Window Shopping During The Purge

Why are people losing it over cups?

In this full beat, I consider why recent viral shopping videos remind me of The Purge.

We had only been in 2024 for 48 hours when videos of people jostling one another for pink and red Starbucks x Stanley tumblers went viral. Other videos show people camped outside Target stores hours before they opened, wrapped in blankets, and waiting excitedly for the chance to get their hands on a cup. Many of these videos were used to admonish participants for (1) displaying aggressive behavior over cups and (2) purchasing the products knowing they are a part of a Starbucks collaboration.¹ In her Eater article, Amy McCarthy speaks on behalf of her fellow cup enthusiasts, “It sounds silly, but our drinking choices have always been a site of self expression…enthusiasm extends to the vessels in which we place the beverages we love.” For McCarthy and other tumbler collectors, this interest in the cups is not unlike any other beverage connoisseur (i.e. wine drinkers) and the measures they take to purchase them are worth it.

Similar behaviors were captured on December 31st when footage of pre-Ball Drop festivities began to air. Media outlets and social media sites captured footage of people running through Times Square for access to a “good spot” on the sidewalk to watch the ball. Many of us learned that restrooms and space are so limited that most people wear the same diaper and camp out for 15+ hours in advance. The cost of participating in that particular New Year's activity is already quite high, but coupled with a spike in COVID cases, it should be unfathomable. Why do we seem to be turning backward culturally, to the early 2000s Black Friday madness? Especially since we can access these items and experiences from the comfort and safety of our own homes (shout out to the internet).

In my Black Beauty Predictions for 2024 video I noted that to maintain an air of aspiration, luxury influencers will switch to market medical-grade skincare products and services. I noted that it will no longer be enough that they have access to higher quality products, but the “method of delivery” will be more important. Specifically, their content will involve them working with medical professionals who use high-end technologies (e.g. laser services). While the goal of the consumers will remain the same, wrinkle prevention and acne removal, it is the experience that will shift. I was anticipating a growing consumer interest in services and products that may be inaccessible to larger swaths of people because of their cost. I did not anticipate that some consumers would seek out objectively uncomfortable experiences to “enhance” the feeling of consuming everyday goods and services.

While my initial examples fall in the first few days of 2024, the reality of this shift towards uncomfortable consumer experience can be traced back through at least 2023. Last Fall Hulu released a documentary, “The Monster Inside,” which explored Russ McKamey’s shocking Tennessee horror house. Participants could go to a traditional haunted house or watch horror films for a brief scary thrill, instead they voluntarily sign up to be chained and confined in uncomfortable places which they are not allowed to opt out of. But what is the link between McKamey’s haunted manor and spending nearly a day in a diaper in Times Square? For some consumers, receiving the desired product/outcome is no longer enough, it needs to be linked to an uncommon experience (in these cases, one that is largely unattainable because it is either gross and/or horrific). This particular turn is a consequence of hyperconsumerism. According to Gilles Lipovetsky “If, previously, one used to consume in order to live, what really matters in a hyperconsumption society is consumption itself: consuming here and now, without any restriction or restraint in the search for unattainable individual happiness solely through consumption.” We are more than a decade past Lipovetsky’s theory on hyperconsumption and, I would argue, in more dystopian territory. As consuming an obscene amount of things has become more normal, the means of consumption have shifted to higher priority. So, it is no longer enough to try and have something others do not, as there is likely a dupe available and unless it is for the uber-wealthy, it is attainable. However, if the means of getting the item is so undesirable that others would choose not to participate then, it is that act of obtaining a given item that holds value.

At the close of 2023, Pyer Moss offered customers access to its second-ever warehouse sale, the “Loot Out.”² In the advertisement depictions of actual lootings are the visuals that accompany a voice asking if one would like the chance to behave like “real life” criminals. By paying anywhere between $100-$500 customers were offered the opportunity to “perform” looting without any criminal repercussions for several minutes. Some criticized the ploy as a cheap marketing tactic to clear out old stock, others labeled it genius. While the loot-out was a closed event that did not allow phones and cameras inside, the possibility of its existence and the interest it garnered illuminates our hyperconsumption-fueled cultural backslide.

*Image credit*

1. There has been an ongoing push to boycott companies that have not openly expressed a ceasefire on innocent Palestinians and Starbucks has been a major figure on these boycott lists.

2. Here I am referring to the brand itself as it and not Moss the founder of the company.