Shallow Thoughts: Amazon and the Culture of Clutter
It goes without saying, Amazon takes the experience of shopping and it simplifies it to its most basic level: click, buy, ship. Like most people, I have a carefully curated wish list of items on Amazon. These are items that I haven’t quite gotten around to purchasing for some reason or another, but they are all items that I would like to have. Now I have no one to compare against here, but with 89 items on my wish list I feel as if my consumerist bug might be getting out of control. To be completely honest, almost none of the items on my list would qualify as even remotely essential items for a persons life, yet I feel the urge to buy most of these items at some point in the future. I would argue that there is something in particular about Amazon that brings out the consumerist itch in most of us. We search for an item, stash it on our wish list, and then advertisements for that item follow us around the ad space of all our favorite websites for days, reminding us just how essential this non-essential item it is.
Amazon Prime
I accidentally signed up for Amazon Prime this year. I know, I know, how do you accidentally sign up to a hundred dollar service? By forgetting to cancel your free trial. The sad thing is I haven’t regretted it at all. With lots of streaming titles and two-day shipping, I have thoroughly used all Amazon has to offer (to my wallet’s disappointment). I think one of the most dangerous things about Amazon shipping is the combination of the total availability of items and blazing fast shipping. In the pre-Amazon days, if I was laying in bed with my laptop thinking, man I wish I had a laptop stand, this thing is hot and I don’t want it on my lap, that’s where that thought would end. What store would I go to and purchase laptop stand from? Secondly, even if a store happened to have it, would it be priced affordably? Also, there’d be the chance that I’d simply be too lazy to go to the store and hunt it down, a process that requires train travel, walking, store browsing and human interaction. In the world of Amazon, I type in laptop stand.
Well that wasn’t hard. Click purchase, watch $38.90 magically disappear from my pre-stored credit card information and wait patiently for two days. Don’t get my wrong, I love the ease, the competitive pricing and the overall experience of Amazon. I just think the extreme ease has had the effect of distancing the shopper from the idea that they are purchasing an item. Cash never changes hands, you never pick up the item from the shelf at the store and have that moment where you hold it in your hands thinking, “do I really need this piece of junk.” Instead all that separates you from a purchase is one easy click.
I think in the age of Amazon the buyer needs to be more conscious than ever of how they’re spending their money. More recently I’ve been using budgeting software on my phone to keep me aware of just how much I’m spending on my purchases. In addition to that when I buy something now I first think to myself “Will I use that regularly” and “Is that an item I really need?” Forcing myself to stop and think before clicking buy has certainly slowed down my purchasing speed, but I’m aware it’s something I need to keep on top of. The only thing stopping my apartment from being completely filled with my 89 wish list items is my own self-control.
