One: Going to CVS and having them ask every single time if I have a CVS card so that some rogue capitalist CVS manager-type can track my every medication and purchase of tampons, deodorant, batteries and sunblock. Then going to Rite Aid and finding out they’re doing the same thing, all so that bloodsucking balding men can buy bigger yachts and vacation homes.
Two: When department stores or clothing stores ask for my phone number and email address so that they can send me “special offers” which attempt to convince me that consumption is the solution to any passing moment of boredom or discontent, and which fills my mailbox and inbox with a bunch of trash, and which only helps in recognizing that some stupid think-tank’s concept of the ”free market” makes most people feel anything but free.
Three: Cable and internet monopolizers Comcast and Verizon, whose website images should be large metal dildos, since they consistently and painfully screw innocent families with so-called “bundle” packages, none of which are affordable or economical, but only lock people in to the illusion of affordability, which disappears after one or two years and which requires young parents to sell their kidneys so that they can watch reruns of The Good Wife with the one measly hour of adult time they have each night.
Four: My bank tellers, who tell me in not so many words that my money is not, in fact, my money, but the bank’s, and it is only from the kindness of its big corporate heart that it even allows a check to become my money on the next business day.
Five: Web advertisements, which show me four glorious pictures of the shoes I browsed on another website moments before.
P.S. And Express Yourself check-out lines in supermarkets, which take triple the time to check-out and only assist me in expressing a slew of profanity usually heard on The Sopranos, and serve as yet another example of how parasitic companies profit at the expense of American jobs and consumer satisfaction.
P.P.S. The way Facebook has started to highlight and center companies and products that your friends “liked,” as though “liking” something is a friggin’ religion.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled program through which some rich person is making a shitload of money.
(Do I sound angry?)
Image: “Clean Money” by live with mcs via Flickr using a Creative Commons license.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
And the children’s programs (supposedly educational) that plaster their images on everything from diapers to toothbrushes to rope our kids into consumerdom by 8 months.
Yes. Yes! I’m currently shuddering.
Amen, sister! I am forever annoyed at Shopko, where they INSIST I use my Shopko savings card, which never actually ends up giving me any real savings, but which, should I choose to forgo using, leads to a frown/grimace/look of disapproval as the checker outer lady reminds me I can “just use my phone number” to access the imaginary savings, which I then decline to the further dismay of the checker outer lady. So then I am annoyed. (But not annoyed enough to stop shopping there, which only proves to annoy me that much more).
-B (a.k.a. Bethany; a.k.a. Becca. Apparently I have a pen name now. Long story.).
You do it because it’s convenient. And because you get discounts. I know. It’s a never-ending, horrible cycle. Why can’t stores just give people the discounts? (Because some balding or white-haired man decided that won’t create enough customer loyalty—which really only creates my customer disdain—the stupid asshole.)
angry? no, but maybe one sided, though i doubt another opinion is what you were after, because either these are your convictions or you were venting.
I’m venting, but they are based on my very real frustrations with the system.
i know ;) and i understand. everything is double edged. we like most of the “American” way of life, but the cost both literally and figuratively tends to be a colossal pain in the sit down.
Add AT&T to that list with Comcast (evil) and Verizon! My least favorite – the ads I see when in gmail that directly relate to text WITHIN my PERSONAL email that should NOT be for public or (capitalistic) consumption!
Oh, that’s creepy. I’m glad I don’t have gmail now.
So… you may want to avoid Target. Who now has an algorithm that tells them lots of things, based on your purchases. Including being able to predict if you are pregnant or not. With very high success.
I will be completely honest and admit it: I really enjoy targeted advertising. It saves me time, and brings things to my attention I may not know about. What I don’t like is when companies ooze an air of entitlement, secrecy, or plain old creepiness. Tell me what you are doing, and why, so I can make the decision if I want to participate in it or not.
This is not exactly why, but connected to why, I rarely go to Target. I knew there was something they were pumping through the vents that was fatal.
Ha-ha, yes Jana, I detect an edge to your voice! Scary to think because I had an interest in something two weeks ago that it continues to pop up in advertisements no matter where I turn. I love Capitalism. The problem lies tucked in Reason No. 2 where the majority of people are incapable of resisting the impulse to spend. The failure to recognize the difference between “want” and “need.” As for No. 3, my kids think I’m a clown for longing for the old days when TV was “free” (free in quotes due to the endless breaks for advertising though now we not only have to pay for the programming we have to pay to see the #@%&^ commercials too!) Reading Sarah’s comment above regardng Target’s tactics makes me want to go purchase toilet paper and Imodium while purchasing the greeting card for my Mother’s Birthday…just to keep them guessing.
Yeah I concur on all of those points! I had to set up a new email a year ago because the old one was so bombarded with coupon and sale crap! Now everytime I need to sign up with an email for crap I don’t want, I put that address. :)
I love this. With all my heart.
Totally agree, and so happy I found your site. ( I found it because I searched “creepy book Love You Forever” – as part of a rant I was making against parents who don’t let their kids of their sight for a second even though they grew up playing freely on their own outside (at a time when it was less safe –70s and 80s– than it is now). I found your post on babble about 10 most bizarre toddler’s books and then quoted you on my website but then wasn’t able to comment on that post on babble b/c I had to be part of Facebook which I am delightfully and deliriously NO LONGER PART OF.
Completely agree with pretty much everything you wrote above…and, in addition, wanted to say that most of the pressure I felt when I became a mom came from people trying to sell sh*t – -products or classes or activities or whatnot. It took a while to see the common thread behind everything we are told we SHOULD BE DOING FOR OUR KIDs is the not-so-hidden ca-ching sound of a cash-register.
Thanks, Rachel! (And I tried to comment on your website, but not sure if it went through. I really enjoy what you’re writing about and am happy to add you to my list of awesome bloggers!)
Sorry, left off one half of a parenthesis above…didn’t mean to leave anyone hanging hah
hey, there’s even advertising on my online bank statement…actually ON THE STATEMENT!!!!
WTF??