Plagued Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

[Phil The Thrill]

$100+ dollars for a fucking Nerf Gun. https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/191701
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It doesn't have any realistic detail - it's made of the same generic green plastic and has the same orange safety tip you'd find on any other toy gun. But it's STAR WARS and the packaging has Temura Morrison's picture on it, so I guess that means it's worth three figures.
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[NoReturn]

Well, yeah. I know a guy who prides himself on minimalism- only owns one pair of shoes, one spoon, one fork, one cup, you get the idea. He's also cheap, so he doesn't want to go out. Thinks pretty much everyone's a consoomer. On the other hand, the guy is constantly complaining about being lonely. He's an interesting person in other ways and I can pretty much guarantee people would spend more time with him if, you know, there was anywhere to sit and a spare clean cup.

Consoom minimalism!

I am in Year 12 this year and so many girls in my grade have "small buisnesses" where they sell stuff like jewelry, makeup and one even sells brass knuckles as part of her "self-defence keychains". All of them are also on TikTok and I don't get it.

So unique! No other shops like it! Definitely not just repackaging and reselling shit from China!

What's up with Gen Z kids thinking they can become successful buisnessmen through the power of social media and overly flashy Tik Tok videos showing their "buisnesses"?

I mean... it’s basically what their mother/grandmas/aunts did with Avon, Herbalife, essential oils, but with a glossy aesthetic, “grind” mentality and younger girls.

I clearly read into things too much and I like to sperg (going trhu something irl so I kinda decompress here) but I don’t like how consumerism has started to permeate every single aspect of life starting from your early teens. You can’t have a harmless hobby because it will be transformed into an “opportunity”.

^ This desu, but I think it goes even beyond that.
These "TikTok Made Me Buy It" things are basically micro-infomercials.
and like Pumpkin said:

I think that's the saddest part of modern society right now. If you do anything you like, you have to make money off of it. Or at least have some justification on why you do it, like you at least get internet fame. Otherwise, why are you wasting your time not making money?

"Grinding" comes from the whole "Grind/hustle" culture that they're seeing around them from adults.
and also:

The quest for instant riches with little-to-no effort is as old as time itself. What's funny about it is the more people try to squeeze money out of seemingly "easy" schemes, the more work they end up doing and they often end up spending more (or saving less) money too.

These Chinese plasticrap things have flooded the market, so it has actually become a marketing game more than a product quality game. Some part of me then worries about how this effect will scale over time.

As an example, back in the 90s there were MLMs for things like Tupperware and Avon, but there were also MLMs for "social good businesses" that sold things that we (in my opinion) junk, but the selling point was "Oh if you buy this shitty necklace made by a Kenyan chick, we'll donate $X to their village." and middle-class moms would eat that shit up. We're seeing that same effect now with other things, where the marketing is less about the product and more about who gets the profits from its sale:

• "Buy my lip gloss because I'm a small woman-owned business"
• "Buy my [Thing I imported in bulk from China] because I'm a Native American with disabilities"
• "Buy my pins to show your own sexual/gender identity because I'm LGBTQ2"

If marketing is then about identity, businesses will start making certain judgements like "I can offer a higher-quality product as a straight woman, or say I'm [whatever marketing term] and save money on production."

True. Unlike all these girls, I want to be successful and independent (already happy) but I'm just too lazy to even work for it. I don't even care about school as much as I should be academically.

Spoiler: A smilodon's personal opinions

Lies lies it's all lies! They tell you to do well in school and where does that get you? Nowhere that's where. It's all about who you know and your ability to complete tasks. That's it.
You want to be successful in life? Work on learning to be social in a positive, constructive way. Build skills that don't make you want to tear your eyes out when you apply them, and never spend more than you make.
There you go. I just saved you a shit ton of years of work. Learn from my mistakes.

 

[Yeeted Teet]

Consoom minimalism!

Speaking of which, you may have already noticed that a lot of internet minimalists who make a big deal of being minimalists all have the same aesthetic- earth toned colour palette, house plants, linen. The idea of owning less crap has become a subculture in itself. I often see it mentioned in the same breath as sustainable or eco-friendly and on that side of things you find a lot of products to consoom even though it completely misses the point, like people replacing all their clothes with "ethical slow fashion" when the more ethical thing to do would be to properly care for the clothes they already had to make them last as long as possible.

My favourite is eco-friendly travel cutlery sets that are meant to be an alternative to single use plastic utensils, especially when they're made of wood that won't last anywhere near as long as the metal ones you could just bring from home. There are so many of these on the market it's unreal.

 

[Glowie Hunter Art Bell]

I feel that the amount of millennials spending all of their savings on consooming is overly exaggerated by baby boomers, that don't want to accept the fact that they had it easier.

If you've ever met some normie millenials, its not exaggerated

 

[NoReturn]

Speaking of which, you may have already noticed that a lot of internet minimalists who make a big deal of being minimalists all have the same aesthetic- earth toned colour palette, house plants, linen. The idea of owning less crap has become a subculture in itself. I often see it mentioned in the same breath as sustainable or eco-friendly and on that side of things you find a lot of products to consoom even though it completely misses the point, like people replacing all their clothes with "ethical slow fashion" when the more ethical thing to do would be to properly care for the clothes they already had to make them last as long as possible.

My favourite is eco-friendly travel cutlery sets that are meant to be an alternative to single use plastic utensils, especially when they're made of wood that won't last anywhere near as long as the metal ones you could just bring from home. There are so many of these on the market it's unreal.

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A lot of them seem to confuse the minimalist aesthetic with minimalist living.

Spoiler: Off-topic because I actually like it

Someone I actually like on YouTube is Shebli the "eco minimalist" because while she does to things like reviews and such, she also doesn't shy away from doing less glamorous videos like this one:

She's the one who taught me that when you use period panties, you're supposed to keep the bloody ones in a bucket of water until you wash them. Yeehaw.

On topic because I hate it:

This one is extra-special because she make sure to include a shot of her drinking iced coffee with a reusable straw:

 

[Lobster Cult High Priest]

Gen Z has grown up on the mentality of "consuming product" since we were all in primary school and people would wear Nikes and Adidas clothes on mufti days and sometimes the other girls would even wear makeup and we were about 10-12 years old too.

As an older Gen Z I remember when it was Aeropostale, American Eagle, Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch.

 

[Pickle Dick]

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ngl, if i was one of these closeted funko hoarders, id buy one of these to prevent embarrassment for and from anything that is in my house

 

[Dimensional Sperge]

ngl, if i was one of these closeted funko hoarders, id buy one of these to prevent embarrassment for and from anything that is in my house

I would too. Funko pops are hideous lumps of plastic molded into very vague representations of characters from popular western media and some idiots even leave them in the box. They won't be worth shit when the market for these quantity > quality figures comes crashing down!

 

[Autistic Joe]

Gen Z has grown up on the mentality of "consuming product" since we were all in primary school and people would wear Nikes and Adidas clothes on mufti days and sometimes the other girls would even wear makeup and we were about 10-12 years old too.

As an older Gen Z I remember when it was Aeropostale, American Eagle, Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch.

Trust me, this didn't just start with Gen-Z teens (although they're clearly taking it to the next level). It was the same dumb obsession with Brand Names™ for us Gen-X'ers back in the 80's except it was Reebok, Benetton, Gucci, Izod Lacoste, and others.

Meanwhile I wore brands from Sears. My parents couldn't afford the nice Izod shirts with the little alligator, but Sears had a knock-off brand with a little dragon breathing flames (actually, similar to my current pfp lol)

 

[Andrew Neiman]

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Ugh.

$100+ dollars for a fucking Nerf Gun. https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/191701
View attachment 2882490
It doesn't have any realistic detail - it's made of the same generic green plastic and has the same orange safety tip you'd find on any other toy gun. But it's STAR WARS and the packaging has Temura Morrison's picture on it, so I guess that means it's worth three figures.
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A lot of the original Star Wars props, sets, costumes and miniatures were semi-improvised -- for instance, the same jet engine part serves as both IG-88's head and as the drink dispensers in the Mos Eisley cantina. I'd be willing to bet that Boba Fett's rifle was something like that -- bits of an actual vintage gun combined with whatever random spare parts were on hand. I think this contributes a lot to the gritty, lived-in feel that gives the original trilogy so much of its charm. But it's odd to see Disney spending millions and millions to create these shiny, focus-tested replicas of originals that were probably held together with duct tape.

 

[Dimensional Sperge]

Trust me, this didn't just start with Gen-Z teens (although they're clearly taking it to the next level). It was the same dumb obsession with Brand Names™ for us Gen-X'ers back in the 80's except it was Reebok, Benetton, Gucci, Izod Lacoste, and others. Meanwhile I wore brands from Sears. My parents couldn't afford the nice Izod shirts with the little alligator, but Sears had a knock-off brand with a little dragon breathing flames (actually, similar to my current pfp lol)

Not surprised that this brand stuff has been going on for a few generations now but I feel like this trend of hyper product consooming has started with Gen Z and that it's not going to go away any time soon. The next generation (Gen Alpha) which started in 2013 seem like they'll continue this trend of consume product. They are the generation that has completely grown up with the internet and all idolise YouTubers and their merchandise/content. Now they're all on Roblox being exposed to this rubbish and are all trying to dress like they're rich and cool. My little brother was born in 2013 and he told me that some girls would always wear and have merchandise that's the modern equivalent of modern Bratz dolls now they're just in BDSM gear and are anatomically correct not to mention ugly looking.

Also, that shirt looks very nice for a Lacoste imitation.

 

[make_it_so]

Speaking of which, you may have already noticed that a lot of internet minimalists who make a big deal of being minimalists all have the same aesthetic- earth toned colour palette, house plants, linen. The idea of owning less crap has become a subculture in itself. I often see it mentioned in the same breath as sustainable or eco-friendly and on that side of things you find a lot of products to consoom even though it completely misses the point, like people replacing all their clothes with "ethical slow fashion" when the more ethical thing to do would be to properly care for the clothes they already had to make them last as long as possible.

My favourite is eco-friendly travel cutlery sets that are meant to be an alternative to single use plastic utensils, especially when they're made of wood that won't last anywhere near as long as the metal ones you could just bring from home. There are so many of these on the market it's unreal.

Those things look familiar.

 

[Glowie Hunter Art Bell]

The fact that my TV isn't just a TV and forces me to watch ads through shit ass streaming apps rather than just serve as a large computer moniter makes Smart TVs just as retarded. TVs should just be TVs, the fact that I can't buy a non smartTV at any of my local stores and had to go online to find one makes it even worse.

I was pleasantly suprised by my smart TV. Got it from Meijer for $100 on sale to use as a spare monitor, ended up putting it in the bedroom. Really nice to just push a button on the remote, put on a youtube documentary and fall asleep

 

[AGPinochet]

A lot of the original Star Wars props, sets, costumes and miniatures were semi-improvised

Correct, many guns were built around chopped up WW2 Surplus firearms and other commonly available guns at the time, Here is the IMFDB index for the Star Wars franchise if anyone want to see what guns were used in what movies/shows

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Star_Wars

 

[Autistic Joe]

Not surprised that this brand stuff has been going on for a few generations now but I feel like this trend of hyper product consooming has started with Gen Z and that it's not going to go away any time soon.

Yeah thinking back even further, it really began (no surprise) with the Boomer Consoomers when they were growing up in the 50's/60's. They were the first generation to grow up with mass-media and advertising targeted directly at them. Before that ads were largely targeted towards housewives (e.g. the original "soap" operas on radio) and more commonly touted the virtues/benefits of a better product, rather than buying crap you don't need just for the sake of buying.

I'd say what spawned consooming was the perfect combination of a large, young, impulsive & impressionable demographic (boomers as children), strong economy with more discretionary household spending, development of low-cost production (plastic), all magnified by the universal reach of a visual medium (tv).

So yeah, we can blame the boomers for starting it... each generation since then kicks it up a notch, and the internet gave it steroids. Like you said it's evolved into hyper-consooming at this point.

Also, that shirt looks very nice for a Lacoste imitation.

Yeah they were great shirts, comfortable and well-made! (Plus dragons are way cooler than alligators.) During and after the economic turbulence of the 70's, my parents really knew how to stretch a dollar, and taught me some good Anti-Consoomerism lessons along the way like buying for quality/longevity not brand-name.

I mean I've certainly had small collections of things over the years, but never anything that took over my life or took over entire rooms. I cringe when I see the photos/videos in this thread.

 

[Dimensional Sperge]

Yeah they were great shirts, comfortable and well-made! (Plus dragons are way cooler than alligators.) During and after the economic turbulence of the 70's, my parents really knew how to stretch a dollar, and taught me some good Anti-Consoomerism lessons along the way like buying for quality/longevity not brand-name.

I mean I've certainly had small collections of things over the years, but never anything that took over my life or took over entire rooms. I cringe when I see the photos/videos in this thread.

That's good to hear and good on your parents for teaching you some good Anti-Consoomerism. I personally only buy things that I like and make sure that they are a good quality and price. I do have some brand name stuff like Adidas, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger but that's because I like the clothes themselves, the designs and they were not that bad in price too.

I do collect figureines that are from anime, TV shows and games I like but I rarely buy figures and even then make sure that they are of very good quality and not too expensive. Also, Funko Pops are a no-no in my books and I am planning on having a whole room devoted to my own hobbies if I ever get the chance to own my own house in the future but it wont be crazily filled up with stuff like some rooms on this thread.

 

[Dimensional Sperge]

lol the box has a fucking "45" on it Legacy indeed!

She looks like the female version of the Soyjack meme. Very cringe and RGB is retarded (coming from a girl myself).

 

[George Lucas]

The fact that my TV isn't just a TV and forces me to watch ads through shit ass streaming apps rather than just serve as a large computer moniter makes Smart TVs just as retarded. TVs should just be TVs, the fact that I can't buy a non smartTV at any of my local stores and had to go online to find one makes it even worse.

This is a problem with inflation and downward price pressure. Maintaining profit when a PRC company can offer a (worse but who cares) TV for $300 requires you to find ways to make money while keeping the price down. That’s where ads and bloatware come in. Thankfully the ‘premium’ brands are usually unaffected because their lower volumes demand higher prices anyway, but even Microsoft gave in and nearly every version of Windows has ads now (even professional business versions).

Every Verizon (Android?) phone in the US used to have NFL Mobile installed on it, and you couldn’t remove it.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Yeah thinking back even further, it really began (no surprise) with the Boomer Consoomers when they were growing up in the 50's/60's. They were the first generation to grow up with mass-media and advertising targeted directly at them. Before that ads were largely targeted towards housewives (e.g. the original "soap" operas on radio) and more commonly touted the virtues/benefits of a better product, rather than buying crap you don't need just for the sake of buying.

Ads were targeted toward all groups, although housewives were the largest demographic for radio and later TV since they'd have the TV/radio on all day at home. In the evening/prime time slot there'd be advertising toward men like the infamous Flintstones cigarette ads (which was primetime TV at that point since it was basically like the Simpsons of its era). Advertising toward men would usually be seen in newspapers and magazines with a male reader base.

And I'm not sure if boomer consoomers really started it. While people hoarding useless things probably goes back to some caveman's bone collection, the modern mentality is probably a late 19th century thing which unsurprisingly is when the advertising industry and mass media started taking off. I can't think off the top of my head any examples, but I'm sure if you look through lists of bizarre trivia you'd read about people 125 years ago with a similar mentality we see today. I know by the 50s, the time that boomers were kids, you can already see adults spending money on odd trinkets like my 80-something grandmother and her collection of those little spoons which according to this thread is pretty common among people her age. Baseball cards might be the male version since those were often targeted toward adults (nominally) since they usually appeared in cigarette packets until too many players decided they didn't want to promote cigarettes so they switched to putting cards in gum packets instead.

The thing with Boomer Consoomers is that's when consoomerism started merging with pop culture. Like now it wasn't just a celebrity endorsing chewing gum or cigarettes or whatever, now he had his own TV show. Then you had shit like Elvis and the Beatles where it wasn't just music but an entire cultural trend (way more than like Frank Sinatra or whoever) and shit like the Monkees (corporate Beatles but meant to sell merchandise and advertisements to kids/teenage girls). Action figures came out in the 60s too which gave all sorts of new incentive to buy entire sets of things and keep them hanging around. The earliest trading card collections that weren't just bonuses like the cigarette cards or gum cards came out in the 50s and 60s too, promoting popular shit at the time.

This all set the scene for the 70s where consoomerism as we know it emerged. All of your favorite products would have a cartoon, toyline, and by the end of the decade a video game in arcades or Atari (i.e. Halloween, the band Journey, etc.). Movie-based toylines took off thanks to George Lucas and Star Wars. You had KISS deliberately encourage marketers to put their faces and name over everything to get this effect. Product placement really started to show up in movies where the characters would be eating or drinking some popular brand that paid for it, although this is probably most famous in ET (which was the 80s granted) which is why Reeses Pieces as a product took off at all.

Enough of a history lesson, here's some random boomer consoomer shit.

Reddit user buys largest Elvis collection in the world:

https://archive.is/bBb8Q

Wall to wall, floor to ceiling Elvis collection:


A much smaller Plebbit Elvis collection:


KISS ate this Redditor's room:


Funkopop crossover. I guess KISS is a little too boomer for Funkopop's target audience so there's only four KISS Funkos.


Some boomer stuffed a room full of Harley-Davidson memorabilia that added up costs as much as several bikes. There's more where this came from (https://archive.is/CpjOF).

 

[moocow]

Reddit user buys largest Elvis collection in the world:

At least Elvis and Harley Davidson made meaningful contributions to American culture (insert "lol Elvis sucks and Harleys blow" jokes here). They're more worthy of commemoration than fucking Funko Pops.

Shame a redditor got his orange-dust covered paws on the Elvis collection. That won't stay pristine for long.