S1.E4 - CON-sumerism
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What memories do we associate with shopping?
This week, we'll take a few trips down Memory Lane, up the Garden State Parkway, and across Queens Boulevard to visit not the closest, but the very best TJ Maxx. Growing up in my family, there were two seasons, pool season and mall season. Every Saturday during mall season, aka winter, we'd sit in traffic... trek over multiple bridges from Queens just to go to the mall in New Jersey. When's the last time you were at this mall?
When I could walk.
Well, actually, we were driving from Queens to New Jersey just to spend time with my Nana at the mall.
So we like to work in this mall at lunch.
How did shopping become a family tradition?
73. 74. 74. 47.
74. Okay.
Back when she could walk more easily, her favorite place to walk was here, in the mall. What's the first word I ever read? Macy's. Why do you think that was my first word that I read? Because we were always... In the mall? Always. That's all we did. Why did we come here every week? Because it was an activity.
There's nothing else to do. That was entertainment.
Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that coming here all the time made me a shopper? I don't know. Dom is nodding.
Well, maybe.
Like, maybe if you brought me to museums every weekend, I would... Do what? Maybe if you brought me to the museum every weekend... Maybe I became a more... More of an academic. Yeah. Instead, I just like stuff. Okay, maybe I was putting them on the spot. But this mall was the backdrop for my childhood. We were three generations of women, only each other to hold onto, searching for a way to spend time together, something that could distract us from our differences. My earliest memories, the good ones anyway, mostly exist under the fluorescent lights of the food court. I remember this one year after eight weeks at summer camp. I was in the woods, communing with nature. There were no stores or internet or phone for miles. My mom picked me up and asked what I wanted to do first. Smell the mall, I said. I am not exaggerating. This was home to me.
Growing up, I would go clothes shopping with my mom and that was like a fun activity to do.
Yeah, I think I went shopping with my parents every other week, if not, you know, a couple times.
So many of us grew up with shopping as the backdrop to our family traditions.
What impact does consumerism have on our relationships?
Over the years, it became like the sort of special family outing thing, the downtown thing.
dims on saturdays every year my mom's birthday was during the nordstrom half yearly sale that was like such a girl's day that back to school clothing haul you know like get cute little outfits getting new supplies i loved it the mall provided a neutral space a common ground where each of us could find a reflection of ourselves even when we didn't see it in each other
I had a super toxic relationship with my mom. And I think that's how the relationship I developed with shopping started. Every memory I have with shopping revolves around us post-argument and never arguing while we're shopping. That's where we had a connection and that's where we got along.
Our consumer culture is like an invasive species that has its roots intertwined with our deepest memories and emotional connections.
Our behaviors and values are shaped by its gnarly vines.
This organism has been growing for our entire lives, and its branches are so wide-reaching, we've come to believe our very survival depends on its shelter, because it's all we've ever known. But I don't want that to be all I've ever known.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What memories do we associate with shopping?
0:41–1:41
2
How did shopping become a family tradition?
1:41–3:41
3
What impact does consumerism have on our relationships?
3:41–11:12
4
How has consumer culture evolved over time?
11:12–16:47
5
What role does branding play in our shopping habits?
16:47
6
How do our shopping experiences reflect societal changes?
14:39
7
What are the emotional connections tied to shopping?
8:52
8
How do we navigate the clearance aisles of TJ Maxx?
7:24–41:19