How does the academic study of consumption help you understand the role of consumption in your life?

Being exposed to different readings related to consumption has allowed me to learn more about my everyday consumption. Not only did I learn about the role of advertising, layouts of malls or different perspectives of consumption, I learnt about what my shopping experience, habits or pattern say about me as a person.

The role of consumption reflects on who I am as a person. Through my consumption pattern, my background, ethnicity and other information can be derived. My purchases are influenced by my culture. For example, being part of the Hindu community in Mauritius, we tend to eat with our hands in weddings, prayers or some continue this practice in their everyday life. Slater (1977) rightly mentioned about how the way we eat or prepare food enables us to reproduce our culture. Since Mauritius is a multicultural country, I however tend to adopt different cultures. For example, in an Indian wedding, I eat ‘ti puri 7cari’, in a Christian wedding, I’ll attend the wedding in the church or going to a Chinese restaurant, I would eat with chop sticks or forks. Food forms part of different cultures and it is a basic necessity. However, Eriskson argues that family is the one to influence our choice on culinary taste (1996, as cited in De Solier, 2013).

(Different pictures showing foods from different cultures.)

With the evolution of internet, people are more prone to consume product at their own convenience rather than going out. eBay is an example that shows how consumers engage through an unconventional way on a global scale. Through Ebay, consumers have the same feeling of belonging to a community. eBay is able to attract people due to its cheap pricing strategy and large quantity of clothes. There is also the aspect of prosumerism whereby a consumer is able to sell products as well which, therefore promotes consumer culture. Being a person who enjoys online shopping and cheap deals, I definitely vote for Ebay as a website to buy from. I have had some hits and misses when doing purchases but that is the consequence of doing shopping online. Did that stop me from doing online purchases? No. I am the type of person who would do any to not go to shopping malls because I do not feel comfortable going shopping alone or even explaining to a salesperson what I want, but online, it’s another story. It is like trusting blindly the seller which is one of the fundamentals of a community; trust. eBay also uses sellers and buyers to ask questions about the website and all its policies to allow for improvements to be made (Black, 2007).

(Screenshot from instagram showing online shop and necklace received.)

Through the readings, I also came across one which talked about how the layouts of the shopping malls affect our shopping experience. Due to the fact that nowadays consumers want ease of access, the shops are strategically placed to influence one’s shopping pattern. With the perfect combination of store colour, arrangement of products and customer service, the stores attempt to give more of an experience rather than just shopping (Wringler, & Lowe, 2002). Moreover, the store layout in a mall can prove to have a very good competitive advantage for the company itself. For example, the Bagatelle shopping mall in Mauritius has only a single ground floor layout. This enables the shoppers to access stores easily and have the products displayed in front of them, without them having to climb stairs to go to another section. This can influence the buying patterns of a consumer thus maximising reach and profitability for the different brand stores. Moreover, product placement in the different stores is a very important aspect in marketing and selling of a product. The way the stores arrange and place their products has a great effect on the buying patterns of consumers. For example, the children toys are always placed within easy reach of the child and therefore we can always find toys placed on the lower shelves in malls while products that do not sell very well are always placed near the checkout where consumers can see them while paying thus tempting them to acquire them. I find myself easily lured by this technique because I always end up buying products that are not necessary on my priority list. Despite knowing the marketing strategies, I am always an easy prey for cute packaging or products that I’m used to.

(First pictures shows how easy it is to be tempted by food. The second picture demonstrates product placement of how they organise candies in a way that even if you do not want it, you might just reach for it or the little ones will grab easily.)

This module about consumption has enabled to widen my knowledge about different needs and wants. I am able to work on myself as a person before doing any silly purchases and be more grateful of products that I still own rather than buying more than I need. Consumption is based on my culture, but it is also something that changes upon circumstances. Consumption forms part of my identity.

Reference:

Black, G.S. (2007). A comparison of the characteristics of eBay consumers and eBay nonconsumers. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(1),16– 29. https://link-springer- com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/article/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.dddmp.4350066

De Solier, I. (2013). Food and the Self: Consumption, Production and Material Culture (1st ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing.

Wrigley, N. & Lowe, M. (2002). The Reconfiguration, Manipulation and Contestation of Retail Space. In N. Wringler (Eds.), Reading retail: a geographical perspective on retailing and consumption spaces (No ed., 171-186). Hodder Arnold Publication