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Friday 5
Buy now!
29 November, 2024
Today is Black Friday, although you probably don’t need telling that given the scale of advertising and offers available from a retail sector that has become gripped by it.
Although there has been something of a backlash against rampant consumerism in recent years, this year the Netflix documentary, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, released last week, has stepped this up. The filmmakers spoke to former employees of Amazon, Unilever and Adidas to lift the lid on the dark arts of marketing used to make you buy more – and the vast scale of waste that results from it, and the environmental impact that is having.
If this is something you spend a lot of time thinking about then you may not learn anything new from the film (and there’s something odd in the AI depictions and narration by a digital personal assistant). But the documentary does a good job of highlighting the manipulation and impact of a retail market that’s become increasingly available and aggressive, and it’s quickly become one of Netflix’s most watched films. And it certainly will make you pause and think before you hit “buy” on that discounted jumper or phone upgrade.
So what’s the answer? We need to learn to buy better and buy for longer. Companies need to start to think about ways to extend product life, charging for repairs and refurbishment. We are already seeing a lot of great examples of this (hats off to IKEA and eBay for championing the circular economy) but there’s a lot more to be done.
By Patrick Bapty