"Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy" - A Better Capitalism Review
- Karen Kuykendall
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
For those of you who, like me, enjoy spending some TV time on documentaries, there are a number of thought-provoking choices available right now. One that caught my eye this past week was "Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy" on Netflix. This 2024 film explores how many companies ensure that consumers keep buying their products on a continuous basis, and the damaging effects of this business model.
The doc's format is set up as five rules for understanding how to persuade shoppers to constantly buy more. An AI-generated voice guides its "students" through the lessons, giving tips on what and what not to do to achieve profit maximization. Sprinkled throughout the film are interviews with ex-CEOs, tech designers, and marketing strategists who come clean about how their industries function.
In order, the rules of success are:
Sell More
Accompanied by psychedelic and imaginary images, the mesmerizing voice of the AI bot guides its listeners through the details of the first rule: sell more. "Provide constant motivation and buying opportunities" it advises.
The voice points out examples of the very successful marketing technique of storytelling, especially in the apparel industry, that constantly creates objects of desire. Former Adidas CEO Eric Liedtke details the use of music, artists, and celebrities to promote a never-ending craving for something new. Clothing manufacturer Roger Lee comments that there used to be a spring and fall release; now there is a new release every month. As a result, over 100 billion pieces of apparel are produced every year.
Maren Costa, a former Amazon Principle User Experience Designer, describes how all of the company's online experience details are constantly tweaked to shorten a customer's buying time. Profit maximization, she says, depends on the customer being able to acquire things as quickly as possible, and Amazon is constantly developing new ways to get people to do so.
As a reminder, shopping can have the same effect as a drug on brain chemistry. Though not addressed in the film, dopamine receptors in the brain are activated when a person experiences something new, exciting, or challenging. According to this article about shopping from NPR, some scientists believe that impulsiveness is related to a high dopamine level that occurs when a person's dopamine regulator is not working properly or because other chemicals are affecting that trait. Whatever the reason, marketing pros have made their own science of how to activate this rush through many different and effective techniques.
Waste More
In order to sell more, a company must produce more. Some of the most startling statistics of the film are the amount of goods produced in a given time period:
2.5 million shoes every hour
68,733 phones every hour
190,000 garments every minute
12 tons of plastic every second
Beside the sheer volume of stuff that companies produce, the business model of planned obsolescence has become a dominant feature in many industries. Examples include the lightbulb, electronic goods, and fast fashion (see our post on this subject here). These and many other products are specifically designed for limited use and untimely failure.
In particular, tech companies push customers into replacing still useful products by making it difficult, if not impossible, to replace a worn-out part. Thirteen million cell phones are thrown out every day, in part because companies make battery replacement such a challenge. For repair companies that assist customers with this issue, lawyers are hired to try and block them from doing so.
Even when products are still in good shape, companies often require their employees to destroy them rather than give them away. This approach includes cutting up items, squeezing products out of their containers, and adding inedible substances to food before being thrown out. One reason given for such waste is that allowing the less fortunate to have these products would "cheapen the brand."
Lie More
In order to give the appearance of responsibility, companies must employ clever marketing strategies that seemingly support sustainability, all while they are actually contributing more and more to landfills. This technique, the robotic teacher emphasizes, is imperative to avoid a negative reputation in the marketplace.
One way that companies make themselves look good while not actually doing good things is called green washing. Companies appear to be concerned about the environment by organizing various campaigns to clean up the planet. In reality, the production of their goods is leading to greater and greater environmental harm.
Another glaring deception involves the issue of recycling. The rules around packaging in the US and other countries are lax. For instance, companies will prominently display recycling symbols on their packages and urge customers to do the right thing, all while knowing that most of these symbols are meaningless. Only 10% of plastic packaging is recycled, while the rest is either buried or burned. This statistic means that annually, 400 million tons of plastic waste and 50 million tons of electronic waste end up not being reused.
Hide More
So why don't we see all these mounting piles of garbage? The sad truth is that much of this waste is shipped to third-world countries, where it overwhelms the landscape and spreads harmful chemicals to the workers who process it. Countries like Ghana, the Philippians, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand all now make a hazardous industry of sorting through our throwaways.
Jim Puckett, an environmental whistle blower, made it his job to investigate this kind of waste. His non-profit, Basel Action Network (BAN), tracks the journey of goods from end user to landfill. Investigations such as his have found beaches covered in consumer goods, microplastics infused into drinking water through the laundering of synthetic fabrics, and toxic waste released into the air by workers smashing electronic items.
Control More
Besides controlling the narrative through efforts like green washing, the last piece of advice that the AI bot gives its listeners is to control people within the industry. When Amazon emissions went up 40% after Jeff Bezos made his climate pledge in 2019, a number of employees spoke out. Maren Costa, who was mentioned earlier, was a leader of this protest and lost her job accordingly.
The bot's bonus tip to its students is that music helps with retention; and to that end, it sings this catchy little tune:
In the corporate world, if you want to excel,
Listen closely to the rules that I am going to tell.
Sell More - make sure you always look great.
Waste More - learn to ignore the hate.
Lie More - while you grow without pause.
Hide More - conceal the harm you cause.
Control More - and the world is yours.
Fixing the Problem
Turning the corporate ships around will be hard to do, because the current model is set for profit maximization instead of optimization. What is needed is a way to motivate these companies to do the right thing, which will either come through government and/or consumer incentives or ethical company leadership. The following are some ideas for change, both on the corporate and consumer side:
How Companies Can Change
Accept responsibility for a product's end of life: this could involve setting up real, dedicated recycling, as well as donating unused items to charity.
Embrace long-term, not short-term thinking: this is a point we have advocated numerous times in our posts. The challenge will be finding leadership and stockholders that will support this change. Government incentives may be necessary at first, but there are many examples of companies that have shifted to this model and built a loyal following.
Allow goods to be refurbished: right to repair legislation is gaining traction in many states. An example is the REPAIR Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill that aims to protect consumer vehicle repair rights and ensure a competitive repair market.
How We (the Consumers) Can Change
Educate ourselves on how businesses work: knowledge is the first step to power, and knowing how these companies promote continuous and thoughtless spending is key.
Change how we consume: thinking through purchases before we make them is necessary to assess whether they are truly needed. The film suggests putting something in your cart and letting it sit for a time while you contemplate your actual need for it.
Rethink our view of stocks: in addition to allowing companies that want to change their model the time to do so, we should also consider investing in funds of companies that are already doing the right thing.
Assessment
Overall, the film was very view worthy and an important reminder to evaluate the way we live and not just accept it without thinking. Seeing the amount of used goods that we send to other countries was truly shocking; frankly, it is a modern way of exploiting the world's poor and a horrible example of our failure to be good stewards. I was convicted about my own use of throwaways, and I am endeavoring to find ways to clean up my act.
In the end, it is about stewardship and the part each of us has to play. If we truly believe that God has commissioned human beings with the care of the planet, then we should start acting like it. I encourage you to find ways in your own life to do exactly that.
For more ideas on reducing waste, see these articles:
Fix Capitalism. Fix the American Dream.
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