Headline, December 09 2024/ ''' ENDLESS* SHOPPING ENTIRELY '''

''' ENDLESS* 

SHOPPING ENTIRELY '''

THE OPEN PORTAL TO ENDLESS SHOPPING. The ' haul ' is a phenomenon of our times - and now it has its own Amazon store. '' We've gotten to the point where you feel left out of society if you are not part of the shopping cycle.''

Known as Amazon Haul, and currently available only on the app and in the United States, it promises '' a place to discover even more affordable fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics and other products with ultralow prices.''

Everything on the site costs $20 or less. One long-sleeved emerald-green stretch velvet minidress is $12.99 ; opaque purple tights are $3.99 ; and a cherry-red elastic belt is $1.99.

The offerings all come from third-party sellers and take two weeks or so for delivery, which is presumably the source of some of the price cuts. The more you buy, the cheaper the total, according to the site :

"5% off orders $50 and over, and 10% off orders $75 or more.'' And for a limited time, customers get an extra 50% off at checkout.

But is this really about savings? Or is it about something more complicated and potentially insidious? Maria Boschetti, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said that the company was simply responding to customer's behavior, giving them more of what they wanted. That is probably true.

But it seems that what Amazon thinks customers want is not just more money in the bank. It is the ability to acquire more and more stuff.

At least judging by the name of the new store. Amazon declined to comment on the inspiration behind the use of '' Haul '', but presumably that is the whole point of the concept - at least as a defining principle of 21-st century shopping.

By naming its new store after the practice, Amazon is simply offering what Ken Pucker, an adjunct professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, called '' truth in advertising.''

The term '' haul '' became popular on YouTube in the early 2000s as a reference to fashion and beauty buying sprees and entered the Urban Dictionary in 2009.

Vloggers would share their followers, tapping into the growing sense of shopping as vicarious thrill and emotional sustenance.

Facilitated by the dual rise of fast fashion - with its emphasis on novelty for all and the explosion of social media and influencer culture, hauls became a part of performance art and shared practice, a cultural phenomenon.

They got a lift in 2022 from the instant fashion digital marketplace in the form of Shein, which adds up to a reported 10,000 garments a day to its site, and Temu.

At this point, there are 17 million posts under the hashtag haul on TikTok alone, according to the platform's analytics, with 18,000 added in the last seven days - and an additional one million videos on YouTube and 3.7 million posts on Instagram.

There are subhashtags such as sheinhaul and targethaul, and this fall, back to school began '' flooding '' social media, according to Vogue. You can spend hours staring avidly at strangers surrounded by veritable mountains of new things.

'' It became almost a human right to participate in consumer culture,'' said Lusie Greene, the founder of the trend forecasting from Light Years.

'' We have gotten to the point where you feel left out of society if you are not part of the shopping cycle.'' And the shopping cycle, which used to have ebbs and flows, is now less a cycle than a constant stream, a fire hose of product.

'' The hyper-consumption that triggers, just because of the newness and the price point, creates this instant need for the next thing,'' Mr. Pucker said.

'' And if you can satisfy that at a price point that half of what it was you can buy twice as many.''

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Amazon, Consumers, Pricing and Marketplace, continues. The World Students Society thanks Vanessa Friedman.

With respectful dedication to the Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on !WOW! - for every subject in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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