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Bringing Friction

I don't buy a lot of stuff to begin with but this year, I have tried to be even more mindful. Clothing that I have bought this year, I have made it a point to wear as often as possible. It would be great to downsize a lot more and bring it down to basics - only what I truly love and want to wear anytime and not seek excuses to wait until another time. I agree that buying online has become more and more frictionless over time to serve the retailer's interest and not that of the consumer. We are only the accidental beneficiary if we believe that getting stuff delivered to us promptly is a benefit and not being deliberate about our buying decisions is a good thing. 

Convenience, though, tends to be a hollow virtue on its own. Much of the consumer system is constructed to generate retailers’ desired outcomes as frequently as possible. When something is made convenient, it’s because that convenience benefits the company. Sometimes, your interests and those of the retailer can align—it takes me about a minute to reorder a 15-pound bag of my dog’s kibble, for example, and I don’t need a moment longer to be sure I’m making a good decision. Other times, conveniences are put in place in order to short-circuit your ability to act in your own best interests, even if just for a split second. Hence, my pastel-pink spaceship shoes.

I like to force friction into my shopping experience online by abandoning shopping carts at stores where I am not registered - I want to see if I like anything enough to consider registering and love that the answer is no. Where I do have an account, I fill my shopping cart but choose not to push the buy button. Things may accumulate in the cart for months just for me to consider the total amount I will spend versus the real value. 

Each time I return to the cart, I have a chance to reconsider the very same question and each time, one or more items are deleted from the cart. By the time I do push the button it is only essential items that have survived the many rounds of deletions and proven they are required. I find it satisfying to put my self-imposed breaks on my shopping experience, not be beholden to retailers who are keen to press the buy button in my brain by any means possible

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