Taking a Look at Impulse Buying

Andrew Leonard's "Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization" argues that the Black Friday shopping spree has begun to get out of hand in the previous years. Leonard explains that consumerism is a great thing for America, but showing Americans that it is okay to go crazy when shopping for deals is not the way to approach the buying markets. He mentions a Target advertisement and states that, "The Crazy Target Lady is not a joke. Watch her cannibalize her gingerbread man, or strategize her reverse psychology shopping techniques... she is America. She might be a lunatic, but it's a culturally approved lunacy" (Leonard 166). The author emphasizes how Americans embrace the acts of the target lady as funny and amusing, but during Black Friday shopping, some shoppers will take the night to the extreme like the advertisement does. He does remind us that there is light at the end of the tunnel, by reporting how shoppers are seeing the problems with the night of crazy shopping. I agree with Leonard that there are problems with Black Friday ads, and that consumers are realizing Black Friday shopping is taking away from Thanksgiving.

Black Friday shopping is a controversial issue in the United States; while many believe the day after Thanksgiving is a part of holiday festivities, others view it as destructive. Throughout “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” Andrew Leonard argues that the chaos of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in which crowds of Americans shop all night for extremely low prices, lessens the sophistication of Americans and the true meaning of the holidays. People become so consumed in the idea of endless sale prices that they forget to embrace what they already have, such as family, food, and shelter. He believes that Black Friday shopping has become out of control and describes the negative effects of excessive consumerism. he explains how most consumers act completely insane while Black Friday shopping and how society encourages this behavior by creating commercials and advertisements. Furthermore, Leonard states that it hurts the economy and damages one’s mental health. While Leonard is probably wrong when he claims that Black Friday shopping is completely troublesome to America’s well-being, he is right that consumerism overpowers the true significance of Thanksgiving.

A famous writer for the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell has written an article, “The Science of Shopping”, which is based on Paco Underhill’s study of retail anthropology. The intention of a retail store is obvious- that is to attract customers and convince them to perchance as much as they can. There is so much knowledge that we can study, such that how the environment affects people’s thinking. These are tiny details that we don’t usually think about. The reason of how Paco Underhill success is because he notices these details. Details determine success or failure. Paco Undnerhill—a talent and passion environmental psychologist, provides us a new point of view of the science of displaying products,

Everyday thousands of retail stores throughout the United States open up their stores in the morning for the sole purpose of attracting customers and selling them merchandise. For this assignment I decided to do a store analysis of the retail giant Wal-Mart. To begin with I will evaluate the store layout and design. Next I will explain the visual merchandising techniques used that Wal-Mart uses. Finally I will discuss the problems and recommendations that I have for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has continually been a leader in the retail industry, and it all starts with the layout of the store.

This is made very obvious by things like commercials that encourage one to purchase certain products immediately, even though what one may have may be perfectly fine. Buying and repurchasing as many items as you can is strongly encouraged by the media, even if it is not necessary. One can never have enough and things like Black Friday are a proof of this. Every single year, people spend enormous amounts of money on Black Friday–almost putting themselves in debt--to buy what’s new: as if stores are not selling the same things they have been selling all year and that the only good deals that exist are on Black Friday. In America, people are being fooled to believe that what they are buying is always valuable, but what one needs to realize is that value comes from its

In the essay “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” the author, Andrew Leonard, makes the argument that, “The out-of-control marketing and consumer insanity” (135) has taken over Thanksgiving and the days following it. Sadly, as consumers, we have forgotten what Thanksgiving is really all about. Marketing businesses have gone overboard brainwashing consumers with advertisements pumping them up to shop on Black Friday and the days that follow. Moreover, marketing businesses have caused the actions we see and hear about on Black Friday such as people being trampled, as consumers rush into stores to shop the sales, and are proof of this insanity. I strongly agree with Leonard’s arguments from “Black Friday:

Today’s economy and the increased unemployment rate have made the average American household drastically change their spending habits. The average household has to function on surviving with less. Which brings me to my topic. We have become a savvier shopper; ultimately looking for the establishment can offer the most for our money with out sacrificing quality. We have become “bargain shoppers”. When I think of a discount store two major companies come to mind Target and Wal-Mart. The merchandise and services provided are pretty much comparable. Many of its customer population shops there for two simply reasons one is out of loyalty and the other being it’s a preference.

In recent interviews conducted with five target audience members who all shop the Target brand on average once per week, all but one was a Red Card credit card holder. The fifth participant shopped at Target as often as the others, both online and retail, but cited not wanting another credit card as the reason for not having a Red Card. The other four interviewees were all familiar with the 5 percent discount on all purchases, free online shipping with no minimum purchase, and easy in-store returns. One also like the 5 percent donation Target makes to local schools of choice. None mentioned the 5 percent off for one day of shopping for every two prescriptions filled as incentive. Three of the five interviewed said that Target was their online retailer of choice, compared to the other two who stated Amazon as their preference. When asked what improvements, if any, could be made to better service customer needs, all interviewees who offered an answer mentioned website reliability and slowness as areas of concern. Due to these concerns, none participated in designer releases, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday during the past year. Of those interviewed, on average, 12 percent of their total Target shopping was done online vs. 88 percent in store. Once also stated that she would like the ability to make online purchases through the Cartwheel app.

“Is this a gift?,” the cordial cashier asks my mom at the checkout counter at Target during Christmas season. Around me, I see people bustling in all directions, scrambling to find those perfect presents that, sooner or later, will be forgotten about, buried in the darkest crevices of one’s closet or, perhaps, already on their way to the dumpster. I have oftentimes wondered what instigates people to accumulate objects, which end up barely fulfilling their needs, therefore, initiating the never-ending cycle of consumerism.

For generations, Americans has been brainwashed by the media to believe that what is displayed on television is the ideal perception of what real beauty have manipulated American citizens of what style looks like. Furthermore, with their many brainwashing strategies, that means more and more consumers spending beyond their budget. Our perspectives have been heavily influenced by what they believe is nice, but can we afford it all? With unrealistic combination of goods in store, plazas, and mall, consuming has become a bad behavior of some. In support of my argument of the “Overspending”, author Gladwell’s article “The Science of Shopping” also argues that stores adjust to fit the needs and wants of the shopper are evidently presented. With that being said, we have no idea when we are being manipulated into unrealistic shopping behavior that is influenced by the way the advertisement is presented in visual sight. Author Gladwell gets a “retail anthropologist” and “urban geographer” named Paco Underhill to give breakdown points of how he helps brand name stores influence consumers into persuasion of buying more. However, most of us fall short of that discipline, while being persuaded to overspend during our store visits.

Another commonality amongst our findings was that we found most people question their purchases after they’ve been bought. Regardless of the item, whether it is a fishing rod or makeup, almost all of our interviewees all mentioned having a feeling of guilt for purchasing an impulse buy that was stimulated from a selfie used in marketing.

| Arpit Minhas, Tim Gaugler, Christopher ScwartzRetailing –Marketing 327 Fall 2015 – Dr. Denise T. Ogden

Consumers have certain behavioral tendencies when faced in certain situations. In Why We Buy, the author Paco Underhill details certain behavioral characteristics people tend to have in different types of retail stores. Many consumers don’t think about what their actions mean when checking out or buying products. But to Mr. Underhill, the gender of the person, the people they’re with, the amount of times the person touches an object, the amount of time spent on checking a particular product, the time they came in, and the time they leave, all factor into a database to determine different behavioral trend consumers have. It is these trends that they find in order to correct a problem a store or retailer didn’t know they have to increase sales and create a better flow in the store environment.

The purpose of this research is to examine consumer behavior on Black Friday. Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year, and it is all driven by the chance for consumers to save the most amount of money possible while getting their holiday shopping done. Research was done online, and also through personal experiences. By understanding what retailers and consumers hope to accomplish on this day can have a positive impact on everyone. Consumers are able to get what they want with the least amount of turmoil, and retailers are able to turn a profit. This research can be most helpful to merchants, as it will help them to understand what a consumer

Shopping and buying have become an addiction, to consume increasingly of what is not needed. Consumers are compelled to shop and purchase items that are, for a brief time, marketed at a discounted rate.