Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Conspicuous consumption comes out of the closet

Long before shopping became hardwired into human biology, Voltaire said, “When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.” That said, it might appear sacrilegious to suggest the two-closet lifestyle during Christmas shopping season. However, we all share the blame for the global costs of our commodity culture. Multi-national corporations may be most obvious villains but shopping malls only survive if they can attract customers.

And attract, they do. According to something called “ShopperTrak RCT,” sales at 45,000 mall-based stores for the day after Thanksgiving—a.k.a. “Black Friday"—totaled $9 billion (up six percent from last year). Americans bought nine billion dollars worth of video games, jeans, cell phones, flat screen TVs, sneakers, and other “stuff” that would definitely not fit into two narrow closets.

Full article here
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