Is Consumerism Dying?

How online purchasing has affected our buying habits.

Last update: May 10, 2022

One of my favorite websites in all the interwebs is the Art of Manliness. If you’re not familiar, it’s creator, Brett McKay, created the website because he thought the existing men’s magazines missed a certain gravitas.

While there are many fun articles, one of the things I appreciate most about the articles is the writing, particularly the depth achieved on some serious topics. It seems that Brett’s background as a law school graduate prepared him to exhaustively research something, then distill that info so we can still understand it (or rather, not get bored with it).

One of the most recent entries is Curbside Pickup and the End of Peak Consumerism. The article discusses how retailers have manipulated our physical senses while we are shopping, enticing us to buy more with pleasurable music appealing colors, even unconsciously directing us to certain products with the layout of the store.

After being away from in-store shopping for a while, I felt like I saw the [grocery] store with fresh eyes. And what I was so strongly struck by, was just how full it was of absolute — and pardon my French, but this is really the most apt word here — bullsh*t food.