#953- Black Friday And The Conspiracy Of Consumerism

Oh Medal that are.

Hello, and welcome to the show. This is the Cult of Conspiracy.

My name is Jacob.

And today we are going to be diving in on Black Friday, a lot of the conspiracy surrounding it, not just the historic origins of it, but consumerism as a whole, where it all began with human culture. And then we're going to take a side step into the history of Black Friday, talk about some of the more racial connotations to Black Friday, believe it or not, and then talk about how these stores are basically screwing us as buyers.

It's a whole thing.

My amazing co host Ravenle has done the majority of the research on this episode, so I am just excited to get in on it.

Heck, yeah, I'm totally excited to dive in on this. So there's actually quite a bit of research about the consumerism aspect of Black Friday and the history kind of has If you go to TikTok, there's all sorts of stuff about controversy when it comes to the term Black Friday. So I wanted to kind of touch on the controversy aspect self. M. Yeah, the term Black Friday is that.

Because of the racial epithets, Yes, of course, yep, yeah, it must be.

So there's a lot of misinformation. I looked more into the best I could find.

It's just to make.

Sure that what they were, what it's being claimed is not actually tied to Black Friday.

So but yeah, there's a lot.

Of interesting We could spend like days just talking about consumerism in and of itself and how they use psychology against us to be able to promote this consumerism appetite within America for the last fifty years or more or less longer than that.

Yeah, So with that being said, we are actually going to kickstart this off with the conversation of what.

Is consumerism as a whole? Where did it begin?

How is it something that led into our society as old? Because we've talked about this a million times on this show. America is a nation of consumers, right, and yes we do produce certain things, this is true. But if you were to take a snapshot of America as opposed to a snapshot of the vast majority of other countries, I think it's a pretty fair assessment to say that America is a consumerist nation.

That being said, it's not like we pioneered that.

We're not the ones that came up with the by any means, but we adopted it and let it just breed into our society to a level that I honestly don't think we'll ever be able to break from.

I don't think it'll ever go away, not for us. And actually, and actually it's spreading and infecting other countries. Black Friday is now being adopted by multiple countries throughout the world globally, is shifting how everyone actually quote unquote celebrates the time around Thanksgiving. It's more or less they've adopted the Black Friday traditions and having this massive sale.

Which is crazy also because most countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

They do not, but they are doing. They're kind of falling in a line because so many Americans are purchasing online now that they want to capitalize on the market of consumerism through US, and so now their countries are actually pating just like ours is.

And I think that's kind of a double edged sword too. On the one hand, because we're a consumer's nation, all these manufacturing agencies from around the world realize, Okay, our sales skyrocket from the last week of November to the end of the year, specifically in America.

What's this all about?

So I think they're on the money making aspect of it, they see it for what it is. But on the other side of it too, American culture is a thing that bleeds into other countries.

As well, right just like Chinese culture.

Chinese culture absolutely does as well. But like what's hot in America right now, other countries pay attention to I couldn't tell you what's hot in Australia right now, Like I honestly couldn't tell you because we don't really typically pay attention to it. But I bet somebody in Australia could tell you what's hot in America right now.

That's fair that. Actually, Australia is one of the main countries that have shifted towards adopting Black Friday, at least from what I've read. I know we have a couple Australian so maybe they could let us know next next Tuesday if that's a real thing or not.

I do know.

At one point in time, Australia was like four years ahead of us in fashion and that blew my mind. I don't know how and why they just like jumped it to the front of the line on that one. But I remember I was going to a church in Baton Rouge and that was one of these churches, you know, one of these big mega churches. And everything that comes out of Hillsong out of Australia is like the best thing ever.

And fine, I have nothing against that.

But we would see these concerts of these Hillsong United singers and they were dressed really like crazy to us, I'm like, what are they wearing? Why is this dude wearing a v NEX shirt that goes down past his stern?

Them, like, is what is happening right now?

Cut to four years later, American metrosexual males were dressing like this and I was like, wait what And I did more research into it, Like no, no, Australia is at least back in the early two thousands was four years ahead of us in fashion. So it's crazy how certain cultural things other countries are ahead of us. On other cultural things, they are striving to be more like us. Apparently Black Friday is one of those things, which is really crazy to me, but it may I will say.

I will say, uh, Chinese culture, like when it comes to like little figurines and like the pop mart and all of that, I have them too. Yeah, yeah, the little boo boos, the little figurines I have. If those of you that are actually watching, I am at my home studio, my new en so you'll see all sorts of interesting things behind me. But yeah, I know that's bled and hard into America and that's become a huge

That is a whole thing to the point of how consumerism is such a thing in America. I don't know this for a fact. I don't know if France has a booming unboxed video.

Tracks actually from the UK.

Oh shut up, no, no, they they have it just as much as we do. Like the UK is actually adopted quite a bit from America when it comes to consumerism and.

What do you call it?

Black Friday, I'd be very interested to see what her analytics look like as far as which age range is her like target demographic, but also what country her.

Listeners probably like fifteen.

Americans or not American. See that's my point.

Even if somebody in India is doing unboxing thing, their parents probably think that is the dumbest shit they've ever heard of in their life. But they're looking at their algorithm like, look, these Americans eat this shit up.

It's the craziest things. I don't know.

Maybe maybe India also has an insane unboxing trend that's going on with their algorithms and their tiktoks.

I don't know.

Yeah, the people in America love watching unboxing videos and unpackaging in general.

It's crazy.

It's saying, oh.

It's a but anyway.

Anyway, So to Ravenley's point, if you would like to see what we are, First of all, if you want to see her gorgeous home studio, I highly recommend you check it out. But also we would like to see y'all the books, all the bones, all the la booboos, the things. But if you would also like to see the video and the articles that we are going to be talking about this evening, the only place to go to see the video would be to go to patreon

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Good luck, good luck anyway, all right, without further ado, I'm gonna go ahead and share the screen and we are gonna get after it. We're gonna start off with a VIDIA and we're gonna learn about the history of consumerism.

Where did it come from? How did it really come about?

Right, because it's such a prevalent theme in our society today. But if you look back throughout the course of human history, that has not been a thing right for the majority, the vast majority, as a matter of fact of human existence. It has been about surviving and thriving as a society. But your average person did not have the means nor the funds to afford.

Small luxury items.

Cut to in the last two hundred years, that's just been the way of the world.

So when did this start and how did it start? Let's learn about it together, good cult members.

I will say shout out to this for most do I know? Oh, I said, I will say shout out to the School of Life. They that's the YouTube that we're watching. You should everyone should check it out. They actually have a lot of really good videos.

Absolutely, shout out to the School of Life YouTube channel. Matter of fact, I'm gonna source them a subscribe while I'm at it. All right, let's check it out.

Most of history, the overwhelming majority of the Earth's inhabitants have owned more or less nothing. The close they stood up in some bowls of pot and a pan, perhaps a broom, and if things were going really well, a few farming implements. Nations, and peoples remained consistently poor. Global GDP did not grow at all from year to year. The world was in aggregate as hard up in eighteen

Alone.

In England cities, you could buy furniture from Chippendale, Heppelwhite and Sherton, pottery from Wedgewood and Derby, cutlery from the smitheries of Sheffield, and hats, shoes and dresses featured in the best selling magazines like The Gallery of Fashion and The Ladies Magazine. Styles for clothes and hair, which had formerly gone unchanged for decades, now altered every year, often

So I gotta say, just on the onset here, I don't inherently disagree with the theories here that Jesus I can't speak the thesis itself. I'm not saying that it's a one hundred percent fact, but I at least can understand the platform that these gentlemen were speaking from when it came to how they were looking at how society was drifting and consumerism and material possessions were.

On the rise. I can at least appreciate the standpoint.

I do agree though, that without making the least country rich, he's providing more jobs and having at least providing more income for a lot of people that had nothing. So it sucks that it was kind of in the way of consumerism. But I mean, at that point, what else are you going to do?

I mean, but that's the thing.

Once somebody has disposable income, more often than not, they're going to spend it. It's essentially the early form of Reaganomics, right, trickle down economics.

If you will.

If the wealthy have more money, they're to buy more shit, which gives more companies money, which pays their employees more money. And I mean that's literally the backbone of what has led the American economy since the Great Depression onward. I would argue since before, but realistically since like the end

But anyway, let's continue.

One of the most spirited and impassioned voices was that of Switzerland's greatest philosopher, Jeanjacques Russo. Shocked by the impact of the consumer revolution on the manners an atmosphere of his native Geneva, he called for a return to a simpler, older way of life, of the sort he had experienced in alpine villages or read about in traveler's accounts of the native tribes of North America.

That also is kind of remnant to how many people you see that are starting subsistence farms to like go off grid, even though they are in the country where we have everything we could ever want. More and more people are working.

Their ass off to get as off grid as possible. So I think again, some of these people were just way ahead of their time, honestly.

But yeah, anyway, let's continue.

In the remote corners of Appenzell or the vast forests of Missouri, there was blessedly no concern for fashion and no one upmanship around hair extensions. Russeau recommended closing Geneva's borders and imposing crippling taxes on luxury goods so that people's energies could be redirected towards non material values. He looked back with fondness to the austere martial spirit of Sparta. However, even if Russo disagreed with Mandeville, he did not seek

Okay, side note though, Oh no, Mina already spend like forty five minutes to an hour to take a shit, which is absolutely ridiculous. You want to give them golf little tank golf set up, yo. You guys, You guys would just live on the twilet. You guys would die on the toilet, Yeah.

On something just like Elvis. Ridiculous, I'll die like the King.

Okay, but also ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I knew you were gonna stop and say something about it. As soon as I saw. As soon as I thought, I was like.

This mother, like, so all right, real quick.

For anybody who's just listening and not on Patreon, first of all, what are you doing right?

You need to be on Patreon to see.

What we're talking about here.

But secondly, uh, the product that he was talking about, it's basically you could see a dude on the toilet. You just see him from the knees down, and there's like a putting green around his feet, and he's got a little miniature putter and a couple of golf balls. So like, while you're while you're dropping a douche, you can go ahead and try to, you know, work on your stroke game with a golf club.

And obviously there's no zero practical reason.

It was ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life.

I now want one so bad.

There you go, You've you've fallen into the trap of consumers.

Them they got me by the balls. They know what makes me go, Yes, that's a really good idea. I'm sorry, Okay, I'm a product ovid. I suppose I do.

When we were watching that, though I do agree with both of them that the simpler way of life of at least enjoying your family, your community and doing that kind of stuff is definitely more beneficial for humans overall than consuming things because you'll see later on with the what it does to your brain and like the dopamine

So going back to your roots and being.

Able to share some type of community and gardening and stuff like that outside is more beneficial than getting the dopamine highs you're getting from spending money.

Well, that's also a double edged sword, right, talking about eating unhealthy foods for instance, Right, a community garden a puts real nutrition back into your body and b you get more of a sense of community from it, and that's excellent as opposed to the more consumeristic way of things. And like, yeah, you now can go to a factory and get a job, or pick up a craft and get a job, and that's excellent and you'll have more income, but you won't grow your own food as a result

So on the one hand, it is either a you can be.

Relatively poorer and work a farm and your family can eat or b you'll be relatively more wealthy and your family will eat whatever is available at the store.

It actually lowers crime too. I think that's one of my I think that's one of the most interesting aspects of a community garden, as it actually statistically lowers crime. And they put one of the first community gardens they actually did a study on was in Detroit. Really mm hmm, there's there, and they have one in Chicago too. They have they have some in certain areas that are inherently filled with crime, and they actually didn't destroy the gardens.

See, I thought you were going a different direction with that at first. When you say the lowers crime, I'm thinking, yeah, because who's going to rob.

A poor farmer like you?

No, no, as cabbages, Like what's up? Like you're gonna go rob the dud with a flat screen. But you're talking about actually putting community gardens into poverty and crime stricken cities and they actually helps reduce crime.

And that's a statistic that's been proven.

Yes, I actually did a huge project on this. This was my one of my big final projects for graduating. I was I really wanted to do a community garden here and I actually got approved by the HUA and was moving forward to building it. There is a lot of benefits to community gardens, and actually they're not that difficult to really start up. You can find a community applaud a land and there's a lot of amazing companies in America that will actually donate product to you as

Kind of like, eh, this is going to get ruined, the teenagers going to ruin it.

But then once people start actually going to it, it's the science behind. It's quite fascinating how it helps bring back the old ways of community, even in places where you think that no one would have it any longer.

Fascinating.

Wow, super side ten agent, But.

Now I'm here for it. Abs fucking lutely. All right, let's get back to the video.

We have chosen wealth over virtue. An irony laden acceptance of this dichotomy is what underpins the approach of many pop artists in mid twentieth century America. For example, Klaiss Oldenburg developed a reputation for taking modest consumer items, many of them food related, and reproducing them enormous scale, usually

You know, I think there's something to be said for that as well. To the point of mister Smith here, think of even Gutenberg with his printing press. That was an innovation that was spurred on by consumerism in a sense, but it was also spurred on by the need of the people to get more literature in their hands. So there is a positivity towards at least a fraction of

I agree with him too.

Yeah, there's got to be a happy balance, otherwise you become well like your stereotypical American in today's day in age, I suppose.

But yeah, anyway, let's continue.

The ultimate goal of capitalism, in Adam Smith's view, was to tackle happiness in all its complexities, psychological and not just merely material. The capitalism of our times still hasn't entirely come round to resolving the awkward choices that Bernard Mandeville and Joshaques Russau circled. But the crucial hope for the future is that we may not forever need to be making money of rather exploitative, silly or vain consumer appetites.

Absolutely, we will circle back to that in a little bit. But there is a new wave of thinking actually coming into twenty twenty five verse how it has been in the last decade for consumerism. Okay, okay, where it plays in with Black Friday. There is a lot of different aspects that are happening with that.

Okay, So now let's dive into fastercapital, dot com consumerism, basically consumerism in the US, a closer look at the phenomenons. We are going to start off right here in section one, Understanding Consumerism in the US ravenly do you want to read this one?

Yeah? I actually have in my phone because I'm blind, people, so I need it to where I can actually see it. It says, Understanding consumerism in the US. Consumerism is a term that has become deeply in green in the fabric of American society. It refers to the culture of excessive consumption and the constant desire for material possessions. In the United States, consumerism is not just a way of life, but it is also an economic and social phenomenon that

And that's the thing that we said.

The post World War two era in America, basically all the big manufacturing facilities around the world just got the ship bombed out of them for the past few years. So post World War two, America was one of the only real dominant players in the world that had a strong manufacturing backbone that was all ready to go, that wasn't damaged, and the workforce just got home and they were looking to get back to work. So we were kind of like the one stop shop for so many things.

Yeah, there's a whole article actually tied to Black Friday. How the title read the nineteen fifties destroyed America as we know it.

I agree, yep.

And it talked all about consumerism and how your old boy did all sorts of stuff, and about how they pushed propaganda and how they pushed the narrative of consumerism. That's actually when they changed how they manufactured a lot of a lot of products. They started to shift out of making it to where it would last a long time to making it to where it broke.

So that way bought that too. Was it an engineered obsolescence?

Right?

The Phoebus Cartel with their light bulbs that were guaranteed to burn out after like a thousand hours of use, regardless if they could make something last longer, but they're not going to make money that way, you know.

Yeah, there's a video that I was looking for that I actually took a class on this, and it was an awesome video.

It broke it down really simply.

It was kind of cartooning, but it broke it down really simply, and it showed you the different products that lasted for you know, seventy years prior to the nineteen fifties, and then what they did to change even just a small.

Component inside of it.

But you couldn't replace that component because there was no way no one was manufacturing that component any longer.

So you had to buy an entire new thing.

And then the information about how to replace a lot of the little components was just obsolete and gone, and so people were just like, well, now what do I do? I had to buy a new one, and then they have to work harder to be able to buy more.

And then it's this whole cycle.

That they created to make sure that people continuously bought product that will break like even even our generation. I know, I've said it a million times. Man, this used to be awesome. Why do I need to replace this? Like my Apple laptop that's sitting in front of me, I've had it seven years, but I can no longer upgrade it anymore, and so now I need a new laptop if I want to use all these different systems, because they purposely made it to where I have to buy

It's just yeah, no, it's I understand why the companies are doing it, but it also screws the consumer. But it's another double edged sword. So like, for instance, your average everyday handyman repair man, that used to be a really good craft to get into. You could fix a wash machine, you could fix a dryer, you could fix a stove, you could you know, fuck with the electronics in a television set.

You were the guy. If you were the repairman.

That is something that has gone by the wayside because now even if you call the repairman to come to your house, first of all, you're paying the up charge for them just to show up. Secondly, they're gonna look at it and say, yeah, there's this one little component. I could change it, but I'm gonna have a hard time even finding that. It'll be a whole lot easier

Until about the late nineties.

After that, when everything got smart and everything got overly computerized to the level to where you have to be some sort of a certified service tech to do anything. It's like, no, no, we're just gonna have to buy a whole new one. It's a pain in the ass. And you could take that to your refrigerator, you can take that to your TV. Hell, you could take that to your car.

M there's a lot of vehicles that they've purposely changed to where you can't actually replace stuff and do it yourself, and you have to go in because it's computerized, and if you mess up one sensor, it throws off all the sensors.

Yep.

And I think my favorite example is refrigerator, because there's a fridge that was made that can hold so much it's like it's deemed like the best refrigerator in history, and you can actually buy one. Still to this day, it's hard to get them. They're like seven thousand plus dollars because there's only so many left at this point.

Why do I feel like that for refrigerator, that's like the everlasting fridge. Why do I feel like that was built in the seventies.

It wasn't. It was built in the fifties, in them before before it started to change and shift. It is a really cool I want one, so about it's a really cool refrigerator. I actually, that's why I know how much it costs, because I've found them, and I may or may not be like, you know, watching it and wanting to get.

One one day, but absolutely wow.

So Number two materialism and identity. Consumerism in the US is closely tied to the concept of materialism, which is a belief that material possessions are essential for happiness and self worth. Many many individuals in American society measure their success in social status based on the things that they own. This emphasizes on the material wealth has that doesn't see,

Keeping up with the Jones is nothing new. That's for damn sure.

That's been around forever.

Like yeah.

Number three economic implications. The US economy relies heavily on consumer spending, and the consumerism plays a crucial role in driving economic growth. The concetant demand for goods and services stimulates production and creates jobs. However, this reliance on consumer spinning also leaves the economy vulnerable for fluctuations in consumer

That's a very fair point.

Yeah, absolutely, I don't even remember what happened in two thousand and eight, to be honest with him.

Let's see, that was the end of Bush's term. He was that wasn't a housing bubble.

Maybe it was.

Maybe I'm not even sure actually, but either way.

It goes That's true.

A consumerist nation is completely reliant on the fluctuations of the world economy. At that point, if the price of oil goes up, everything in your supermarket just went up. The farmer who's growing his own shit, Yeah, the price of oil going up might mean that it costs more to fill his tractor, but his family's gonna eat regardless, right. The bee farmer is gonna get the grain that he needs, to do what he has to do, and he's gonna

So I mean, I get it.

Yes, I agree with you.

There's actually a when I was talking about how people are shifting in their spending habits now versus before, there is a whole thing about I read this. I didn't even mean to, but I read this giant article. It was like twenty five pages long, but it was actually made for companies and how they can use target marketing and different marketing strategies to try and bridge the gap pretty much, because we're shifting into more sustainable wants and

But the downside of that is that usually the consumer is the one that's eating the costs of all the those changes in innovations. Right, if a company goes a little more green, the price of their goods even if it's not needed, just seems to go up a little bit each time there's a new iteration of things.

Same thing could be said for the geopolitical side of shit.

When a tariff gets put down, right, the company should eat that cost, but they're not gonna.

They're gonna put it on the people buying their shit.

So when it really comes down to it, it comes down to the consumer, and they're they're just taking money every which way they can.

That's the name of the game.

M hm. So number four is environmental impact. Consumerism in the US has significant environmental consequences. The constant production and disposable of goods contributes to resource depletion, pollution, and waste accumulation. From the extraction of raw materials to the manufacturing process and the eventual disposal product products, each stage of consumer

Yeah, I don't like the term carbon footprint, but I do agree that we need as a whole, we need to create less trash. I don't think that's like a crazy hot take like the single use plastic water bottles. I'm not exactly a massive green person, but at the same time, I do believe we should take care of this earth as best we can to leave something good

It's not even that it's literally based on conveniency. That is what that is what's driving the market mainly now at this point.

It even states that there was an article I was reading that.

Stated tim that people will eat that extra ten percent discount just for the sake of conveniency that.

It's it's not even about so like.

Uber eats, for example, you know you're paying at least twenty dollars to have that food delivered to you, regardless of how much it is you're paying the delivery fee, the service fee, the tip, all of these things, but it's all about convenience, and they have hyper fixated and marketed on convenience.

So now you're.

Fighting even more of a battle because it's more convenient to have single serve product than it is to have bulk package because like, who has realistically, who has that much time in your day is as Americans to try to cut everything up, wash everything, put everything in containers, and do all the things yourselves. So they've marketed on us not having time the conveniency factor, and now we're kind of just battling this whole system and it's a

It's absolutely appalling that there is.

I've lived here over a decade and I have tried so hard to implement like recycling things that I've called companies and like, yeah, we totually do recycling. I'm like, okay, well do you have boxes to set up?

Oh?

No, you just kind of like throw it in a bag and we'll separate. And I was like, well, that's not how that works. I was like, do you want it in a clear plastic bag, because like normally, even in some places, you put it in a clear classic passic bag.

You set it out front, and they're like, no, you.

Just just put it in there. We're gonna we're gonna cycle through it. We're gonna go through And I'm like, no, you're not. You were no.

I had a whole episode on that the recycling industry as a whole. I'm not saying the recycling is bad, but the quote unquote what's labeled as contaminated basically everything that the vast majority. I was like, ninety five percent of what you recycle actually just goes to a landfill because if it's let's say you have like a greasy pizza box happens to accidentally fall into the section for glass,

It's just not.

And I mean in Louisiana you'll have in the big cities, you'll have that. When we used to live in bad and Rouge growing up, we had a recycling bin, but we filled it and there was a recycling truck that would come by, the same way a trash truck comes by once a week and take your recyclables. That's only in cities though, that's out here in the rural areas. I mean, hell, the fact that we have a garbage truck come by instead of everybody burning their trash in the backyard is fucking great.

Like that's that's insane, yep. And I mean we're all guilty of it.

Even as I'm talking about how we need to make less trash, I'm guilty of it. For instance, paper plates, we get down on some paper plates. In my house, we have porcelain plates. We have you know, reusable and re washable plates and all that stuff. Like you said, it's the convenience it's so much easier to just throw that away and just not worry about more dishes.

And the big one too, Yeah, exactly, little like reusable snack bags for kids, Like those are a big one because they're they're easy. But then either kids a lot of times throw them away, or like they get left places and people are just like I don't want to deal with it, or you know, trying to use glass containers. You know what if they get broken, you know, using metal containers, so they're gonna get lost or they can't they're not allowed in schools now or something like that.

Yeah, absolutely, okay, Number.

Five Katrinques in Alternatives. Consumerism in the US is not without its critics. Some argue that the relentless pursuit of material possessions leads to a shallow and unfulfilling existence, as happiness and well being cannot be solely root that sorry, be silly derived from material wealth. Others highlight the growing wealth, inequity, and social divisions perpetrated by consumerism, with the affluent of minority gaining more.

Nope, yeah, the affluent, Now you're good. The affluent minority gaining more while the majority struggles.

To keep up.

Alternatives to consumerism, such as minimalism and the sharing economy have emerged as a response to the critics, advocating for a simpler and more sustainable way of life. Understanding consumerism in the US requires an examination of all historical contexts, its impact on individuals in society, and the various perspectives surrounding the phenomenon. While consumerism has undoubtedly shaped American society and the economy, it is essential to critically evaluate its

I think there's a lot of very great points that were made during that. As a matter of fact.

I absolutely hate reading out loud, and I'm sorry to everyone that just had it is suffer through that.

It's all good. It's all good.

So I'm going to read the next section here, as we are talking about Black Friday, which is nothing more than a consumerism mecha, I can't even think of a better term to put onto it. This is as prime time as it gets for American consumerism and to see a bleed through to other countries. That's why we're looking into consumerism in the way that it is. So now let's go into this next one exploring the psychology behind consumption.

This section aims.

To shed light on the various factors that influence consumer behavior, for cultural and social influences to individual motivations and emotions. So now let's start off here with the cultural and social influences. Consumer behavior is heavily shaped by cultural and social factors. Culture encompasses the values, beliefs, and customs shared by a specific group of people, while social influences are

Conformity or approval from their reference groups, which can drive their purchasing decisions, which again that all ties in. It's a little.

Bit of keeping up with the joneses when it comes to the social side of things, but not necessarily always. Even if it is a gift giving thing, right, if somebody gave you a gift that's super expensive, you feel almost obligated to try and give them something super nice to try to match that level of giving, which is also something that drives the purchasing decision for sure.

Also, when the site of crowds along lines and social social statles like everybody together, it pretty much drives the bandwagon effect to where everyone wants to join the bandwagon of all their peers around them, like, oh, hey, I don't need those socks, but everyone else is buying those socks at that deskcount and price, so socially, I want to be accepted into the bandwagon, so I'm going to buy socks too, and like, hey, look I got some too. So that's actually a huge part of it as well.

Absolutely, even the sneaker heads will say you when the new Jordans are about to drop or whatever, there will be a line waiting outside.

The door of these retail outlets to get their hands

To go home and play a video game. Nowadays, you just downloaded at a certain time.

There's actually the same thing online though, like as we read on it will talk even more about the online

Is like it's going to go to auction in.

Three two one, And then you're competing with however many people. You can do it on TikTok too. You're competing with however many people, and half the time you don't even need it. You're just like, you know what, I want to click on it, and sometimes you end up with the item and you're like, well crap, I didn't actually want that, but here I am because I had the impulsivity of wanting to click on it. So a lot of it is, and I'm sure it's going to talk

I'm I guarantee we're gonna get more into it here. But Black Friday is a the fear missing out. It's the emotional connection to it. It's the dopamine dump of going and getting these deals and like you got all your Christmas shopping done in one day, which is also an insane piece of mind, so to speak. It's Black Friday itself is kind of an all encompassing of what makes the consumerist mindset tick.

Mm hmm. Absolutely.

It's next section, Motivations and needs. I love how that's the thing. It's not just the want of something. They want you to feel like. This is a need, it's a necessity. Consumer behavior is driven by underlying motivations and needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides a useful framework to understand

It moves you.

From point A to point being as long as it gets you there relatively safely.

It doesn't matter.

But the luxury car brand wants to make you feel like, well, you know, bosses drive this brand. The employees might drive this brand, but the bosses they drive Alexis, they drive the Beamer. You see what I'm saying. That's absolutely a perfect example of this.

I mean perfect example is down here with the suburbans.

Suburban moms are a thing.

The suburbans man.

It is a It is a whole status quo down here.

I didn't realize that my car, the Nissan Armada I have, I didn't realize that that was also a status not as much as a suburban.

I'll be very honest about that.

But that shit, the suburban is shit, I will like. The only good thing about that car is a space.

Yeah.

I can say this because I actually own one, people, and I can't wait to get rid of it. But the only good thing about it is a space. Like, it has a lot of space. I'll give it that.

That, like the gas maleage crap.

The seats suck, like there's not a lot of like oooho.

This is great, And I think I keep having manufacturing things come up that you've got to go to the dealership and get fixed too.

Mm hmm I have.

I've owned it for one year and it's how to be had seven manufacturer replacements. It's a year one year old and it's a twenty twenty four. So like, yeah, I personally, for me, I want that wagoneer. Why do I want the wagonear because it's boss status, but also it.

Has like so what point we're making to the point we're making right now.

Raven To be fair, it's just a really nice luxury car. If I'm going to drive something, damn it.

I want to drive something good, okay, and that's to be now driven sucks But no, I just you know, I get it. It's definitely all about, you know, appealing to your masses and knowing your target audience, which comes into play with clicking on things and how they interact with things and how they actually use the models to track what you're actually scanning, what you're clicking on, how long you're staying on certain sections, what colors are drawing

Even just on the marketing, but even off of watching your specific algorithm. There's been so many stores and I'm sure we're gonna get to it later as we talk about Black Friday and the tag price versus actual price

Oh, I'm sorry, that must have been a glitch here. I'll fix it for you right quick.

Unless you're watching your swipes and watching you scanning to see what's happening next, you're not paying attention.

Mm hmm. I have been one of those people to take pictures of the of the keep on price because I just like, you know, let's just do this, and then I have to show them and I'm like, look, here is the actual picture, like it's right there, and then like you'll actually get the price that it was originally for. I actually didn't know that though. I'll have to look into that more because I've never heard of it.

It's really fucked up.

That is extremely fucked up.

Now there's those that argue that it actually hooks up the poorer people out there because they're paying as low a price as humanly possible. But that's not how a fair and open market exists. The keyword on that will be fair. Yeah, you shouldn't be predatory based off of people who are making a little more just to make a little more off of them. That's completely fucked up. But yeah, that's becoming more and more of a thing.

I turned off my phone at that point.

Yep, I'm telling you when need to turn these phones off. And I know that I'm also a complete hypocrite as I'm saying this. Our entire job is based off of Internet and based off of these screens. I get it, but also we really need to make more of a conscious effort to unplug more frequently in our lives.

Books. Books.

For those of you that couldn't see, I have shelves of books behind me. This is just one of four bookshelves, five bookshelves that I have that are stacked full. I have a thing for books. But to plans that I'm also a consumer. You can tell by my shelves that I like nick.

You can. I can't even say that.

I can't because, like I also got brought up in the whole nick knack you know, things by Migraine parents and by my mom and says like that.

So I like my little knickknacks.

It's all it's a vibe.

You're a white woman. You can't help it. It's it's within your DNA code.

It has nothing to do with being a white woman. Nothing. But it does not at all.

It has nothing to do that. Men collect all sorts of random shit too. Look at y'all's garages. Half the time, nothing is even needed in that garage, but it just randomly sits there.

Well, well, now, tools are different than nickknacks.

There's also a lot of guys that collect all sorts of things, all sorts of things.

Shoes, for example, there are lots of men that have like fifty pairs of shoes, because that blows my minds.

Like they collect, you know, certain glasses, or you collect coins.

Yeah, because that's an investment. They're worth money.

I'm just saying, like people collect things.

And like flannels because I wear them. I're pragmatic with these. I collect medieval weapons, but I also use them, like, you know, I don't know, I would like to have more of a collection of just ridiculous things. Oh to your point, Like I would love to up my gun collection, guns that I will probably never look at but once

What are you talking about?

Asians collect the tons of different Asians collect nick knacks. Hell, half the ship I bought was from the Chinese market, to like, come at me with being a white woman.

The Asian market, to appeal to your white woman consumerisms in Chinatown. In Chinatown, that's fair.

I guess I don't know much about the yes for one, and for two, I guess I don't really know the consumeristic practices of people of Southeast Asian descent to your point.

Even that, but like tons of cultures collecting sh But we're here with white women. Shit, I'm over your crap, white male.

Moving on to the next section, Emotional influences.

Let's go there, Yeah, emotional.

Oh man, as I continuously just shove my foot down my mouth. Let's just get into it here. Emotions play a significant role in consumer behavior. Studies have shown that emotions can influence decision making processes, leading to both positive and negative outcomes. Positive emotions, such as happiness and excitement, can create a desire for immediate gratification, leading consumers to

But I feel like a lot of people don't understand that either.

Yes, the dopamine dump of it, the immediate gratification that's a thing for sure, for like why you would buy a certain thing. I get it to the point the knickknack conversation, that's an immediate gratification thing. It brings you joy every time you look at it. That's awesome, that's good. But at the same time, fear is absolutely a tactic that will make people buy stuff or not just the fear of missing.

Out, but like.

Thrilling fear of it.

Well not even that, let's say like there's impending doom that they want you to feel like if you don't have this item in your house, then what are you gonna do when X, Y or Z happens? What will you do? It's it's all a part of it.

I do like the because, like so patriot patriot Emeris, there's a couple of them. They they have a very intense fear market scheme that they do. I don't want I don't want to say scheme because I actually own quite a bit of their products and stuff, Because I will say, there is a couple of companies that actually have dairy and gluten free products that you can get as MRIs and shelf Life.

Really, yes, yes, there is actually.

Uh US based companies that are operating owned in the US that have gluten and dairy free options and also regular Emris cans they sell, They sell generator stuff, they sell water stuff, they sell all sorts of stuff for like any kind of apocalyptic situation, just as super sid.

Right, And I mean for a company that's selling survival gear for lack of better words, it would make sense that they're trying to appeal to more of the fear based sales tactic. And I'm not saying that that that's predatory of them by any means. No, no, no, in that market, that would make perfect sense to me as opposed to you know, you're not gonna get a fear based sales tactic when it comes to like buying a craftsman tool.

But I would love to base like I would love to get with them and be able to like help them spread the word because they're actuallyually a veteran owned company too.

Shit, we might reach out to them, we might work out awesome.

That'd be so awesome.

I have talked about this for a while.

I would love to do a Cult of Conspiracy survival implement that could fit in your wallet. And I've actually got a couple of blueprints drawn out of like a pretty much the only thing this thing won't provide for.

You is shelter.

That's actually pretty cool.

Yeah, you know what, good cult members. Keep your eye out for that one.

It won't be ready for this Christmas season, but hopefully for Christmas the twenty twenty six, we'll have some survival let's just call it a survival.

Card and we'll leave it at that.

But this thing, we'll have fishing line, snares, fishing hooks, a blade, a firestarter, and baking bags, which, believe it or not, you can actually boil water in up to five times before the toxins from the plastics start to leach into the water. So pretty much this thing will be a one stop shop for getting you out out of a jam if you find yourself in one.

Except for shelter, you're going to be on your own for that one.

I can't fit that into a wallet, I'm sorry, but anyway, keep your eye for that one. Moving on, the cognitive processes, Consumer behavior is influenced by cognitive processes, including perception, learning, and memory. Perception refers to how individuals interpret and make sense of the world around them. Marketers often utilize sensory cues, such as appealing visuals or catchy jingles to shape consumers' perceptions.

On their products or brands.

Learning refers to the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through experience, which can influence future purchasing decisions. Memory, both short and long term, plays a role in consumer behavior by affecting brand recall and recognition. Advertisements that create memorable experiences or utilized repetition can enhance brand memory and influence

It was a horrible commercial.

And they even made a commercial to goof on how bad of a commercial it was. Because it was so simplistic, you like would always remember what it was.

I'm not gonna lie to you. We were QVC people.

I don't know what that is.

You don't know what QBC is.

What's happening?

You don't remember the change? They still have it today.

They have a channel on regular cable TV that nothing all day long. All it is is consumerism, Like it literally is the shopping channel. The shopping channel.

Do you want to give me about your knickknack purchases?

Saying it's not a white woman thing and y'all grew up on the QVC channel.

I want to hear your shit, Raven.

Oh my dad loved it, Okay, why because we got some really cool shit off of it up.

Oh my god.

We had these really cool tables to like, you know, his little pop up tables to eat, like if you're watching TV, like tea trade tables.

But they had like cool cup holders.

They were legit.

We had them, no joke for like twenty years.

They're great.

Don't grew up very different? You and I? We we I know what the channel you're talking about.

I never watched it because it was shit that either A I couldn't afford or be my parents weren't gonna buy for me. So it was that was not a thing when we wanted to watch stuff that we could never afford, but we like wanted to dream about.

We'd watched the Barrett Jackson auction.

You know that was our care Yeah, I've seen that. No, I mean we didn't buy often from there. We did buy like here and there, things, and they had like those super flash sales again appealing to people like you're only a limited amount of time. People like, let's go, let's go, let's go. And that got people really like jazz that to want to buy.

And you're on the phone old school like typing on the phone, what's the what's the code?

Okay, you got a tape and like one of somebody's watching TV to yell over to the person that's hooked up to the wall on the phone like oh oh yeah, Like it was a whole thing, had your pin ready, Like it was a whole thing.

And we only I can only think of like maybe ten.

Things totally ever bought, but that like intense because it was like it was all three of us were like, oh my god, we got it. Looking back, maybe I fell victim to the consumerism as I was growing up.

I think there was one thing that I can remember. It was on the shopping channel.

It was a commercial that played on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network all the time.

It was these shoes that had these pop out skates out of the toe and out of.

The You never got one.

You didn't miss much because those shoes were heavy as fuck and it was basically platform shoes, Like it gave you an extra three inches of height because that's the only way the little mechanism could swing in. And like, yeah, you're walking around with these odd hoppers on and then you try to pump out the little wheels. They weren't the best, Like I had roller blades that were way

The TV with the one eight hundred number and the whole nine. Yeah, it was a.

Short lived glory with those shoes. But anyway, anyway, so now let's go to decision making strategies. Consumers employed different decision making strategies when making purchases. Some consumers are more rational and deliberate, carefully evaluating the available options before making a decision. Others may rely on I don't even know that word. I don't want to mispronounce it and say, houristic heuristic?

Is that supposed to be? I don't know h E U R I S T I C S heuristic.

I'm dyslexic. I can't he with you?

Maybe heuristic? I don't. I don't know.

Sure, mental shortcuts. There we go. Now, now that's gonna fuck with me. I'm gonna have to look up what that word means, because that's that's great. That sounds like a very elevated word. It's probably not. It's probably very plebe and I'm just retarded, but whatever. Others may rely on mental shortcuts to simplify the decision making process. Understanding these strategies can help businesses tailor their marketing messages accordingly.

I don't know.

Consumer behavior is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. By exploring the psychology behind consumption, we can gain valuable insights into factors that influence consumer decision making. Cultural and social influences, motivations and needs, emotional influences, cognitive processes, and decision making strategies all play a significant role in shaping consumer behavior.

Now, couple that with all the shit that goes on during Black Friday.

Yeah, I actually have I actually have a like two more other things to add to that.

Okay, so there is a few.

This article I'm going to read from I actually didn't have us pool up because it's massive. But it's called Black Friday consumer Behavior, what's today's shoppers want? And how brands should respond? And it's from twenty twenty five, and it was just written a few days ago. And this giant article is actually based on how to use all the digital information and to shift into getting better results for consumerism. Right now, this wasn't made for like normal

I'm actually very interested to hear what this article has to say about that, because every time I've read something where it's like, uh, here's what millennials like, it's like completely off base. You remember those Chevy Equinox commercials where it was like supposed to be geared towards millennials and you had that it was like a spoof video that this guy was just talking shit on them the entire time, the Chevy Cruise and all that.

No, I don't think I watched it, but oh.

I'm gonna have to find that continue.

So it says as gen Z approaches the season as a social and digital ex experience, they follow trends on TikTok, compare products through influencer reviews, and rely heavily on peer review recommendations before making purchases. From this group, authenticity matters more than aggressive discounts. They buy from brands that are aligned with their identity and communicate with transparency. For millennials, we are value driven and practical. They tend to research

And so pretty much like this whole article breaks down.

It's like it's breaks down everything you need to know about how to get this twenty twenty five's consumers to buy Verse, how it's ever been before.

I think there's yes, that's a thing for sure.

A lot of millennials are looking for what like the influencer is saying about this new vehicle before they buy, or this new product or this new restaurant or whatever else. They're like watching the TikTok to see what it says, yea even than not, though that is incorrect.

TikTok can be lyon.

So does the instagrams, so does the facebooks and all the things to that point. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and show this commercial. It is, Uh, it's amazing.

This guy, this guy right here, he's like, he's my whole soul. I'm gonna be honest, if quote.

Unquote real people, commercials were real life the Chevy millennials, so this was and this is a real commercial. This guy super imposed himself into it and was answering all the dumb shit. So they basically got this whole group of millennials in here to see if this car resonated with them, and this guy, who's also a millennial, basically just shit on everyone the entire time.

It's phenomenal. Check this out. Welcome.

Hey, yeah, god, I wish you would have busted your ass right there. Let's me let me see it so I can already tell I'm gonna hate this.

Hi guys, thanks for coming. Since you guys are millennials.

MTA stop you right there, patch, I am not a millennial. I mean no offense. I love the Peppy Lebew.

Look, yeah, you.

See what I mean, Potch. They don't even know who Pepe Lapew is. Yeah, he's a cartoon rapist. Dollar.

We want to get your honest reactions to a possible TV ad we might use to introduce the all new twenty sixteen Chevy Crews.

It's designed specifically for you, guys, So.

What does that mean? It gets easily offended and complains about everything.

First of all, the commercial will be about a bunch of free spirited millennial who all have beards and tattoos.

Too cliche.

Not everybody has tattoos, not everybody's peers, Not everybody has a beard.

Have you looked in the mirror lately? Because you have all three of those things? Nice tic tac toe tattooed there By the way, I guess I'll take exit.

Since you got is see an open field?

You gotta dance.

It's a little weird.

That's not what you do. Do you even say this image is on flee?

No?

I would say I hate you for using that word.

Not it okay? At an impromptu beach party?

No no, no, no no, don't act like you guys. Don't go to a drum circle every week.

How were you not doing this every day all day?

Look, I work like six days a week.

I mean, someone's gonna make that Lotte, right.

We all got to go to work at some point.

Oh.

I always wonder what happened to Jimirokwai. It's good to know you still find a word. You're like a DJ now or something.

Is this what everyone thinks of our generation?

Yes?

I find that insulted.

It's making us all look the same and we're all unique individuals. Oh my god, look at these two fresh off the mountain with the broken back. I see Hey, look everybody, it's why a dirping car call and a.

That's so like jumping in lakes?

Why?

This is a typical day in the life of a millennium.

But so again, I'm not a millennial. I'm a generation y. Like, why am I here right now? Oh my god, I just looked it up. I am a millennial. I hate myself now, Oh my god, Well have been a generation.

Y com merciall ends with an epic millennial breakdance party in a gritty inner city alley.

This is not a thing. No, I wouldn't say why not?

It's offensive. It's a little contrived to me.

You know what I like it?

Not every single person has to have a beer.

No, no, I have to take off my tattoos now.

Yes, especially the one to enact that looks like a limp penis.

The car should be the star.

It's not about the people on then what's the price?

What are the options? What are the features?

What you're saying is you don't want us to build an ad that appeals to you.

You want us to build a car that appeals to you.

Know what we like is for you to build a car that's not a complete piece of trash. Don't check it out, big giant door. Let make there's a shitty car behind it.

Yeah, this is the only twenty sixteen Chevy Cruise.

No you don't.

The Cruz lets you.

Easily connect your iPhone and access your music, select apps, maps, and more with Applecarplay compatibility.

So if you have Android, you just screwed.

It also has available built in for Gltypely.

What does what doesn't this car have?

I'll tell you what this car doesn't have. Reliability, lasting quality, style, speed, safety, comfort, a good price, a good marketing team, consumers, any redeeming features at all. Really, I guess.

Okay again, mock is kind of my spirit animal.

I love that he's just like actually photoshopped in that because like not one of them heard him actually talking shit like that.

No, no, God, that would have been horrible. And as like none all millennials are like that. It's like have you looked in a mirror lately?

Bro, Like, oh my gosh.

But to that point, that's that is what I think whenever for people, like we're marketing to millennials, it's like, oh, are you let's let's see what you think about our grouping here. Okay, that's gonna be it's gonna be great.

Oh my gosh, well I'll let you. I was gonna do the endowment effect, but I don't. This is more or less put like, it's about digital and like how you pretty much put something in your digital cart and how it feels you imagine it.

So this effect that people have so you like put something in your well, you don't have Amazon, but.

However, you like had you I guess, go and scope something out of the pawn shop and you're like, I'm gonna get that next paycheck.

And you go back and you're like, man, I can't.

Get it yet. But I'm gonna do it again, and you keep you keep imagining, you start to imagine.

Yourself with it. So this this effect.

Actually is a part of consumerism, but like it's a weird underbelly because the cart itself for online stuff. You put it in your cart and you're like, hm, I get that warm, little fuzzy feeling, but hey, I'm not

Yeah, intering with Amazon, but I did that with wish dot com in like twenty seventeen, right, So like, listen, this is before it, this is back, this is years ago.

And I've never purchased one thing off of there.

Oh, that wasn't exactly my intention. I was just going on Wish just to see what was there. And everybody's like, it's like a cheap Amazon. It's all made in China, and it's like ridiculously cheap, but it takes forever to get to you. And I was like, sure, I'll download the app, I'll check it out, see what it's about. Whenever I, you know, discovered it was Chinese, realistically owned and.

Operated, I deleted it.

But I did have it on my phone for a few months, and so there I was just clicking and clicking away or tapping, i should say. And uh, my cart had like a hundred items in it, and it was the randomst shit. A lot of it was like costplay things. Some of it was just like stupid things. Right then, I looked at the price tag. It was like thirty.

Dollars for everything, and I'm like, fucking purchase that now.

But they all came at like weird times. They didn't come in one mass order. One thing would come like a month from now, one thing might come eight months from now. So it was like it was like a little Christmas present. Whenever it would show up, You're like, what is this thing? What's all this writing? You open and be like, Oh, that's the boots that I ordered. That's crazy. I forgot all about those those boots as a matter of fact, that I wear for like Renfest

Funny, but I have like lists, and that actually goes into we're not going to read about it because it's going to take forever if we do the digital stuff. But it talks about lists and how like I have lists inside of my Amazon Prime I have right now, I have my Christmas list, I have Birthday lists, I have my save for later. My cart has like forty five things in it. Why and has all of it? Who knows?

But it's interesting.

It talks about how the psychology has shifted from going in person to digital.

Now and how it's still shaping how we're consumerism consumers.

And how we still are like we're waiting for that deal even though we know two weeks prior it was thirty percent off, but now it's saying there's a limited quality and it's only ten percent off. Well, now we've already imagined it for the last two weeks being in our house and with us, so now we're like, well, shit, it's in our cart. Fuck it. You know what, I don't want to miss out. The fear, the fomo, the fear of missing out. I don't want to miss out.

They're only three left.

You're telling me in all of the massive Amazon stores in the flipping country, there's only three.

Of these left. Yah, it's not true.

But for some reason, our irrational brains are run by the fear and the emotional aspect, and so now we're making purchases that we don't even want. Or if you go to Black Friday in person and you dump one thousand dollars and you buy just everything because you're in the herd mentality of the herd is buying I must buy two.

Yeah, and a lot of the YouTubers that I watched as the matter of fact, they are big with You know, we have a T shirt out right now, but it's gone to the end of this month, so if you want to get your hand, it's like they put a time stamp on it to drive more people to purchase it.

Which it's just a T shirt, like you could that year round, But would you.

Get as many sales as if it's only available for the next thirty days.

No, you don't.

The mathematics have confirmed it.

Yeah, And then there's also a whole other side of that, like the price of the shirt matters of My brother in law at one point was partial owner of a T shirt brand, him and a couple of his seal buddies. When they got out, they started a brand because that's what a lot of veterans did during that timeframe. And come to find out, a person is more likely to buy a thirty five dollars T shirt than they are to buy a ten dollars T shirt.

You told me this, and it's wild to me. I would love to look more into that, because I really don't understand why that but I guess it comes it circles back to the trust. So there's a lot of trust being talked about in a lot of the stuff.

So thirty dollars though, Man, maybe they put a lot of effort into this. It's going to be a good quality.

I trust quote unquote the brand that's going to be charging me that price.

And that's to a car, that's to a TV, that's to a house, that's to a T shirt that goes all over the place. And it makes logically on paper, that makes no sense. If this T shirt, t shirt A and T shirt B, they are the exact same shirt made from the exact same materials from the same manufacturing facility, like these are clones.

Of each other.

But shirt A costs probably eight dollars to make, and they're selling it for ten because they don't want to screw their customer base. They will make practically no sales. But the thirty dollars shirt that they cost only eight bucks to make, they will actually get. Like it's not even a hypothetical. It has been proven to such a degree that it is a mathematical fact that you will get higher and better T shirt sales with that type

The theory about the ninety nine cents too, that's a whole other ballgame that we're not going to go down. But if anyone ever wants to look it up, we look at the theory behind the ninety nine cents and how that ninety nine cents gets you every time, Like the way that they lower it if they put seventy nine cents. Oh my god, we have a huge saving sixty nine cents. That's it. We got to buy it like it's wild. How they've figured out how to use psychology against us and how to be a to just

Absolutely in today's consumer driven society, advertising and marketing play a crucial role in shaping consumer desires. Companies invest significant resources into crafting persuasive messages and creating captivating visuals to capture the attention of potential buyers. Through carefully designed campaigns, they aim not only to inform consumers about their products or services, but also to influence their preferences, behaviors, and ultimately,

You gotta have it, You just got to.

It's a whole thing, so the power of emotional peace. One of the most effective ways companies shape consumer desires is by tapping into consumers emotions. Advertisements also often evoke feelings of happiness, excitement, or desire, associating these emotions with their products or services. For example, a car commercial weight may depict a family on a road trip, creating a sense of adventure and togetherness that resonates with viewers.

By appealing to consumers' emotions, companies can create a strong connection between their brand and the desired emotional state, ultimately influencing consumers desires. The influence of social proof. Humans are social creatures, and we often look to others for guidance and validation. Companies leverage this natural inclination by utilizing social

Aspirational marketing is another powerful tool used by companies to shape consumer desires. It involves creating a desire for a product or service by associating it with a desirable lifestyle or identity. For example, like we brought up earlier, luxury brands often use aspirational marketing to appeal to customers desires

This technique not.

Only drives desire for the product itself, but also fosters a desire to attain the desired lifestyle or identity associated with it.

This is something that's used heavily on TikTok and social media's and I will say I have fallen victim myself to it. There is a lot of there is some of these really influential women that have these everything you could possibly imagine in these cute little freaking containers and like everything is perfect and everything is clean, and it's.

Like maximalism to the max.

But also it's like super organized and super like pretty, and it gets every everybody across the board boxes.

No.

So, like, there's this one lady that I love. She's African American. She has she has the most intense organizational maximalism possible. So like, for example, when she goes to hotels, she has all of her luggage is like super organized in these little containers and all this stuff. She also has containers that she takes out and so before they do anything, cleans the entire hotel top to bottom. And she has all these little cute little things to clean

It sounds like she is dealing with some serious anxiety in her life.

She doesn't. She just has like a oc but also she has a lot of money to be able to buy all these bags and all of these little things, and it's created that she's one of many, many, many women that have cultivated this lifestyle that it bleeds into the rest of us, like we feel inferior because we aren't doing all of these things, like our car isn't perfect, and they don't have all these little matching baggies and all these little cute little things.

Because are real people that have real lives and real kids. That's in insanity.

But she has kids, and there's a lot of them that have kids that are like this, and that's that's where social media has bled into a lot at least

I don't even think I could operate at that level of organization. That sounds like a living hell.

To me, Oh my god, yep, just to go.

On a trip, I have to have my whole luggage organized, and not even cleaning the hotel. That's just a woman with undiagnosed and unmedicated OCD.

To be fair, the hotels are quite dirty and and I understand cleaning a hotel.

Yeah, but I mean that's a part of it, you know what you're getting into.

Nobody wants bed bugs, but like no.

Not okay.

If you're going to a roach motel, then yeah, obviously carry a can of lysol with you, like for sure. But like if you're going to like a nicer hotel, a Hilton, uh, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, you know, the sheets probably ain't the cleanest, but like it's oh, you're not gonna die, It's gonna be okay. Like my I could just imagine that woman with her children and their rooms all have to be just so

Could I just go ride a bike? Please?

Like my god, Yeah, But to that, to your point, it does appeal to the ever present need to be a better mom, to be a better parent, to be more organized, to be more in control of your life. It is just tugging at the emotional heartstrings on that.

Oh, it is like there's this one woman that has like does all the ice. That's a big thing, that the cubes of ice and all the organization of refrigerators.

I know, you don't want to know what you're gonna have to break that one down from like an ice maker.

Like, noh, you've never seen the Okay, so I'm not gonna take too long on this, but there is a whole bunch of women that have a million different ice molds.

And what they do.

Is is they every week they redo their ice containers. So in their freezer, they have these really cool little containers right that they stack all up and they make They spend like hours making this ice, and they do like different flavored ices. They have fresh fruit and ices. They do all this stuff, and they make like rose ices. Some of them make alcohol ones too, which are really cool.

But they but they have they have no jobs.

Obviously, they make a ton of different flavored stuff so that it flavors your water, and then they they freeze them and then they unpop them all and they put them in these.

Cute little trays.

They go in their little things, and that's what they do every week. And like, they get millions of views, and so then a lot of people I read the comments because I'm a comment reader, So millions of people are like, it's it's divided. Half the people are like, oh my god, it's so amazing.

The other half are like, with what fucking time?

And now I feel shitty about myself because I'm not making my kids some fancy ass rose Laveler petal strawberry, you know, ice cube, And I'm like, so.

Be grateful you got ice in your glass? Kid? Fuck you talk about now.

But to your point, there's a I have only done something similar to this twice, but it was nothing that I would ever like put online. It was like, back when I was a drinker, I had these molds that had like the spherical ice that you would put in like a tumbler or your your whiskey glass.

I thought that was dope, be honest with you, I used it.

Maybe three times because ice melts the same way regardless of the shape it's in. And now know other people are like, no, scientifically, it's better if you do. Okay, that's cool. I just see my whiskey to be a little colder.

That was about it.

The other one was I would take black coffee and I would pour that into ice trays so that whenever I make coffee, I could cool it down to a drinkable level, not scalding, without weakening my coffee.

That's about it.

Yeah, So I mean there's that that kind of just plays them with the lifestyle situation and how they can appeal to that kind of stuff, especially when it comes to some of the number one top things that are sold last year was like kitchen aid, appliances, vacuums, you know, things for your house.

Those things sold because.

It's appealing about how you can be a better parent, more efficient, how you can keep your house cleaner, how you can keep cook better for your family, and they and they use that kind of persuasive language and stuff like that to be able to get you to buy things.

So absolutely, and that goes into number four, the impact of persuasive language and visuals. Language and Visuals play a significant role in advertising and marketing. Companies carefully choose their words and vision rules to create persuasive messages that resonate with consumers. For instance, using words like limited edition, exclusive offer, one time opportunity can create a sense of urgency and scarcity,

Millennials, even though that's a shit car.

With the advent of digital marketing, companies can now tailor their advertisements to specific target audiences by using data analytics and targeting algorithms. Absolutely, companies can identify consumers preferences, behaviors, demographics, allowing them to create personalized and highly relevant advertisements. For example, online retailers may display ads for products that align with a consumer's recent searches or browsing history. Absolutely, we know

Very true. Now, we could go to the digitalization, but we've.

Kind of already touched on that a good bit to be honest with you, and especially as we're getting into the Black Friday and the Cyber Monday conversation, I am sure that that's gonna play in very heavily. So now let's go to the final excerpt that we're gonna get into on this article, how consumerism shapes American society.

Wow, that's a heavy one. Okay.

Consumerism is deeply ingrained in American society, shaping not only the economy, but also social and cultural aspects of everyday life. It has become a defining characteristic of American identity, influencing how individuals perceive themselves and others.

Boy, if that ain't the truth.

In this section, we will explore the various social and cultural factors that contribute to the prevalence of consumerism in the United States. Number One, Media and advertising influence. The media plays a crucial role in perpetuating consumerism by bombarding individuals with advertisements and messages that promote the idea that happiness and fulfillment can be achieved through material possessions.

It's sad, but that's absolutely what they want you to believe.

Television, radio, print, and online advertisements constantly remind consumers of the latest products and trends, creating a desire to acquire and possess these items. Advertisements often appeal to emotions, associating associating products with success, happiness, and self worth. For example, a luxury car commercial. We already talked about that on earlier. Number two peer pressure and social comparison. Yeah, the keeping up with the jones Is. Consumerism is also fueled by

That is specifically curtailed snapshots of somebody's life that's not their real life. Like, that's not how they actually live. And I feel like not enough people know that.

But anyway, let's talk about cultural values and identity. The American Dream, a cultural ideal that emphasizes upward mobility and material success, has contributed to the prevalence of consumerism in American society. The pursuit of material possessions is often seen as a pathway to achieving this dream, and individuals may feel that they are failing if they do not possess

Yeah, very true, very true.

Because it's like if you're not getting a new car every five years, Like, damn, that guy really ain't doing much at work. They're not getting no promotions, you're not getting any raises whatever. But like if you're that person that's got a new car in the driveway every eighteen months, clearly you're killing.

It so crazy.

Never mind the fact that you're just like increasing the debt in your life and now before you realize that you can't even make your your initial payments on things. But like, yes, everybody thinks that you are like just killing killing it. Yeah, it's incredible now. Psychological factors. Consumerism also taps into various psychological factors that drive human behavior. The desire for novelty and the fear of missing out aka fomo contribute to the constant need to purchase new

Yeah, it might be like a year old, two years old, whatever.

Yeah, you just got done paying it off, but they're about to drop a brand new one. Your phone works fine, like, you don't need a new phone, but you desire the new phone. And then they push it to a point where you're no longer able to update your phone with the new software updates. And then they drive you and force you to get a new phone, even when you didn't want one.

True and fomo actually isn't just a catchy acronym. It's a psychological response rooted in loss of version. It describes how pain of losing an opportunity is far more powerful than the joy of gaining something. Also with Black Friday, it's about it's about victories and competitive dynamics as well, so that all actually plays in as a part of it.

Yeah, the competitive dynamics is absolutely a thing I swear every year I love watching these women fistfight over like they don't.

People don't do that anymore though, like really not really. It's actually not been really a thing since the since the around like two thousand and I think ten is when it started to slow.

So that comes into.

Play with the whole conveniency factor and how things have shifted. So I'll just give you a little bit of statistics, because it actually doesn't Okay, you feel.

Like I watched this every year of some new instance that takes place.

So in twenty twenty is when everything really shifted. Obviously the whole world shut down, so that's when the online game really picked up. So in twenty twenty one, for example, also discounts changed completely. So before twenty twenty we actually had good discounts. Twenty twenty one saw like, for example, electronic discounts like on any kind of electronics, it was at twelve percent prior to twenty twenty two. Twenty twenty,

Then in twenty twenty three.

It saw a seven point five percent increase cyber so it was nine point eight billion with just Black Friday. At in Cyber Monday, it went to thirty eight billion.

Cool.

Yeah, I could believe it so then, especially because after COVID, people realize the convenience aspect of it was way too enticing to pass up. And the company saw that people are willing to pay the up charge, so like, why fix it.

If it ain't broke. The company's making more money fucking send it well.

Also, in twenty twenty three, the term the key, the term got token Black Friday creep, so that actually means.

That they are starting a month long.

Savings instead of you know how you start seeing Black Friday stuff a month ahead time beforehand. That's the term they coin because they're starting the savings quote unquote early, so people.

Are starting to buy more and more.

Actually, we spent so much just in twenty twenty one that we actually eclipsed like many countries GTGVP.

Yeah, I believe that.

Just in that year, and then you shift to twenty twenty four, it was forty one point of forty one billion dollars just with Cyber Week included. It was globally it went up seven percent, seven percent because it's spreading globally now to other countries of everyone paying, and now the online has eclipsed to fifty seven percent. So the online is gaining, the in store is lowering, the prices aren't changing, and now they've added in all the it's now turned into instead of just one day, turn into

They're actually raising prices in October.

Yeah, and then leading into November, they're quote unquote having black Fried ideal deals already in the first week of November.

Wow.

And I mean, and that's something that we have talked about for a while, not just on the show, but in general with people. I know that like you'll watch the stores, if you were to try to buy a TV in the summer, it'll be a price October or September even you'll see that price just like out of nowhere, it goes up a little bit and you don't really think much of it. It's not like a doubled in price, but you notice it's a little bit more expensive than

Their meat. If you were to go right now and try to buy some stakes from this little mom and pop grocery store, they are at a certain price. Cool.

Every so often they'll do a meat sale and you'll have people come in and line up out the door to get in here because they're trying to get really good deals on meat and stock up and they're deep freezes. But then you'll notice they upped the price, and now they're giving you this quote unquote deal. You're buying it at stock price, Like the actual price that the store

That was it.

Yeah, it's it's pretty crappy overall, and they're actually there's a whole bunch of people being sued for that right now because they've been been to continuously do this and show that they are giving the product that I forget what it's like, fraudulent discount I think it might be the last article that we read, but it's it's a whole thing that's happening right now that people are actually

In July, the fourth of July sales. And if you could find a Christmas in July.

Sale that is this is in July is where it's at. That's how you actually get the Black Friday sales. So back to it.

We got, I think, like one more thing to read on this article.

Yeah, but it's just environmental impact. And we already talked about items.

Hurt the earth and we're not trying to side step that it is a thing, but we already kind of covered that a good here. So now let's go to CEO World Magazine Behavioral Science for Black Friday twenty twenty five Insights for Retailers and Consumers. This was published this month of this year's Matter of Fact, so let's dive in here. It says understanding shopper psychology, digital behaviors, and ethical strategies is critical this Black Friday.

Retailers can design campaigns.

That convert responsibility or excuse me responsibly, while consumers navigate the flood of promotions with confidence and clarity. Black Friday has evolved significantly since its legacy as the first Friday after Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in nineteen twenty four.

Yeah, and we.

Just talked about that on the previous episode. And it's also now that we're talking about the consumers an aspect of it. When we talked about how FDR for two years moved Thanksgiving back a week or two as a way to try to drive more Christmas sales. Looking at it from this consumeristic look at things, it's all starting to align with a whole different flavor, if you will continuing It's as earlier attempts to rebrand it as Big Friday are more accurate today, reflecting its global reach and

By mid twenty.

Twenty five, forecasts now pushed that figure over seven billion dollars, driven by faster digital adoption and higher consumer participation. Retailers need to anticipate the surge and balance promotion strategies with operational capacity. E Commerce has grown dramatically since the early days of Amazon in ninety seven in PayPal in ninety eight. Spending five years at Groupon provided firsthand insight into how digital behaviors have shifted and the operational and ethical challenges

I didn't know Coles was in the mix on this one, but it checks out. I could see it for sure.

During my years in e commerce at groupon, navigating such promotional strategies required careful oversight from both sales and operations to present, prevent rather driving misleading campaigns. Retailers would be well well served monitoring historical pricing, maintaining transparency, and aligning promotions with ethical standards. The ACCC in twenty twenty four

Yes, scams are huge, huge thing being reported right now. So everyone be really careful because apparently scams are like in everything happening, and they're hitting you with the digital marketing ads on and they're somehow getting your information too.

So yeah, absolutely, it's causing consumers significant sums. Retailers should clearly communicate authenticity, highlight secure channels, and invest in educating and protecting shoppers.

I agree.

The continued rapid evolution of AI introduces amplified opportunity, along with a whole new set of challenges. Deep fake chat bots or AI agents impersonating legitimate retailers are increasingly sophisticated retailers must deploy verification, human oversight, and proactive communication to mitigate their own risks in addition to their customers. Yeah, I absolutely can see that becoming a thing to AI scams,

Yeah wow, and like the whole.

Social media, not just on their phone on socials.

That entire paragraph is exactly what we've been talking about. So yeah, it's it's definitely crazy. And then it talks about herd mentality.

So it's crazy because I literally don't get on socials period, And I gotta say, nobody freeing experience.

I mean, but think of how much consumption of still electronic stuff that you have that you consume a day.

Sure, but I mean again, I understand I'm not your average consumer, but most of my stuff on a screen is for research purposes and there are some influences that I watch, some YouTubers that I watch for the entertainment factor of it.

But like that blows my mind. Who has two and a half hours every day to spend on socials?

I mean, it's the same as you watching kill Tony, Like it's it's the same, but it's the same concept. Instead of watching that, somebody is watching socials because there's a whole other psychological thing that goes into you being on social media and seeing what everybody else is doing and how if you feel alone it helps with loneliness, and there's just a lot of stuff that goes into it. Social media plays and plays on our I think, our weaknesses,

You got me on the Kiltony one, but that's like a once a week's show. But the truth of the matter is, yeah, Monday nights, I am spoken for. I watch Kiltony pretty much religiously because I just I do love stand up comedy and I love watching.

His little It's trash. The whole thing is, oh no, it is not.

There's a lot of trash. Not that shock no, But that's the thing. The good ones shine through, the bad ones get roasted alive, and I love both.

I love both.

But anyway, continuing on here, it says, uh, equality or wow, jeez, I'm just making more important. Equally important is herd mentality. Consumers are often drawn to carnival, to the carnival of collective activity, with a small subset often perceived as more informed or expert, subtly influencing many others. Professor of neuroscience. Michael Platt notes in Big Think feature that this tendency to follow the herd emerges from our social brain networks.

Retailers can do I know you said hard behavior, heard behavior? Heard you did you said hard behavior? I was like, no, it's herd.

Behavior triggers hard behavior.

Was hard as nails, dude, anyway, Continuing retail sailors can harness these behavioral insights responsibly through social proof, urgency, and pure influenced strategies, but must avoid manipulative tactics that erode trust and put them in the line of fire from industry and consumer protection agencies.

Yeah, that's not something that they're doing. They should. They absolutely should.

They're just like not though, but whatever, It's all about the almighty dollabil At the end of the day, after all, behavioral insights like these are highly actionable. Consumers may make fast emotional decisions aligned with Nobel Memorial Prize recipient Daniel Kainman's System IE and Slower Deliberate Choices System two. I've never heard of this gentleman, but okay, he is a Nobel Prize laureate.

Good for him.

Retailers can design campaigns appealing to both fast and slow decision making strategies of shoppers clear visuals, urgency cues and social proof for quick decisions, plus detailed product info and

It or not.

Yes, seven seconds is how long people have an attention span for now for social media as well, so if you don't grab them within the first three seconds of any video, they are likely not to even exceed seven seconds.

That blows my mind.

I remember growing up that was always a joke, like, man, you got the attention span of a goldfish because that resets every six seconds.

They have.

They have engineered the human brain now to where we have an attention span of seven seconds.

Seven seconds.

Yeah, that's not how it used to be.

No, But also it's it's all about the constant high of doom scrolling, like you're consistently being fed new things like children can't sit still and watch movies hardly that if it's not flashy and very intense, they're not gonna want to watch it. Like it's the same thing as though adults. So because we're now being programmed the same way, and so your impressions of any product is you have seven seconds to make an impact, like on somebody. So how how I ended up with the pool for the backyard?

Well, I mean it's the same as like, and they're doing it with the small children too.

We've talked about cocoa melon, which of course we don't let our children watch because we're good parents. But if you watch cocoa melon, just as an adult, every six seconds or less, the frame changes, m h. And it's it's for that same reason. It's to keep the eyes glued to the screen. It is scary, and they are training these children from basically infantile states up until adulthood to have that level of attention span that is dangerous.

Doom scrolling. It's the same shit as mind blowing.

Anyway, every touch point online, in app, or in store matters. Retailers must optimize user experience, product presentation, and trust signals for instant credibility. Finally, Elizabeth Cubler Ross reminds us there are only two emotions, love and fear. All positive emotions from love on negative emotions from fear. Retailers will ideally aim to design experiences that foster positive engagement and reduce fear driven behaviors that may ultimately lead to distrust, increased

It's customer Yeah. Wow, it is a mind blowing article.

It's pretty crazy, honestly.

How yeah, that's also very depressing. I'm a little black pilled at this moment. Gotta be honest with you. But now let's take it back in history a bit here. This is from history dot com. If I'm not mistaken, Yeah, shouts out to history dot com. What's the real history of Black Friday? The retail bonanza known as Black Friday is now an integral part of many Thanksgiving celebrations. But this holiday tradition has darker roots than you might imagine. Ooh, that sounds ominous.

Let's check it out. The first recorded use of the term black Friday was applied not to post Thanksgiving holiday shopping, but to a financial crisis, specifically the crash of the US gold market on September twenty fourth, eighteen sixty nine. Two notoriously ruthless.

Wall Street financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk. I've in my life heard of Fisk and Gold a time or two worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation's gold, hoping to drive the price sky high and sell it for an astonishing profit. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into freefall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.

Wow.

The most commonly repeated story behind the Thanksgiving shopping related to Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss or in the red, as is called an industry, stores would supposedly earn a profit when into the black as it's referred to, on the day after Thanksgiving because holiday shoppers

That's bullshit.

There's a lot of videos that are circulating. Actually, you could type in Black Friday history on TikTok and there's about one hundred video right out the gate that is specifically about these two images that are being shown and circulating I think since twenty thirteen about black slaves being sold specifically at a lower price on this day, and like how and all of that. But I did want to touch really quickly though on the original gold situation.

Actually, so it was.

Right after the Civil War.

He was trying to do things to stimulate the economy, so he flooded the market with gold, crashing the price. Then you had Fisk and Goold come in and buy it all up for pennies on the dollar as a way to drive the price back up.

It says that they were actually fish and Gould, where the president and vice president of the railroad, and had a reputation for the two for being their most ruthless.

They had actually.

Plotted months long plot to rig the gold market came to a head. Gold and Fisk had been driving up the price of gold for weeks, buying up huge reserves of this precious metal. Then one day, when President Grant caught wise to the scam, he flooded the market with gold,

Wow. Mm hmm, that is increds that's wild.

So that's how that's one theory of how the that we're getting to the actual how Now, traditionally Black Friday came about.

Yeah, I'm on screen right now, not to take away from what you were saying, but I was very curious because I have never heard of a slave auction going at discounted prices because of some sort of a day. So this isn't like a historically accurate thing. It just says slavery auction the true meaning behind Black Friday. But let's read in slaves at auction on Thursday the twenty fourth, instume we will sell da I can't read all that small script print.

So some of the pictures that.

One that says Black Friday right up above has a picture, but then when you look at it, so those pictures that you have on screen right now, there are several images that are the ones that have been cycling through the internet. And we will read from an actually all African American site that talks about this. But I did want to kind of look into it, and from what I can tell, some of these images apparently are fake and they've been cycling through and they were actually generated

All right, Well, how again, as of this moment, I'm that sounds very hoaxy, but I am willing to be proven wrong on that one. I'm not some sort of an expert when it comes to Antebellum South markets and things, But yeah, that's I just have a real hard time believing that the dude coming off the ship with a whole new group that he's about to sell is going to receive less money for his troubles because he happened to hit the port on Black Friday.

There is a historical TikTok guy.

I couldn't find his credibility, so I didn't want to add it in. But he does break down and actually like shows the logs itself and like goes into the actual like reading of the logs, and he's like, nowhere can I have I been able to find that this has actually proven? I did go and read a couple websites that were more credible that did actually say that this was incorrect, that it didn't pertain to Black Friday.

But that's why I kind of pulled up.

At least two other articles just kind of showing the background, so that way, you know, if it was historically accurate. I did want to bring it up, but I cannot at this time find anything it actually pertains to Philadelphia.

Okay, that is where Black Friday originated.

Wow, we were just there too. Let's get into it here. It says.

The real history behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the nineteen fifties, police in Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army Navy football game held on that Saturday.

Every year. For the record, go Navy beat Army. Not only were.

The Philly cops not able to take the day off, but they had to work extra long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters also took advantage of the bedlam in stores and made off with merchandise, adding to the law enforcement headache.

Okay never heard.

That by nineteen sixty one, Black Friday had caught on in Philadelphia to the extent that the city's merchants and boosters tried unsuccessfully to change it to Big Friday to remove the negative connotations. The term didn't spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as nineteen eighty five, it wasn't in common use nationwide.

Small Business Saturday.

And they actually have a new term for Sunday too, Yeah, they have It's a four day event now.

Yeah.

No, Cyber Monday is like, that's a big one now, especially stores started opening earlier and earlier on that Friday, and now the most dedicated shoppers can head outright after their Thanksgiving meals.

I have done it.

I am a huge Black Friday shopper.

Oh, I've done it before.

But again, back when I was still living in Virginia, that was the last time I really like stood in line to get into a Best Buyer or a Walmart for it. There were fist fights, there.

Was absolutely, yeah, back in the day, there were definitely more.

No, I was because I lived in the hood. I ain't got nothing to do at the time. FD.

So going back to the whole Black Friday as it may pertain to African American people. This is from Push Black Daily, Inspiring Black Stories.

Just for you.

What does Black Friday have to do with black people? Let's learn together, right, you've heard the story linking Black Friday to slavery, don't believe it. Although the holiday's origins do involve cops, it's more important to show what enslaved people were doing during the holiday season. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the Philadelphia police named Black Friday because they dreaded the heavy traffic caused by people rushing into the city for post Thanksgiving Day shopping. Where does the

Outright, but speaking to black people, it's not far fetched to wonder why many popular phrases associated with blackness are negative, black listed, black bald, black mail.

Well, okay, a couple of those. The black bald actually goes back to free masonry, believe it or not. So when a new initiate is being voted in to his would be Mason's lodge, you either put a white cube in the box or you put a black ball in the box, and it has to be unanimous. And if they open the box and there's a single black ball, that person has been blackballed.

That's where that comes from.

But anyway, according to researchers, the use of black to describe bad things is subconsciously racialized. And as real world implications, especially for darker skinned people. So what we're enslaved people doing during the holiday season Black Friday didn't exist before the Civil War. During those times, our ancestors brilliantly used

Okay, I will say I'm gonna touch quickly on the subconscious racialized divide. So I took several classes through when I was in Midwiffree School about this. There is actually something to be said about the unconscious bias of the color black and white and how it has been used throughout America to be deemed something negative. And actually there's a Harvard study that you can actually take yourself. It pretty much is a picture thing where you click yes no yes no yes no, yes no kind of a thing,

You're more negative. It has all these different subgroups.

And there's actually a study that you can watch on YouTube about it as well that a lot of African American people actually have been shown so much negative connotation with black skin that they have an actual unconscious.

Bias towards more favoriting the white skin than it is. And it's a whole thing.

So I will say that there is precedence when it comes to using the term Black Friday, and I can understand how it can feel in a negative in a negative way, but overall the black Friday term quote unquote is not linked inherently to racism. No.

Yeah, I've actually seen certain studies be done with kids and with adults. As a matter of fact, with kids, they would show like two baby dolls and they would say which one would you prefer?

Black or white? And the one baby doll is a black baby, the other one is a white baby. And more often than not, the children would lean more towards the white baby doll rather than the black even among the black community. And that was like an inherent cultural thing that they were saying is pretty much perpetuated even very young in that community.

Cut to there was a study that was done with people of the black community and how they feel about.

Biracial couples, right, and there was some very significant biases from a black woman marrying a white man as opposed to a black man marrying a white woman. It was a a very night and day comparison to what they deemed acceptable behavior. And then you had some that were just against both of them, and you had some that were very probe both of them.

It was no issue.

But for the ones that felt one way or another on that, more often than not, they felt more okay with a black woman marrying a white man, and it was very interesting to hear their reasons as to why it was.

Yeah.

Anyway, so to your point, I could see why people would inherently think that Black Friday has something to do with African American culture or the past. But I have to agree with you and what the articles have also said, it has nothing to do with the Antebellum South or anything of that sort, not from what we could find. So now we're going into the Associated Press article and you know, then.

Touches based on what we were just talking about.

So it talks about how it's also not based in racial things.

It does claim, so that it just talks about the claim in and of itself. If you go back up to the top, it just talks about the claim that is selling off the slaves, and it talks about it does say that it is false that the term is linked to the financial crash of the eighteen hundreds and then associated with Philadelphia.

The facts.

It talks about just pretty much what we've talked about, you know itself. It says that some of the posts included a photo available through the State Liberty of Victoria in Australia that shows a group of indigenous prisoners in neck chains in Western Australia. The photo is dated from

There's a lot of.

Different articles, but I just wanted to bring two different articles to it so that it didn't just seem like I was finding a single article that debunked it. There's multiple articles that share different aspects of it.

You can't believe everything you see on social media. Good cult members, that's why you're here listening to this program rather than just doom scrolling.

That's exactly why I'll do all the homework for us.

There we go.

That's our job. Our job is to do the homework that you don't have time to do. Your job is to just sit back and listen and learn, you know, and let us know in the comments what you think about things. But anyway, so now we're moving on to another article from Fast Company. Black Friday boycotts mass blackout and we ain't buying it. Protests, We'll target Trump and billionaires. Here's what we know. For the love of god, when did when did Trump make an entrance into the Black Friday shit?

Well, actually it made it into last year's Black Friday, but this is actually dated from eleven twenty this year, this article, but last year there was a huge there's a whole bunch of articles talking about how Black Friday is racist, and how it's going to be all about guns and MAGA and all this stuff, and how they're

Let's get into it here. It says grassroots and movements are urging Americans to refuse to shop or even work this Thanksgiving to send a message about the widening wealth gap. All Right, I could already kind of see where this article is leaning, but I don't want to make prejudgments. Let's get into it. It says, in our consumer driven culture, when the cost of goods is soaring, one of the most radical things you can do is not to buy

In fact, it's been a bigger year.

It's been a big year for boycotts, and some of them have been quite effective. For example, Target just reported another lackluster quarter and declining sales, particularly due to backlash and boycotts from customers after a rollback of its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Yes, that that is where I was afraid this was going. So because Trump made DEI go away now and tell us the boycott stores.

I also want to use this though, this article as an example of persuasive narratives. Absolutely, you know, because a lot of people will only read a secular article and how it is definitely about the language and the tone in which the writer is writing to you. Obviously, this is a more direct way of showing what this tone is.

Absolutely so it says, and it's not just in the US. Many Canadians have started to forego American products and are only buying quote unquote locally, as the Buy Canadian movement has drawn record participation as a reaction to President Trump's high tariffs on their country's goods. Here's what we know about the upcoming mass blackout, and we ain't buying it boycotts.

It. Stop ye know what yet? All right? Stop work if you can, if you must spend, support small local businesses and paying cash. No spending, no work, no, no surrender, thank you.

The system isn't broken.

It's working exactly as design for the wealthy. The movement website says we're not targeting small businesses or communities. We're chargeting the corporate system that profit from injustice, fuel, authoritism, authoritarianism. Man I can't read either, and it's one am in

Home Depot and Amazon.

Wow, it's asking Americans to withhold purchasing power from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday to protest three realtor realators. Yeah. Yeah, three companies ors are really hard for us tonight. Guys. Uh that align all their corporating oh my gosh, directly with the Trump administrative administration. Target for rolling back the DEI Home Depot, for working with Ice which have been arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants. What Home Depot, we diamond out immigrants no more.

No more illegals in the park working lot man.

That's you know, that's fucked up. How who's gonna who's going to do our roofs? Okay?

My cousin works for a roofing company. They hire, They hire Americans. They may speak Spanish, but they are Americans.

Amazon for allegedly funding the Trump administrative administration to secure corporate tax cuts. I didn't know that.

When corporations aligned with cruelty and its authoritive Nope, I can't say.

The word authority. Authoritarianism.

That's a big word.

Okay, I'm struggling tonight.

They must understand that our purchasing power matters. Letitia Letitia Brown, co founder of Black Voters Matter and a member of the We Ain't Buying Coalition said in the statement, economic non cooperation is a powerful, non violent tool for for a free people, and we plan to use it to make America better for all of us, not just wealthy few.

I don't even know what it says, I yeap economy.

They target billionaires and businesses supporting the Trump administration, which they argue is eroding civil rights, labor protections, diversity, equity inclusion initiatives, and weakening the United States democratic institutions.

In that essence, they are both political and economic boycotts.

All right, you, I'm not even trying to like be a super Trump supporter with this statement. Hear me out. Trump is hooking up business owners. Yes, the wealthy CEOs for sure, but even your small businesses. That these people are saying no, no shop, local, shop, small business. Those small business owners are profiting from the tax cuts that Trump is giving two business owners. So all right, yeah, if you want to stick it to Trump, don't buy

And I mean, you know, everybody's free to do what they want.

Honestly, if you're not gonna buy on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Or whatever, cool do you.

I personally don't think that that's going to be felt by the Trump administration.

But alright, I think.

I personally feel that we should be buying from small businesses anyways. I don't not any not in regards to this particular narrative. I think that we as a whole,

Little pop up stands that are happening.

Look at your local facebooks, because a lot of people are making these tiny little sheds and they're actually making home goods and all sorts of stuff and they restock like once a week. These are just normal people trying to make it work.

Absolutely, and I fully agree with that.

I mean, I try my hardest to stay away from the big stores if I can help it. And it depends on the area you live. Some people have farmers' markets all over the place. Some people you got to like look for them.

So, I mean Facebook is where I've found a lot more of these little pop up markets. They're like these little pop up they're like these little sheds that people are making outside of their homes, trying to be strategic and where they put them, and they try to restock them like once or twice a week with you know, goods of any type. I've seen some that have these amazing food that they bring out. Some of them have eggs,

So it's like an honor system thing.

It's an honor system.

A lot of them, wow, and that's working out for them.

It's actually working out a lot. A lot of people are actually doing it and not and doing the wrong things. So I think it's it kind of helps you a little bit of the you know, people are shit vibes.

So they must be in small towns. There's no way that would fly in a big city. But I mean, I'm happy to hear that that's what's going down, honestly. So now we swap over to our last article for this episode, as we wrap up Black Friday and all the historical background and the ugly tactics that these businesses are using to screw over their customer base and consumers.

Let's read into it.

This is from the Conversation Academic rigor journalistic Flame. As Black Friday sales kick off. These are the dodgy sales tactics to look out for. Oh, it's mostly a British publication. Ummm no, no, it's I'll.

Be it's here.

It's from this month though, November.

You just don't hear a lot of Americans use the term dodgy. That's why I thought, but you know, good things.

Once again.

The annual shopping extravaganza known as Black Friday is nearly upon US this year, falling on November twenty eighth, but the sales are already well underway. What started as a single day discounted shopping event on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States has blown out to a week's long sales festival in stores and online, and it has

So it is in Australian. Okay, yeah again, you don't really hear Americans use the term dodgy.

I like it.

I do like it.

I like a lot of the British Commonwealth's slang terms that they use that Americans just kind of put off by the wayside, But you know, it is what it is, dodgy sales tactics.

The ACCC says it is on the lookout for a range of misleading or deceptive sales advertising tactics. Examples include number one advertising sales as store wide quote unquote when only some items are discounted. Absolutely, I hate that one.

Number two countdown clocks or timers that show a shorter period than the actual sale to create false urgency abs so fucking loly. Number three fine print disclaimers that exclude some items from the sale. Yeah, you always got to read that fine print. Number four up to x percent off discounts that only apply to a few items, or the up to text in proximate prominently displayed or is not prominently displayed.

Excuse me, Yeah, that's the thing.

You'll see it's like ninety percent off, but then like in very small print right before it, it'll say up to ninety percent off, but it didn't mean Yeah, it's a whole bitch.

Uh.

Number five price comparisons of before and after sale discounts that are not accurate, including where the price has gone up in a short period before the discount was applied. Sadly, there are many examples of allegedly misleading sales conduct occurring at peak shopping periods. Following a similar sweep of last year's Black Friday sales, the ACCC recent only find three retailers for allegedly misleading customers by advertising discounts as store

Good.

That's excellent, So why is the ACC so strict about this kind of conduct? These examples of dodgy conduct might seem annoying, but they don't seem earth shatteringly bad, such as selling physically dangerous products. Why is the acc C so concerned about misleading conduct at Black Friday sale time and indeed retail pricing more generally? Shouldn't consumers be just be more careful? The answer lies in the come relative

I don't know.

Those dishonest sellers gain an advantage over on a sellers selling at transparent and accurate price. This risks a market that rewards poor conduct and encourages an overall rush to the bottom. Australian consumer law takes the view that consumers should be able to take advertisements they see at face value. Consumers shouldn't have to assume they are going to be tricked by sellers. I gotta tell you, that's the way

We actually have the same laws here. I just was looking them up really quick, so we have the exact same laws, and we actually have quite a few businesses that are being gone after pretty much and how to pay fines for this exact same thing. Good and same in the UK right now too, they're having the same stuff.

Good. Fuck those companies for trying to screw us. I like that. Uh, let's continue here. Such an approach would not confirm conform to the object of enhancing the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading that underlies Australian consumer laws. So how do we stop a bad deal?

If you are considering buying goods at the Black Friday sales, it is a good idea to screenshot the item before it goes on sale. Raven Lee, You're just a fucking profit over here, look at.

You that way.

I just happened to know how to do this, Like you know, you've.

Been burned a time or two, is what it is.

I have. And I've been doing Black Friday shopping since i was a kid. So yeah, I used to wake up at the buck kracking dawn literally like four am with my grandma, my mom and head out to the mall.

And like it's a whole vibe. So I've been doing this quite a while.

Hell yeah, that way, you can check at the sale discount is genuine and the item is actually the same as the one you want. Not an older or cheaper mind. When shopping at a sale, take time to look at the discount offered. Is it a real discount does it justify the spend coming up to the holiday period. Discounts may be marked up in an attractive color but still

To the ACCC.

Ideally take screenshots of what was advertised and what you received to support your claim to be treated fairly at sales time. Wow, and like you said, we have these same laws in America.

Correct, Yes, we have.

The same consumer laws here in America. We can also do the same things ammor can reamport them to small business bureaus to show that they are being unethical when it comes to discounts. So we have the same stuff. I just happened to be that it was an Australian article.

Absolutely wow, ravenly excellent work on the research on this one, honestly, and I think we all learned a few things on this episode. I didn't know that Black Friday stem from the gold situation, or Philadelphia from the Army Navy game.

That was a Yeah, football influenced our entire situation with Black Friday.

God, that most American shit I ever heard.

My God, damn, literally the most American shit. I hope I ever been learning something though today because I learned, I mean I already knew a good bit about this stuff, but I was able to, like, you know, refresh and learn some more new stuff because I didn't know actually about the gold thing either.

So and also with the price gouging and the crazy up charge and then a ten percent discount even though they just increased the price ten percent last month, that that's a that's a conspiracy that so many people believe, even though they can't verify it improve it.

Well, they've been proving it though the last two years. They've been showing it. They've been going in and the whole thing about removing the price, like the original red price is in front, black price is the original behind it. They slide them both out and they've shown multiple places

Absolutely absolutely good cult members.

We want to know what you think about this and not to jump in on the whole consumerism thing.

We do have a couple of sponsors that do need their fair shake.

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