Just in time for the annual Black Friday shopping craze, Netflix is releasing a documentary film about the effects of rampant consumerism — specifically, of the tactics that corporations use to take advantage of shoppers, and the lengths they go to so that we’ll buy more and buy now. Even when we’re purchasing items we don’t necessarily need or even realize we want.
Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, written and directed by Emmy Award nominee Nic Stacey (The World According to Jeff Goldblum) and coming on Wednesday, starts with the basic premise that retail has always involved a certain degree of trickery. From the size of physical shopping carts — so that you can fill a bigger cart with more items — to placing staples like milk and bread in the back of the store in the hopes that you make some impulse grabs along the way to them, retailing is first and foremost a seduction of the consumer. And marketing is likewise a psychological manipulation that’s part of the game.
“Few among us are immune to the thrills of a good buy,” Netflix explains about Buy Now!. “Whether you’re partial to designer handbags, mall brand clothing hauls, high-tech gadgets, or whatever’s on the shelves as you browse your favorite megastore, there’s always another item for sale that feels like it’s just right for you. And as it turns out, that’s all by design.”
The film explores the inner workings of our relentless consumption craze by, among other things, interviewing insiders from brands like Amazon and Apple who talk about the practices that those companies are still using.
What’s particularly incredible about a lot of the content in Buy Now! is that consumers are likely already familiar with most of it — and yet the tools work, regardless. For example, things like flash sales, limited-time offers, and messages that declare “only X items left!” convey a sense of urgency, pushing us to make snap decisions. Other common tactics are discounts and sales events, like Cyber Monday, which somehow make us believe we’re saving money by spending more.
Online, those tricks are pushed to the max. Personalized recommendations and one-click purchase options make buying now a friction-free process, with the net effect that it’s never been easier to be a shopaholic. It’s a hamster wheel you more or less can’t escape, the same way that a certain percentage of Netflix subscribers will watch this film on the streaming giant’s ad-supported tier — where they’ll be warned about overspending, even as Netflix ads encourage them to spend more.
