Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

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Crystal Coomer said:

Your little do-it-yourselfer can have a birthday party at Lowe's​


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Lowe’s announced an in-store kids' birthday party program "that aims to inspire the next generation of builders while giving parents a comprehensive one-stop party solution." (Credit: Lowe's)



When I think of safe places to bring screaming and running children, I instantly think of warehouses with forklifts driving around.
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I hate to say it but 10 year old me would've loved this sort of stuff. Then again I'm a hyper autist.
 
Yaks said:
Okay but where else am I supposed to order 12 tiny dinosaurs you inflate using a straw in their butthole for $13?

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Checkmate American imperial scum.
(This was one of the first listings I saw on the front page and immediately began laughing.)
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Look how happy this little fucker is
screenshot-kiwifarms.net-2023.01.31-18_51_23.png
 
Yaks said:
On the other hand this is just a giant corporation attempting to groom their future loyal consumers.
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A less cynical take: The ability to look after your home and to perform repairs is a vital life skill (and also a fun one to master) and they are providing free or cheap education to help children learn this at an early age, and in a way, becoming an anti-consoomer.

Allowing children to learn about the ability to fix things early helps shape their responses to problems later in life. What is better:
  1. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I need to buy a new one, I'm heading to Amazon to find the latest model with wifi and probably a companion app for some fucking reason that costs $400
  2. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I'm heading to Lowes to buy a new cable and plug so I can get another few more years out of it
 
glow said:
A less cynical take: The ability to look after your home and to perform repairs is a vital life skill (and also a fun one to master) and they are providing free or cheap education to help children learn this at an early age, and in a way, becoming an anti-consoomer.

Allowing children to learn about the ability to fix things early helps shape their responses to problems later in life. What is better:
  1. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I need to buy a new one, I'm heading to Amazon to find the latest model with wifi and probably a companion app for some fucking reason that costs $400
  2. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I'm heading to Lowes to buy a new cable and plug so I can get another few more years out of it
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3. Women are looking for men at the hardware store, maybe I can pick up chicks.


 
glow said:
A less cynical take: The ability to look after your home and to perform repairs is a vital life skill (and also a fun one to master) and they are providing free or cheap education to help children learn this at an early age, and in a way, becoming an anti-consoomer.

Allowing children to learn about the ability to fix things early helps shape their responses to problems later in life. What is better:
  1. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I need to buy a new one, I'm heading to Amazon to find the latest model with wifi and probably a companion app for some fucking reason that costs $400
  2. The cable on my vacuum cleaner is broken, I'm heading to Lowes to buy a new cable and plug so I can get another few more years out of it
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Yeah like I said, I like the idea behind it, I just hate mega corporations. If it was just a mom and pop place it'd feel less evil hand rubbing together.
 
Almost every item in Home Depot is a deadly weapon or the basis for some sort of Home Alone Style trap. You should get your testosterone checked if you don't like wandering around there. This is medical advice.
 
Yaks said:
Yeah like I said, I like the idea behind it, I just hate mega corporations. If it was just a mom and pop place it'd feel less evil hand rubbing together.
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I want to root for the smaller businesses also, and I am mindful to spend my money where possible in independent businesses.

I am curious to dig in to the last part though. This is not a business that sells pointless pieces of plastic to collect for no reason, or a business that seeks to addict people to some kind of gambling mechanic, whether for money, digital goods or further plastic bullshit, it is a business that sells useful products to solve real-world problems that home owners and tradesmen encounter all the time. I'm interested in why you'd characterise that business as evil.
 
Fungible penis said:
Most public libraries won't take book donations. Would take far too much time processing them and infrastructure. Library problems aren't funding for books, it's being defacto front line social workers/daycare for the homeless.
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Accepting book donations would be playing thrift store Russian roulette, you have no idea where the books have been and what hidden problems they have. Were they exposed to mold or stored in a place with a silverfish or roach problem? Is the glue on the spine fucked, and will it crack a week after someone takes the time to laminate the cover, catalogue it, and shelve it? And what books are they donating? Randos in the community also have no idea what curation the librarians are doing, maybe the reason they don't have 15 copies of Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus is because no one wanted to read that shit and they needed the shelf space.
 
More from the Temu rabbithole:
vs.
I'm noticing a pattern here.
 
glow said:
I am curious to dig in to the last part though. This is not a business that sells pointless pieces of plastic to collect for no reason, or a business that seeks to addict people to some kind of gambling mechanic, whether for money, digital goods or further plastic bullshit, it is a business that sells useful products to solve real-world problems that home owners and tradesmen encounter all the time. I'm interested in why you'd characterise that business as evil.
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Not him and not calling it evil but I can understand a bit of not wanting to patronize.

I know it's a romanticizing of small business but with all these large warehouse style stores (home depot, Lowes, best buy, etc) everything starts to feel the same no matter where you go.

Shopping center A has: Starbucks, home depot, game stop, qudoba

Shopping center b: Starbucks, Lowes, chipotle, khols

Shopping center C is the best of both worlds with: starbucks, home depot, lowes, gamestop, old navy and a McDonald's

It's all the same big box stores in different combinations. Though I will admit when I can finally goto that cozy Americana small business they never have what I need so I have to goto a big box store in the end.
 
Worj said:
It's just amazing how practically all of the people shilling for this subversive Chinese garbage are non whites or fat white women. It's artistic, really. Perfectly encapsulates modern society.
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The pattern holds:



SHIT. It's SHIT. You're spending your paycheck on GARBAGE.

The Southwest Strangla said:
What’s temu? Is it that cheap Chinese knock off shit/ super fake future shit that you see on Amazon randomly?
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glass_houses said:
I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between that and Wish. It looks like the same website, different name.
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Temu and Wish are technically different companies, but since it's China, they're still all part of the CCP collective.
Temu > Pinduoduo > PDD Holdings > CCP
Wish > ContextLogic Inc. (USA) > Ties to China

Temu also features certain addicting features such as that wheel they mentioned earlier, "games" that are just layers of gambling, etc.
 
glow said:
I want to root for the smaller businesses also, and I am mindful to spend my money where possible in independent businesses.

I am curious to dig in to the last part though. This is not a business that sells pointless pieces of plastic to collect for no reason, or a business that seeks to addict people to some kind of gambling mechanic, whether for money, digital goods or further plastic bullshit, it is a business that sells useful products to solve real-world problems that home owners and tradesmen encounter all the time. I'm interested in why you'd characterise that business as evil.
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TLDR: once companies get to a certain size they're a local economic vampire beholden to shareholders every quarter.

It's not the business in itself that is evil. What Home Depot and Lowes ultimately sell is useful and harmless on its own. It's the clear attempt to create a cradle-to-grave level of brand loyalty to the mega corporation that bothers me. Large firms, such as those two (and walmart, target, etc) all do it in some way. Smaller businesses, despite not always having what you need as another poster mentioned, is much better at driving the economy forward and employment compared to the large enterprises. They're also local economic tax suckers. A small block of local businesses, with the shitty parking that can never fit the amount of customers who actually go in, makes significantly more in local tax revenue compared to the big box lot down the road. The mega corporation does not care about teaching kids, it most likely got put into place for some sort of tax write off and brand loyalty. You had fun at Home Depot, not Lowes, etc, so your first instinct when you need to DIY for the first time is to go there. Them pretending to care about kids and the local community "we're your friend" is just soulless marketing.

Our natural and understandable desire for everything easy and in one place got us here. I shop at all of them too, mostly because locally any non-big box competition has pretty much been ran out. I don't hate them, and you can't stop them at this point because they're just too convenient, but doesn't mean I have to like what they do. There's a bigger laundry list but I'm not ready to bring out the tin foil hat and conspiracy board in the consoomer thread.

Fun fact: Lowes and Home Depot have roughly 19-20% of their shares held by the same 4 firms. None of them are major obviously, just find it interesting.
 
Yaks said:
TLDR: once companies get to a certain size they're a local economic vampire beholden to shareholders every quarter.

It's not the business in itself that is evil. What Home Depot and Lowes ultimately sell is useful and harmless on its own. It's the clear attempt to create a cradle-to-grave level of brand loyalty to the mega corporation that bothers me. Large firms, such as those two (and walmart, target, etc) all do it in some way. Smaller businesses, despite not always having what you need as another poster mentioned, is much better at driving the economy forward and employment compared to the large enterprises. They're also local economic tax suckers. A small block of local businesses, with the shitty parking that can never fit the amount of customers who actually go in, makes significantly more in local tax revenue compared to the big box lot down the road. The mega corporation does not care about teaching kids, it most likely got put into place for some sort of tax write off and brand loyalty. You had fun at Home Depot, not Lowes, etc, so your first instinct when you need to DIY for the first time is to go there. Them pretending to care about kids and the local community "we're your friend" is just soulless marketing.

Our natural and understandable desire for everything easy and in one place got us here. I shop at all of them too, mostly because locally any non-big box competition has pretty much been ran out. I don't hate them, and you can't stop them at this point because they're just too convenient, but doesn't mean I have to like what they do. There's a bigger laundry list but I'm not ready to bring out the tin foil hat and conspiracy board in the consoomer thread.

Fun fact: Lowes and Home Depot have roughly 19-20% of their shares held by the same 4 firms. None of them are major obviously, just find it interesting.
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In Australia, the Bunnings chain has basically destroyed all smaller hardware stores. They're cheap and have a huge range, but since there is nowhere else to go, if they drop a particular product you're screwed. Example: they stopped stocking most colours of the small tins of enamel paint meant for furniture and other small projects a ways back. Last I checked, all nearby stores and the website only stock black, white and red. At some point I'm probably going to have to scrape up a fair stack of cash and have the colour I need custom blended if I ever want to finish a cabinet that I've been 'working on' for years now.

Smaller stores have the advantage of being able to choose their own stock instead of relying on the body corporate, but as a result they cost a lot more. As a consoomer, you're trapped either way.
 
glass_houses said:
In Australia, the Bunnings chain has basically destroyed all smaller hardware stores. They're cheap and have a huge range, but since there is nowhere else to go, if they drop a particular product you're screwed. Example: they stopped stocking most colours of the small tins of enamel paint meant for furniture and other small projects a ways back. Last I checked, all nearby stores and the website only stock black, white and red. At some point I'm probably going to have to scrape up a fair stack of cash and have the colour I need custom blended if I ever want to finish a cabinet that I've been 'working on' for years now.

Smaller stores have the advantage of being able to choose their own stock instead of relying on the body corporate, but as a result they cost a lot more. As a consoomer, you're trapped either way.
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I hope someday you finish your cabinet, soldier.
 
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