Consumerism, more than just spending money
Shopping is what most people do almost every day whether it’s to buy necessities or
luxuries. In “The Science of Shopping,” Malcolm Gladwell describes how companies will go to
great lengths to attract the most customers possible. Anne Norton in “The Signs of Shopping”
illustrates how shopping has changed into something used to construct identities. Both Gladwell
and Norton assert that consumerism has become embedded into American society so much that
the ways of living have dramatically changed in a way that America and even the world will
never be the same. The authors show this through the use of testimonies from experts, appeal to
the reader, and gender inequality. The authors are showing to the world what people do not think
about when it comes to shopping.
In the past, retailers would just throw products on the shelves and hoped that someone
would eventually buy them. But today, people live in a new world, a changed world; retailers do
everything possible, including hiring experts from a never before heard science, to investigate
and see how they can attract the most customers possible. Gladwell met with Paco Underhill, the
father of retail anthropology. In a way, he could be considered a John Quiñones of his time from
the show, What Would You Do, because both men study human behavior by studying films
recorded from hidden cameras. In his interview with Gladwell, Underhill stated that “Men, for
the first time, have begun to buy their own underwear,” (p.100) and he explained how it was a
“…history point in American history.” (p.100) This helps argue Gladwell’s point that
consumerism is everything in America and the ways of living have dramatically changed.
Gladwell shows the reader that a man buying underwear as a never before seen spectacle. So
now retailers have to cater to men and women. Stores have to “totally rethink” the way they sell
products. This shows how the way of living has changed because, in the past, men almost never
bought anything themselves, they just handed the money to their wives and expected fresh
underwear every morning. Now all stores have to change the way of doing business because they
have to appeal a completely different species of shopper. Gladwell furthers his argument when
he introduces Tom Moseman, an analyst who works for Underhill. Gladwell and Underhill are
analyzing a video of a family shopping at the mall when Moseman is called over to see what
happened. Moseman calls the interaction between the daughter and the parents “…a very critical
moment.” (p. 102) This gives another advantage to Gladwell’s argument by showing how the
simple act of browsing and trying on clothing can become a critical moment or turning point
from a store making a sale to not making one. Lastly, Gladwell says “What Paco is teaching his
clients is a kind of slavish devotion to the shopper’s every whim.” (p.103) This ultimately aids
Gladwell because it proves how consumerism became embedded into society. Stores have been
conditioned into inadvertently making people want to purchase a product.
Everyone in the world is part of consumerism one way or another and both Gladwell and
Norton argue this by attempting to connect to the reader. The readers are also consumers so the
authors try to connect to them in a way they can understand. In the beginning of his article,
Gladwell discusses human behavior: “people will readily cross a lane of pedestrian traffic…,”
and even car traffic sometimes, “…to satisfy their hunger…” (p.97) This makes the readers think
about the numerous times they have done something similar. And this connects with Gladwell’s
argument that consumerism is everything by showing what people are willing to do such as
walking into traffic to satisfy a thirst: how far are they willing to go. This also illustrates how the
way of living is different when compared to the past. People are surrounded by consumerism one
way or another, so they will eventually succumb to their thirst and buy something they probably
do not need. Norton also uses the method of appealing to her readers when she describes how
adolescents spend so much time at the mall trying to figure out who they are: “They find
themselves walking through a dictionary. Stores hang a variety of identities on their racks…”
(p.105) Here, Norton makes the readers think back to the time when they were on for search for
an identity. Almost anyone can sympathize with that Norton describes. This also relates to how
America is focused on consumerism because people are surrounded by endless options to choose
from and create a unique identity. Americans are unlike any other people in the world because
they express themselves through consumerism. The readers realize how much they are been
directly or indirectly affected by consumerism. America will never be the same because in the
past shopping was just a chore like washing the dishes, but now it is something much more.
Both authors discuss gender, but Norton goes to a greater extent and talks about how
consumerism relates to gender inequality. Norton describes how there was a point in time when
the only way to escape their husbands was by going to the mall: “It has long been the occasion
for women to escape.” (p.106) The word “escape” suggests that women were imprisoned and
that being married was something negative. People “escape” from something they do not like or
enjoy. This connects with her argument because it shows that for women to be more than objects,
they have to go to the mall and even spend money to show the world who they really were. “The
construction of identity…through a practice that contracted women as consumers and subjected
them to the conventions of the marketplace.” (p.106) This quote reveals how the women’s search
for their identity conditioned them into not depending on men, but on shopping. But ultimately,
what Norton described still exists. In Gladwell’s description of the “wallet carrier,” displays that
the problem of gender inequality has not changed. But the fact that a special term has been
created for men who controlled the money shows how much consumerism has actually affected
American society and culture. The search for a girl’s identity ultimately goes back to how a
“wallet carrier” needs to exist in order for that girl to become someone. Girls in other countries
do not rely on the fathers and their money to show the world what kind of people they are.
Gender inequality is especially important to how consumerism affects America because money is
the most widely used tool to distinguish one person from another.
America will never be the same because it will always rely on consumerism to show the
world who it is. Both Gladwell and Norton argue that consumerism is what differentiates itself
from the rest of the world and America will never be the same, because of how much Americans’
lives depend on shopping. Consumerism has taken over the country in a manner never before
seen and there is nothing more American than shopping as Norton said, “The semiotic
identification of consumption as an American activity, indeed is a patriotic one…” (p.110)