health. The brains of people with Parkinson's disease, for instance, contain almost no dopamine. Dopamine also plays a role in drug use and other addictive behaviors. Dopamine is associated with feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, and it's released when we experience something new, exciting or challenging. And for many people, shopping is all those things.
"You're seeing things you haven't seen; you're trying on clothes you haven't tried on before," says Gregory Berns, an Emory University neuroscientist and author of "Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment."
University of Kentucky researchers in 1995 studied rats exploring unfamiliar compartments in their cages — the laboratory equivalent of discovering a new store at the mall. When a rat explored a new place, dopamine surged in its brain's reward center. The study offers a warning about shopping in new stores or while out of town. People tend to make more extraneous purchases when they shop outside their own communities, says Indiana University professor Ruth Engs, who studies shopping addiction.
But MRI studies of brain activity suggest that surges in dopamine levels are linked much more with anticipation of an experience rather than the actual experience — which may explain why people get so much pleasure out of window-shopping or hunting for bargains.
Dopamine can cause someone to get caught up in the shopping moment and make bad decisions. Dr. Berns of Emory says dopamine may help explain why someone buys shoes they never wear. "You see the shoes and get this burst of dopamine," says Dr. Berns. Dopamine, he says, "motivates you to seal the deal and buy them. It's like a fuel injector for action, but once they're bought it's almost a let down."
Dr. Berns and his colleagues have devised studies to simulate novel experiences to better understand when and why the brain releases dopamine. In one set of studies volunteers reclined in an MRI scanner while a tube trickled drops of water or sweet Kool-Aid into their mouths. Sometimes the Kool-Aid drops were a predictable pattern, while other studies used random drops. Notably, when the Kool-Aid was predictable the brain showed little increased activity. But the scans showed a high level of activity when the Kool-Aid was given at random. This indicates that the anticipation of the reward — whether it's Kool-Aid or a new dress — is what gets our dopamine pumping.
Because the shopping experience can't be replicated inside an MRI scanner, other researchers are using electroencephalogram, or EEG, monitors that measure electrical activity in the brain to better understand consumer-shopping habits. Britain's Neuroco, a London consulting firm, uses portable monitors, strapped on to shoppers, to produce "brain maps" as a way to understand consumer buying habits. The brain maps show a marked difference in the brain patterns of someone just browsing compared with a consumer about to make a purchase.
"Shopping is enormously rewarding to us," says David Lewis, a neuroscientist and director of research and development. But Dr. Lewis also notes that stressful holiday crowds, poor service or the realization that you've spent too much can quickly eliminate the feel-good effects of shopping.
Knowing that shopping triggers real changes in our brain can help you make better shopping decisions and not overspend while in a dopamine-induced high. For instance, walking away from a purchase you want and returning the next day will eliminate the novelty of the situation and help you make a more clear-headed decision.
Dr. Engs of Indiana has compiled a list of dos and don'ts to help people make better shopping decisions. Although the steps are aimed at people with compulsive shopping problems, they are useful for anyone caught up in the holiday shopping frenzy.
Buy only the items on your shopping list to avoid impulse purchases.
Use cash or debit cards. Financial limits keep you from buying things you can't afford in the midst of shopping excitement.
Window-shop after stores have closed or when you've left your wallet at home. You'll get the pleasure of shopping without the risk of overspending.
Don't shop when you're visiting friends or relatives. The added novelty of shopping in a new place puts you at higher risk of buying something you don't need.
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*NOTE: The following 3 articles will be provided in print!
*Self-Help for Shopaholics:
How to Cut Your Cash Consumption in Half in Just One Week!
Sophie Kinsella
Sophie Kinsella, a former financial journalist, is the author of the bestselling ‘Shopaholic’ series published by Black Swan (London). In this selection from The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (2000: 64-67), Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist who spends her working life telling others how to manage their money and her leisure time shopping tries cutting back.
*Learning Diderot’s Lesson: Stopping the Upward Creep of Desire
Juliet B. Schor
Labor economist Juliet B. Schor is currently Professor of Sociology at Boston College. She has written extensively on work and consumption patterns of Americans and has received numerous awards. The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer, from which this selection is taken (148, 158-160), received the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language from the National Council of Teachers of English. In this chapter, Schor outlines nine principles to help people get off the ‘consumer escalator.’ The following includes the introduction (Diderot’s Lesson) and Principle 6.
*Haggling on the Net: Negotiating with Online Clothing Retailers
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Wall Street Journal
June 23-24, 2007, pp. 1 & 3
Shop with Eileen Shopping Mall: e Shops Galore
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Three-story Wal-Mart Could Give Urban Malls New Lease on Life
Tim Craig, Washington Post staff writer
February 10, 2003
DSN Retailing Today (magazine)
Inside, there are sleek new escalators equipped with parallel tracks, one for shoppers and another for their carts.
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Just about every trade show I attend these days contains some sort of seminar about the death of mall retailing. And the recurring theme many pundits love to espouse is that mall retailing has fallen out of favor with the U.S. consumer. In its place, they add, the stand-alone big box has taken over the industry.
While that would be a convenient explanation for a lot of developments in retailing in the last few years, I have to say I really don't buy it--not entirely anyway. I don't believe the fundamental argument that malls are any less capable than stand-alone stores of creating excitement and drawing traffic. I don't believe in the "paradigm shift" theory that says consumers have changed the way they shop. And I definitely don't believe that the mall is beyond the point of revival.
And now I have the proof.
On a recent trip to sunny Southern California--a welcome respite after two weeks straight of below-freezing New York weather--I stopped in on a Wal-Mart grand opening in urban Los Angeles. Far from its marquee supercenter and Neighborhood Market concepts, there wasn't a whole lot of buzz surrounding the opening of this discount store. The write-ups in the local papers made no mention of food offerings. In fact, there was nothing particularly special about its merchandise mix at all.
One novelty that did catch my attention was its three-story structure, a brand new, experimental concept for Wal-Mart. Aesthetically, there are many intriguing features at the new Baldwin Hills store, including its art deco exterior signage (see story, page 3). Housed in a former Macy's, the store is a stately street-level location flanked by towering palm trees that create a setting reminiscent of a bygone retailing era. Inside, there are sleek new escalators equipped with parallel tracks, one for shoppers and another for their carts. The store also has multiple entrances--at least one on each floor--along with multiple checkouts scattered throughout.
But the real layer of intrigue to this new location lies well beyond the surface. By positioning this discount store as a mall anchor in a dense urban environment, Wal-Mart is entering a realm of retailing it has traditionally avoided. For a company founded on the principle of massive, stand-alone footprints in mostly rural locations, the new Baldwin Hills store is uncharted waters for the world's largest retailer--which is exactly what makes this a must-watch venture.
Despite all the industry talk of dead malls and depressed economies, Baldwin Hills was absolutely abuzz with activity during opening week. And if Wal-Mart can sustain that activity--which I'm sure few analysts would refute--it would not only provide an entree into select markets like Baldwin Hills, but it could open an entirely new growth channel for the company.
Because if there's one thing this store stands to prove it's not the success of a new signage package or escalator experiment. Rather, Wal-Mart's newest test in urban mall retailing may just prove that the decline in the American mall over the last decade may have less to do with the economy than it did with the quality of the anchor tenant.
As Los Angeles Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas put it in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "This is a market that is not a wasteland, this is an emerging market"--which may prove to be the understatement of the next decade.