Ahh, How I’ve Missed Consumerism…

Posted on November 17, 2007 by Eric
Filed Under Household, Reflection, Shopping

A new religion, you say? One of the ways we’ve managed to keep to our budget so well was that we steered clear of temptation. The last couple of months we didn’t go out to eat often to avoid spending too much there, and we didn’t go shopping anywhere except the grocery store (and then, with a specific list). We also just about stopped watching TV entirely so we didn’t see commercials for products.

Well, now that we are getting ever closer to moving in, we’ve had to go shopping. I have to say, it was pretty damn shocking! Having avoided shopping successfully for about the last 6 months, we hit several electronic stores, appliance stores, and the mall today in one fell swoop.

I had forgotten how overstimulating the stores were. The loud music, large numbers of people, bright lights, obnoxious signage, and just all around too much!

To make it that much worse, it’s less than a week until the busiest shopping day of the year. Black Friday. I went shopping on Black Friday once. Once. It was an absolutely awful experience. It was nothing like today, but I can see the beginning of the buildup.

The Christmas decorations are everywhere. Don’t get me wrong - I like Christmas just fine. But it’s just so overdone at the stores. Lights, displays, animated talking Santas, you name it!

There was a Sony PS3 truck playing very loud rap music in front of Fry’s Electronics. It was crazy! This huge semi trailer had big screen TVs and PS3 boxes all over it. I used to be a big gamer, so it was pretty tempting for me, but the way too loud rap music kept me away. The only thing that could have made this more obnoxious would be a group of bikini clad women shooting t-shirts at people with air guns (this isn’t a too uncommon tactic at big gaming conventions).

Luckily, we went in with a mission and avoided most of the temptations at the stores. We didn’t buy a single thing. We stuck to our commitment just to price the things we knew we wanted, and to compare the models that we were considering. We’ve done most of our comparison online, and have checked things out with Consumer Reports, but you really have to go in and see these things in person. Or at least we do. We measured, poked, prodded, flipped switches, and compared colors in person on refrigerators and washer/dryer combinations.

After all the insanity of today, I think I just need to sit back, relax, and enjoy the silence. I’ll finish my comparisons tomorrow after I get my chance to decompress.

Image Source: roland

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Comments

5 Responses to “Ahh, How I’ve Missed Consumerism…”

Tom on November 18th, 2007 11:26 am

I’m with you on black friday. It’s an awful experience and I’ve only attended it once. It’s funny because I’ll look at the deals and I’ll probably save $50 tops and spend countless hours of waiting in lines and being stressed out, not worth it at all!
| Sense to Save on November 19th, 2007 1:10 pm

[…] A Penny Closer has avoided shopping for awhile, and related at just how jarring the experience can be. Eric points out that avoiding this mass consumerism altogether can be a good thing: […]
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[…] Penny Closer: Ahh, How I’ve Missed Consumerism… Not! Ah how I hate all the crowds and the hassle… although I still need to do some Christmas […]
Mrs. Micah on November 28th, 2007 5:25 pm

Ah yes, indeed. I much prefer the subtler lights of libraries. And that they don’t pressure you to buy stuff….
Eric on November 28th, 2007 10:37 pm

@Mrs. Micah - I love libraries too. Peaceful and serene (usually). And in general, I’m fine with some noise in a store. I don’t need a completely stimulus free environment. But Christmas is just too much. Thanks for the comment!