Covid-19 has placed an everlasting effect on our lives. A simple example could be seen as a never-ending coin flip. As the coin flips and turns across the cosmos it shifts and changes depending on our circumstances. On one spectrum people were not affected at all and on the other, some were affected in unimaginable ways that are too tragic for anyone to handle and those who are in middle are random variables blended in between. But in retrospect, what if there was a hidden effect that went undetected by the naked eye? One that has slipped by the masses and has continued to affect our daily lives in the pandemic. What about our spending habits and consumption of goods? I have provided three photos to support my argument of America’s complex and overwhelming consumption of goods and how it has affected us during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We have all been a victim of compulsive buying way more than we will ever realize. This impulsive behavior has increased during the pandemic as we became more recluse and reserved. Sometimes we buy a few things that we didn’t truly need either from an errand, or maybe you noticed a great deal on Amazon. However, America has a big problem with compulsive spending on a grander scale. This buying habit has been a part of our capitalist society for decades. Not only is consumer spending 70% of our nation’s income by GDP but it has in many ways been the dramatic downfall of our society both pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.
Figure 1.
The photo above is a display we have seen in department stores in every mall or retail shop. The soft sandy brown pastel walls and perfectly shelved clothes neat placed in the designated area with colors that are richly isolated from the coloring of the rest of the room. On top of it shows a 60% off displaying luring in eager consumers. The room was an abundance of lighting filled with comforting warm and cool colors. Our attention automatically focuses on the sale sign which is our Ethos, the authoritarian that demands our full undivided attention.
Before the Covid- 19, one of the biggest examples of America’s compulsive consumer spending is the infamous Black Friday sales that swallow stores nationwide since 1951. This massive event typically takes place around thanksgiving weekend and sets the scene for scramble and chaos. Without fail hordes of people line the malls and local stores in the luck of “one-in-a-lifetime” deals to tote home, but at what cost? Wherever Black Friday comes, violence and hoarding come after. There are endless videos and photographs of people pushing, fighting, pulling, and even trampling one another to snag mediocre sales and at the end of the day, the items that they are fighting over are not a necessity. From 2006 to 2021, there have been a total of 17 deaths and 125 injuries stemming from Black Friday violence as sourced from BlackFridayDeathCount.com. The unprecedented scores of violence from this event have placed an irreversible plague on our society and yet the profits continue. “In Black Friday 2019 (Thanksgiving plus Black Friday) raked in $11.9 billion in online sales. That’s $7.5 billion spent on Black Friday and $4.4 billion spent on Thanksgiving. That’s a 20.2% increase over 2018.” (Source: BlackFriday.com).
Figure. 2
Fear-based impulse buying and labor shortages from the pandemic affected our ability to obtain the goods that we need. Tissue and laundry detergent are the only few items that have been left behind by consumers. The empty walls and minimal selection of items show us the true effects of our overconsumption during the pandemic. The isle is empty minus the single customer passing by looking around for her groceries. The image leans only on logos and pathos. Pathos could instill that this was a daily issue for almost everyone. Not being able to buy what you need from your local store due to the shortages is both unsettling and fearful. However, this is not the only way we have overachieved our consumer limits and leveled the playing field for other issues.
Such issues played a part in how we chose to react to the growing impact of COVID-19. As the covid shut down in March, people would migrate to grocery stores to horde and gather resources out of fear. As panic and worry filled our lives during the pandemic time went on, the worse people become with their anxiety and hoarding. People rushed in and over-packed their cart with food, cleaning products that they didn’t need, and this panic indulgence caused major shortages for essential products the people needed to survive. Unfortunately by April of 2020, this deep-rooted fear caused major shortages in toilet paper and this did not help rest the thriving anxiety of our broken society. If anything this further shook the stability of the pandemic. This was a new wave of impulse buying that was both very new for our generation and also very unpredictable.
Figure 3
In figure 3 there is an amazon prime box fixed on top of the trash. The walls are dull and grey and the objects around the trashed are blurred. Our attention is fixed on the grey corner of the room and the lighting helps us focus on the trash in solidarity. The Ethos in the photo is the amazon box and Pathos stirs a form of guilt for our impulse consumption. As we only buy what interests us within the moment but not necessarily long-term. One of the champions of pandemic consumer consumption is Amazon. During the first few the of 2021 Amazon has reported earnings were 108.5 billion dollars from pandemic consumption. That is a 200 percent increase from their earnings in 2020. That is a dramatic increase from 87.4 billion dollars in revenue from 2019. The majority of their revenue is from Amazon subscriptions and memberships from their Amazon Prime services and Amazon Video services. The purchases from Amazon are just quick fixes for our entrainment and when the time comes sooner than we anticipate we forget about it, and trash it.
Which has also been a massive issue since Amazon plastic waste has grown to become a problem. As reported by the conservation group Oceana, “Amazon’s plastic packaging waste soared by almost a third, to 270,000 tons, during the pandemic last year (2020).” That has placed a tremendous strain on our oceans, landfills, and ecosystems. Amazon has done a few things such as the Amazon Recycling Program and in 2019 they officially made all the packaging completely recyclable. Yet, their waste from their consumer is still affecting the environment and all for the sake of convenience and comfort.
The pandemic has forced us to isolate and internalize our traumas. It makes sense to seek entertainment in other ways. Home renovations, personal entertainment, and retail have been the main focus for consumption. But we do actually need the things that we ordered at all? At the end of the day does it truly fulfill our needs and deepest desires? Or is it just a way for all of us to temporarily remove ourselves from our current issues? This could imply that we have further contributed to our economic dependence on our capitalistic society for the better and worse. Although, it could all just mean nothing and simply imply that we have made peace with our growing solitude.