I was out shopping on Black Friday (I was dragged out) and I actually ended up enjoying myself (probably for different reasons that the average shopaholic). I enjoyed watching people cater to their every shopping whim. It makes me wonder why we have these shopping urges. I just as much as anyone enjoy having something new in my life; a new shirt, new shoes, a new car, whatever!! I buy things when I need them and I do get that quick “high” that shoppers seem to experience, but that’s it. I BUY THINGS WHEN I NEED THEM! WHAT A REVELATION!
Consumers today seem to be like mindless zombies. We’re idiots. Black Friday deals? Sure, there are some, but with a little research we see all of the ploys that stores whip out to trick us.
That cheaper TV? Fewer graphics. Sorry, the store forgot to mention they swapped those in. Might even find it for less on http://www.amazon.com/, but then you would have to a wait a day!
That couch is on sale for $499! Marked down from $2000! Upon further examination it was actually only $800 yesterday and don’t you forget that they only paid $50 for it.
Pricing games oh pricing games. Math is not our strong suit. I took my girlfriend to Aerie to shop and what did I discover? (http://www.ae.com/aerie/) Buy 5 pairs of underwear for $30, get 5 free! Well their normal 6 day a week sale has them at 7 for $26.50. Wow! An item they paid 20 cents for has been marked down from $3.75 a pair to $3 a pair when you buy 10 of them! What a bargain!
That item you saw on http://www.walmart.com/ for 75% off? Oops, they only stocked 5 of them in their store today. Well, now that you are in our store why don’t you buy something else?
My favorite marketing mavericks are Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/). My IPhone 4 (not 4s) just broke (odd how they make the screens out of glass), and so I got the new IPhone 5. Is this phone almost exactly the same or is it just me? Most Americans are not considered rich, well at least not by American standards. We are drowning in debt yet we still have the ability to buy a new $500 phone semi-annually and lets not forget about all of the necessary add-ons: case, cords, etc. We need new ones because they updated the charging ports so that we can charge them faster. Yeah right. More updates= More Revenue.
Why do we constantly buy things that we don’t need? People today are over-worked and I’d like to be the one to say, “Stop buying stuff you don’t need.” You’ll work less and enjoy life more. I enjoy free things all the time. Sports, exercise, the outdoors. If that’s not for you, find something that YOU like. It’s amazingly fulfilling.
Thanks for reading. Make sure to read this before next year’s Black Friday Sales.
–Averell Luedecker
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