We all are guilty of having “shopaholic” behaviours. We all love getting new things and learning about new technologies, new fashion trends, and the latest food crazes. We are living in a time where we consume at such a rapid rate that products now have a ticking time bomb for how long they will be “cool” or even functional, and we are consuming so much that our planet cannot manage it. We buy things without knowing anything about them, like where they were made, by who, and with what chemicals. We don’t think about what the cost is or how they came up with that price, and we sure as heck forget about many of the things we buy and leave to sit in closets or cupboards only to eventually be thrown away in the trash. My recent reflective journey has been an eye-opening one where I paid attention to my behaviours and the behaviours of those around me and, honestly, it is quite scary, this world of consuming that we live in.
I want to touch on 3 main events that happened in the past few weeks as they have really impacted me the most:
The clean out – I wanted to donate some old running clothes to the team I coach and that turned into a full day of getting rid of stuff I didn’t want. Conclusion: I still have so much stuff.
Work initiative: 12 Days of Giveaways – trying to get random stuff donated to give away to students. I’d never thought about it before but, wow, I am promoting consumerism to an entire campus.
Boredom Buys and excuse purchases: habits that have developed throughout the years as a hyperconsumer.
As a coach of a running team of university athletes and a retired athlete of the team myself, I decided I would donate some of my old running gear to the team. I had many school shirts, long sleeves and other running paraphernalia in my closet that I did not need. This donation was sparked by an overload of laundry I had to do and my utter bewilderment over how many pieces of clothing I own. I could not wrap my head around it! Anyways, I started gathering some items and that’s when it really hit me: how do I have so many clothes? I filled one large garbage bag full of items for the running team and another one to donate locally (yes, my cleanout day spread to all drawers and closet space). What shocked me the most was that I had over 25 t-shirts! Yes, 25 crappy cotton t-shirts you get from sports teams, and other events. In conclusion, I was able to donate many of my items both to the team and a community thrift store, but I still have too many items. If you are an athlete, you might have a similar situation, especially after 15 years. You can end up with so much stuff! Even if you aren’t an athlete, I have no doubt you have at least 10 items you have not worn in 8 months and another 10 you never wear. I was not completely satisfied with donating a lot of my clothes as that doesn’t really affect anyone other than me, so I decided to take another step at minimizing consumption. Every year in the spring, I coach a youth running program and every year we give out t-shirts to the athletes. (Yes, the same type of crappy cotton t-shirts that were accumulating in my closet.) I spoke with the head coach of the running club and asked if we could stop giving out these t-shirts and explained that they are a waste of resources. He had absolutely no issue with it. He agreed that they are crappy quality, the kids don’t even like them, and they cost a lot of money. That was a bigger win for me than my personal closet clean-out.
Clothes are one of the most popular items we over-consume. We live in a world of fast fashion–clothes today are easy to access as they are cheap and available everywhere. The rate at which we are producing these clothes is completely unsustainable. We don’t think twice about buying these items, but a great documentary The True Cost highlights the harsh reality behind the fast fashion industry. I have attached the trailer, and a big recommendation would be to set some time aside to watch the full film. You will think twice about many of the clothing items you buy.
The True Cost, youtube.com
The next event I wanted to touch on was a work experience. Yes, over-consumption happens not just in our personal lives but at our jobs as well. One of my work initiatives is called 12 Days of Giveaways. It is a holiday student engagement campaign where I get a bunch of prizes donated and students can enter to win and at the same time they get to learn about all these companies that have chosen to partner with us during the campaign. Currently, my focus is on sponsorship. I become a total saleswoman and pitch to companies why they should get involved and donate to our students. My pitch: We have a campus of 5000 students, many of whom are new to town, so having their company involved is a great way to get new customers. Most companies are quick to say yes and donate gift cards, swag, or new items that they want students to know about. In the end, I get a bunch of random prizes from companies of all kinds to give away to students.
I have been doing this event for 4 years now and never reflected on how much I am promoting material consumption. In my mind, I was doing good by trying to give back to students and provide some holiday cheer before the start of exams. I also thought I was benefiting my organization as they got to engage with students at no cost because I get so much stuff donated. Now, my mindset around this entire initiative has changed: It is simply 12 Days of promoting materialism, and now that students expect it, they have this attitude around getting free stuff and aren’t even appreciative or excited. I don’t plan on running this event next year. As I have been doing sponsorship requests now for a few years, you learn that many of these companies have allocated budgets for “giveaways” as part of their marketing budget. It’s definitely not a “giving back to the community” budget: it’s free advertising. Globally, many large organizations will have roughly 10% of their budget devoted to marketing, so you can imagine for large companies like Bell, Adidas or McDonalds, the amount in dollars of free giveaways is through the roof. Below is a video from last years 12 Days of Giveaways campaign promoting our prizes.
Laurentian SGA Facebook
Lastly, I wanted to highlight what I have named “boredom buys” and “excuse purchases.” In the past few weeks, I kept a mental record of these purchases. My best boredom buy is good ol’ caffeine. What can I say? I like it a “latte”! When I am bored, the first thing that comes to mind is going for a drive and picking up a nice latte. No real reason, except to fill a craving, keep myself occupied, and to give me a sense that I have done something productive with my day. In two weeks, I spent close to $75.00 on lattes alone.
Along with boredom buys are “excuse purchases.” Perhaps you are guilty of this as well: you make some sort of excuse to justify your spending. In the past two weeks, my excuse was “I am too busy, I’ll organize myself better next week” and I will buy stuff I absolutely do not need. My worst purchases were eating out. I would tell myself that I was too busy and just fall into cheap and convenient fast food options at mealtime. The next one, which is actually so insane to me as I think back on it, was that I bought new gloves and a hat because it was cold that day and I was unprepared. All my colleagues at work were buying stuff because there was a flash sale, so I joined in. I own many gloves and hats already but because of the good deal, the fact that everyone around me was buying something, and my just being unprepared for the weather that day, I bought another set of gloves and a tuque.
I connect these purchases in particular to Lipovetsky’s term hyperconsumption. He states that we are living in a time where all geographical and time constraints on consumerism are dissolving. I can go get a latte, made with coffee from Columbia, Costa Rica, or Indonesia at any time of day on any day of the week. It requires absolutely no effort on my part except waiting in line. He also mentions that hyperconsumption is a “self-animating force” and our societies are now in a continuous cycle to consume more. My tuque and glove purchase is a perfect example of this. The option to buy it was cheap and convenient, others around me were doing it, which influenced me a lot, and I saw it as a benefit to my wellbeing. This sort of behaviour has essentially become a way of life. I hope that recording these purchases and reflecting on them will impact my future behaviours. I am aiming to adopt the voluntary simplicity mindset and reduce my consumption and inspire others to do the same.
References:
Martin Mulligan (2018) An Introduction to Sustainability -Environmental, Social and Personal Perspectives Abingdon Oxon Routledge Publications