consumerism at its worst.. or shall I say best? blog #6

This past weekend, I took my sisters and my nephew to the bay for a family day. While at Pier 39, my nephew wanted to go into the krazy hat store and he asked if he could buy a hat. Since it was on sale, I told him that it was fine. After trying on countless hats, he couldn't find any that he really liked. I then told him that the next time we come back, he could continue his search. He disagreed and set out to search again for a hat, any hat. At this point I was getting peeved because he wanted to buy something just to buy something; not for any other reason. When I told him we had to go, he threw a hissy fit. The situation reminded me of myself (and NO not the throwing a tantrum part haha) when I would shop, not find anything, but feel the need to buy something. Consumerism is so ingrained into our lives that we constantly feel the need to buy... buy... buy. On a side note, there was the Vietnamese straw hat at the store and I find it a bit annoying that it would be grouped with the other "Krazy" hats that one would wear for occasions such as Halloween.


i found the image on buy.com where it's called a "deluxe coolie straw hat"... no comment.

To continue with my thoughts, not only feel the need to buy, but would actually fork out money for things we don't really need. For example, on another visit to the bay, my friends and I stopped by Japan town. I love taking pictures with the machines they have where you can alter your background, add decoration, write messages on the picture and etc. The advertisement for the machines has these two Japanese girls on it with cutesy backgrounds and colors. I also noticed the same advertisement when I was in LA. It reminded me of the article "Cuties in Japan" (Kinsella) because people of all ages buy into the "cuteness" and pay 6 to 9 dollars just to take these cutesy pictures. On that occasion, there was these two white couples who rented kimonos from the shop down the hall so that they can take these pictures. It was ridiculous to me. I felt that they had no right to wear what they did. It seemed cliche-ish to be in Japan town, wear kimonos, and take pictures with a Japanese picture booth. It reminded me of the class video about mis-appropriation and how it can infuriate another because I felt myself that it was a bit too much.