Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Mindless buying frenzy

Sales have started and it seems to have got the entire Belgium population in a money wasting buying frenzy. And this sales period started off big time: this weekend the stores sold 20% more than last year during the start of sales. The recession must have something to do with that. People postpone their purchases so they can totally freak out during sales. Cause then they can buy more stuff for the same amount of debts that they put themselves in.

I'm not in favor of having more stuff. I was very materialistic in the past. But during the years I learned that having more stuff makes you vulnerable to get attached to it, which limits your freedom. But even I was tempted by all the discount-stickers on the stores. So this weekend I bought a new pair of shoes, a pair of pants and a small vacuum cleaner. I needed those things anyway, so why not for once mingle with all these drooling discount-zombies standing in line at the cashiers?

But I must admit that I felt the same dopamine-rush that I used to get in the past when I was walking through the city with three or more bags from different stores. But I also realized that happy feeling is only temporarily. Soon you get used to all the new things you've bought and you'll only feel unhappy when you lose it or when something breaks. And that you need to buy even more next time to get the same good feeling. No, I think I've had enough of shopping for the time being. I only need to replace my broken headphones of my iPod and then I have everything I want.

If more people would just be satisfied with what they've got, instead of buying what they don't need, I think the world would be a much happier place.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't you think this last paragraph is a bit ironic considered your profession?

3:29 pm  
Blogger Robin Stam said...

Good comment Phillip,

It seems kind of ironic yes. Because advertising is always seen as the profession where you manipulate people into buying things they don't want. In my opinion that's not true. Advertising is just a good way to put the product or the benefits of the product into the spotlights. If you do that in an entertaining way, consumers are more likely to listen to you. Only if you can convince people into really loving a product or brand, you get loyal consumers. Not just consumers who buy your product when the prize is lower :-)

11:08 am  

Post a Comment

<< Home