Welcome to the Jungle....or How to Avoid Getting Trampled at Target

Hi all,

We are nearing the final weeks of the semester and things are at full-crank again. Looking forward to the much-needed break, but before we depart for the Holiday Break, I couldn't leave without one post about the Post-Thanksgiving consumer craziness that's beginning to brew.

A recent NYTimes article showed that artists are feeling the crunch from our economic situation (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/arts/design/24study.html?emc=eta1). Not only did more than half of all artists across disciplines (5,300 participants took the survey) feel a drop in income from 2008-09, roughly 2/3 of the group indicated that their income fell below $40,000/year. This struck me as I braved the Black Friday deals here in Madison; early-bird specials, one-day-only in-store discounts, and CLEARANCE signs are still swimming in my vision. I don't know about you, but even though we are conditioned to believe this is the best time to buy gifts, it seems like there must be a better way to spend our quickly-diminishing holiday funds. And especially when I don't particularly enjoy the experience of shopping on those days, when normally-pleasant humans become jingle-bell crazen animals.

It's weird though, because the more I bought, the less I felt satisfied with my purchases. Now, I did find what I wanted, at a good price. So it wasn't about being dissapointed in missing the chance to get the gift I had been thinking of. Rather, I felt like I was living inside Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice: the more options I had, the less satisfied I was with the product. Because, as Schwartz points out, one's expectations rise incrementally with each new option, so his key to true happiness is this: keep your expectations low.

But isn't there another way to satisfy my gift-procuring experience? After all, I don't want to get mediocre gifts for my family and friends. So, when I got home I set upon the task ot figuring out whether spending all that time and money was actually worth it? Turns out, for me, buying online from retailers like Amazon.com saved between 10-20% EVEN when compared to the best deals in brick-and-mortar. Now, I'm not the only one who figured this out. I can't be. So that means people must actually like being out during those days, kind of like going to a birthday party in 6th grade. You may not really like the location, but you can't afford to miss it.

Maybe it's worth a little bit of time to see whether shopping is really worth the time at all. Joel Waldfogel's new book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays (2009) proposes exactly that: spending money on presents for your family and friends just doesn't add enough value to justify the expense, because, due to a number of factors, the recipient feels less than satisfied (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8972.html). Maybe we could find some really innovative ways of adding value through thoughtful and unexpected gifts.

Here are some places to start:

The 29-Day Gift Giving Challenge:http://givingchallenge.ning.com/
The Happiness Project: http://www.happiness-project.com/
The Paradox of Choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM
PriceWatch: http://www.pricewatch.com/
And my favorite book on the subject:

Lewis Hyde's The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World! Find inspiration here: http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Creativity-Artist-Modern-Vintage/dp/0307279502

Only problem is, I'm writing this with a whole pile of presents sitting next to my desk. So I guess I'm outta luck this time....