Quotes About Consumerism

Some people see Black Friday as a much-needed break for their wallet. I see it as retail outlets showing the customers the full weight of their contempt. The frenzy to buy cheap crap from China, the human downgrade of people fighting with each other over items they can probably live without, to me, is an insult.

If an alien with an accounting degree touched down in America, it might conclude that we're a weird cult that spends 11 months living frugally and four crazy weeks buying tons of stuff we don't need. It wouldn't be entirely wrong, either.

Consumerism is so weird. It's a sort of conspiracy we collude in. You'd think shoppers spending their hard-earned cash would be highly critical. You know that the manufacturers are trying to have you on.

You can almost judge how screwed up somebody is by the kind of toilet paper they use. Go in any rich house and it's some weird coloured embossed stuff.

I think I'm developing a kind of subconscious loathing of the word 'franchise.' I just think of something that's packaged, something you can buy on a shelf and is immediately disposable. I don't know. It's a really weird word for me.

I'm obsessed with shopping. I'll get these urges to buy, like to shop for stuff on the Internet. I search for all kinds of weird gizmos I could get.

I'm obsessed with my 20s. I buy things that I wanted in my 20s. It's weird; it's a weird thing that I didn't grow out of.

Human nature doesn't change. When enough people are comfortable enough financially, there is going to be human nature that wants to spend more money on better quality and, to some degree, status symbols as well.

Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it. Well, some will still steal it, but I think we can take a bite out of piracy.

The playing field is anything but level when you walk into the grocery store. So much government subsidy goes into processed foods. Even when you're well-meaning as a parent or a shopper for yourself, you can't help but be pulled toward the highly processed food.

What Western society teaches us is that if you get enough money, power, and beautiful people to have sex with, that's going to bring you happiness. That's what every commercial, every magazine, music, movie teaches us. That's a fallacy.

In general, the Western body has become a global brand.

Fairly or not, Western consumers associate Chinese products primarily with 'low price.'

Best Buy is just too Western! They do not stock enough Chinese brands, and Chinese people do not want to buy foreign brands.

In short, Google prefers a world where we consistently go to three restaurants to a world where our choices are impossible to predict.

Seriously, American pop culture must be the most predominant force on the planet, next to pollution and poverty.

In a world of niches, we are enchained by our own consumer preferences.

Advertising, the product of capitalism, can only justify itself on the premise that the market is a force for good.

In the world where people with money overlap with restaurants and try to work out how to make more money, one of the things they talk about is the desire to find 'the new pizza.' This means a new mass-market product that can be made quickly and eaten both on the premises and as a takeaway.

The '60s are presented to kids today as a commodity.

Apparently, it makes me hard to shop for because I'm constantly buying myself presents.

Early on, my way of teasing the art world was by playing at being accessible. Like making pottery: I thought people would buy that for Christmas presents.

Our culture doesn't ask about preserving the essence of pig; it just asks how can we grow them faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper. We know that's not a noble goal.

I condemn the national gay press for its emphasis on consumerism.