Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
Author:Paco Underhill
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ELEVEN
Kids
With gender revolt (or reconfiguration, at the very least) having changed so much about our lives, and men and women off boldly shopping new terrain, the effect on children today is quite simple: Kids go everywhere.
Where did they ever go? To school, of course, which left their mothers free to perform the myriad tasks of the domestic superintendent, high among them the acquisition of food, groceries, clothing and other supplies and services as needed. Dad bought booze, tires, cigars, lawn-mowers, groceries (maybe once or twice a year) and Mom’s birthday gift. Banking was done by either mother or father, depending on the household’s particular division of labor. Only major purchases required the presence of the entire family, but how often did anyone get a car or a couch? Not so often that the children who came along for the ride required very much in the way of accommodation.
Today, both parents are almost certainly working at jobs, which means buying that cannot be done over lunch hours must take place during times the family might happily spend together. Shopping then becomes an acceptable leisure outing—less pleasurable, perhaps, than a week at Disney World, but not entirely without potential for fun, as we’ll see. Also, divorce is common enough that the single parent (either one) in the company of the brood is a common sight in movie theaters, restaurants and stores. On any given Saturday afternoon, is there a Cold Stone Creamery or game arcade in America that goes unvisited by divorced dads with their weekend-custody kids? Kids go everywhere because we take them, but once there, they alter the shopping landscape in both obvious and subtle ways.
The older we get, the more we recognize that the ownership of any product, no matter what it is, isn’t transformative. That dress, that lipstick, that iPod nano is not going to change you or anyone’s opinion of you. The aging consumer is also better at ignoring pop-up ads online and TiVo-ing their favorite programs so they don’t have to watch five annoying commercials in a row. Thus, the twenty-first-century marketer is focused on kids and teens. It’s no surprise to note that the average four-year-old American child can identify more than one hundred brands.
There is also the fact that our children consume even more mass media than we adults do, much of it vying to sell them things. The marketplace wants kids, needs kids, and kids are flattered by the invitation and happy to oblige. They idolize licensed TV characters the way their junior forebears once were taught to worship patron saints, and they manage to suss out the connection between brand name and status at a very early age. It’s just one more example of how capitalism brings about democratization—you no longer need to stay clear of the global marketplace just because you’re three and a half feet tall, have no income to speak of, and are not permitted to cross the street without Mom. You’re an economic force, now and in the future, and that’s what counts.
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