Buy It Now

Photo by Money Knack on Unsplash

eBay was a pioneering part of the e-commerce explosion that took place in the ‘90s and “aughts”. Online bidding could potentially net you a great deal for an item that was usually much more expensive, or it could get you access to rare items you couldn’t easily find elsewhere. I remember a Christmas episode during the early seasons of NCIS: Los Angeles in which a character tried to bid on an expensive toy for his children, only to get “sniped” at the last second of the auction by a higher bid (higher-speed internet connections used to have an advantage in eBay auctions).

It didn’t take long for eBay to introduce a “Buy It Now” option, so people who didn’t want to spend time on an extended bidding war could just pay outright if they liked an item’s price. I have often used this feature when purchasing on eBay because I have little patience for auctions, especially since “Buy It Now” often also comes with an option to make a “best offer” to the seller.

“Buy It Now” has become part of the DNA of our culture today. And I don’t think I fully comprehended that until last month.

At the beginning of August, I spontaneously decided to try a “No Spend” month: I would spend money on essential things and nothing else. I did my best to dial down discretionary spending to the absolute minimum unless I had little choice in the matter.

Two days in, I started realizing how hard it is to not give in to marketing tactics that lead to a digital shopping cart, even with the guarantee of free returns that encourages people to buy first and think later.

I was getting marketing emails urging me to partake in a “limited-time sale.”

I was getting e-coupons offering me “exclusive discounts” that would only last a few days.

Text message marketing campaigns popped up on my phone multiple times a week.

I even got an email from a pet supplies company offering me a discount on my next purchase because I haven’t shopped with them in a while, and part of the coupon code included the words “Miss You”!

I became more aware last month of the neurochemical explosion that goes off in my brain whenever an opportunity to “buy now for less” materializes. It’s given me a new perspective on how dopamine and serotonin, our brains’ primary anticipation/reward neurochemicals, affect human decision-making abilities.

This chemical cycle, which is tied into our emotions, is an integral part of addiction science, and many companies have mastered using this science to make people spend more time on their apps and shops and buy things. If they can make purchasing more of an emotional experience than a rational experience, people will buy more.

Sometimes I think our culture is actively working to make everyone an addict to or obsessive about something.

There’s always some experience we can try that promises emotional stimulation, or at least the chance of such an experience. Many call it “consumer culture,” but I think a more apt name might be “casino culture”: there’s always a lever to pull, a button to click, or a token to cash in.

When friction is reduced and critical thinking is pushed aside, we’re all more easily separated from our money.

When an opportunity to impulse-buy arrives by promising a “save now” opportunity, my first thought is almost never “Yeah, but I’ll still be spending money.” It’s “Ooh, an opportunity to spend less than I normally would!” And that’s how marketing gets us.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe marketing is evil, though some tactics could be considered amoral. My first full-time job was in marketing, and the strategies I helped implement were largely harmless ones for local businesses.

But marketing is different today than it was even five years ago when I did that job. Companies that want you to “buy it now” will track your real-time visits to their sites and send you emails, texts, and social media ads if you don’t buy something while there. They don’t even try to hide it.

Now, I’m no tinfoil hat enthusiast. But I do still want to be aware of when a system is trying to game me. I want to be wise and discerning so I can be a good steward of my life and resources. And that includes making note of when someone’s trying to convince me to do something that may not currently be in my best interest.

It’s harder than ever to purposefully not spend money. Even people online who preach frugality often recommend products you can buy that help you adapt to a frugal lifestyle.

My August “no spend” month was hard. On numerous occasions, I found myself looking at an online shopping cart and forcing myself to back out of a purchase, even if free returns were an option.

It also helped me realize how often I window-shop without actually committing to a purchase…but also that window-shopping is a big time-waster in my life.

I learned some valuable things about the state of the world economy and my brain’s own anticipation/reward cycles, so I’m glad that I did this experiment. After all, honest awareness is a primary first step to lifestyle change.