Our Obsession with Being Consumers

The recent coordinated boycotts for Black Friday weekend were designed to send a message. We, as consumers, have real power when it comes to our wallets. We’ve seen this work many times this year. Target, a target of We Ain’t Buying It, has had a dismal 2025—lost sales, stock prices down, and the CEO out. Disney faced millions of cancellations when they tried to appease the orange tyrant by taking Kimmel off the air.

Boycotts do work, and it will be interesting to see how Target, Home Depot, and Amazon performed over the weekend. However, the boycott shouldn’t end today. You can continue to spend money locally or with brands that share your values. The Goods Unite Us app is a great tool for determining how companies contribute to politicians.

But let’s take a step back from boycotting and redirecting spend. The root of all of this is that Americans are devoted consumers. After all, that’s the framework of our economy. We are obsessed with stuff and getting more stuff. If there’s one thing America does well, it’s marketing. We are conditioned every day to consume. Much of what we buy isn’t a necessity. It’s a want. We want the latest gadgets, styles, and things that sit on shelves and collect dust.

Our consumerism is an addiction. Ecommerce behemoths have actually engineered their sites to feed this. They make it easy to order and show you things you’ll like based on previous purchases or browsing. Their algorithm mimics how the consumer brain works. It’s about giving you some satisfaction that whatever you add to cart will somehow make all your worries, doubts, and heartache better.

It doesn’t. We’ve all been trying to fill up the holes that trauma caused by collecting stuff. We’ve got homes full of things we rarely use or wear, but just knowing it’s there may give us a quick pump of dopamine.

How do we stop this cycle? Becoming a more conscious consumer helps. We can boycott the companies that are clearly aligned with a fascist regime and want nothing more than to control the consumer hive mind. We can redirect our dollars to local and progressive brands.

But how about we take this one step further? Reworking the consumer brain requires the same steps as any addiction recovery. We must be more mindful and ask deep questions about every purchase, even if it’s a $5 tchotchke.

One way to topple this tyranny and build a better democracy is to end the cycle of consumer addiction. There’s no shame in desiring a new outfit or electronic, but we have to be more practical in how we shop and leave the impulse buying behind. We must be purposeful in not letting the retail corporate raiders have such power over us.

We can no longer be slaves to things. In the end, all this simply weighs us down. I know from experience. Imagine sitting in a room full of crystal, china, and other shiny things. What would I do with all this stuff that now belonged to me after the passing of my mother, brother, and grandmother?

I thought for years I had to keep the stuff and accumulate new stuff, too. To get rid of it would untether me from the physical things left behind. Some of the furniture still smelled like my granny’s cakes. There was jewelry that still smelled of my mom’s perfume, Youth Dew.

It was an albatross around my neck until I finally realized it’s just stuff. I got rid of a lot, a deep purge. Yet, I was still a devoted consumer. Then something shifted a bit, and I looked around my home and thought: what would I not care to leave behind? The answer was almost everything.

I am not perfect by any means, but my consumer brain is rewiring. I’ve been Target and Amazon free for almost a year. I haven’t missed out on anything. In parting, I would say that any discretionary spending you have, use it for experiences. They last much longer and give you much more than stuff

.