Why You Should Say No To Amazon Prime Day

Companies stimulate their sales with global deal days, creating a veritable buzz and generating memberships. Here's why I refuse to buy in, and how you could benefit from my anti-consumerism ideology. #thewealthmap #money #personalfinance

Prime Day; Black Friday; Valentines; whichever.

Someone out there is pulling the strings, and the rest of us are all tied up like marionettes.

At some point in my later 20s I figured out that there are producers and there are consumers.

The producers are the ones making the money, conducting studies on what people enjoy the most, manipulating marketing strategies and keying in on specific psychological traits that make us more likely to purchase their products.

Meanwhile, we consumers are fed ad after ad of product promotions and become hardwired to spend our earnings on material items.

(Of course I knew producers and consumers existed, but it really hit me in a way that made me try to determine where I'd stand.)

When we truly realize and conceptualize that we are at the end of the product cycle, it becomes glaringly apparent that the few designing and selling the products are collecting the cash, while the majority are consuming advertisements and doling out their salaries.

Consumer Mindset Versus Producer Mindset

On this one day Amazon is able to show its grasp on the major populace. It is able to have a profound, sweeping effect on people's money.

In my mind, there is no difference with Black Friday.

As a society, we are often entirely reactive to the developments of Fortune 500 companies. They study human and consumer psychology in order to determine what will make us buy their products.

Not only do they determine what will make us buy their products, but even more importantly they study what will keep us using their products.

The cell phone is a phenomenal example. This is a device that has completely overtaken our lives. It is designed to be high-tech, growing with evermore capability; user-friendly, so that it can be of use to all types of learners; and ever-engrossing, grabbing our attentions and demanding our time on an ever-consistent basis.

When we truly realize and conceptualize that we are at the end of the product cycle, it becomes glaringly apparent that the few designing and selling the products are collecting the cash, while the majority are consuming advertisements and doling out their salaries.

We Are Social Creatures

If our friends and family are doing it we feel we should also.

Simply put - the fear of missing out applies to shopping as well.

There is an inevitably noticeable distance we feel when we don't participate in activities others value. We are left as outcasts and feel obligated to participate, lest we be kept on the sidelines.

This might explain why Amazon uses Prime Day, not as an opportunity to earn money from all of the deals, but as an effort to gain year long members.

This might explain why Amazon uses Prime Day, not as an opportunity to earn money from all of the deals, but as an effort to gain year long members. When everyone is talking about Prime Day and the deals offered it makes one feel as if he or she will miss out not only for one day, but all year.

This plays into our psychology, as well, since we are much more focused on what is near and present as opposed to distant and future.

We think we have to join and participate in Prime Day this year, so that we can benefit from the services and potential deals throughout the year.

There are other service providers; however, our friends, neighbors and television screens try to convince us otherwise.

But I Got Such a Great Deal

Who hasn't proclaimed the great deal they got on Prime Day?

Here's the thing, you still have paid money out - no matter how you look at it.

If you grabbed a lightning deal it is even more likely that what you purchased was not a need, anyway. Amazon's marketing and countdown on the offered deal make you pull the trigger even faster, causing you to throw logic to the wayside.

A $1,000 item at $700 is not a deal. It is $700 that you will no longer have. If you make $30 an hour then it will take you almost an entire 24 hours to replace that money.

Three days!

Was that item truly worth three days of your life?

Control

I decide what to do with my money at the end of the day. No company or salesperson can tell me otherwise.

This is one of the biggest reasons I will not participate in Black Friday or Prime Day. These are days that another entity determines will be an opportunity to purchase items.

Wrong.

Now, I will not miss out on major appliance offerings and deal "windows." These are days or weeks that occur perennially, and I can plan on any needs to better my life. This makes my buying power much more proactive than reactive.

Survival Versus Everything Else

Atop Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire there was a periodic talk by "The Mountain Man."

Imagine meeting someone living off the grid, hunting and bartering without any need for money.

When offered cash for his time in speaking to visitors he replied, "What would I use that for? Trinkets at the gift shop?"

His use of the word "trinkets" really got to me. Now, everything I look at while shopping is either identified as a need or a trinket.

I can tell you there's a heck of a lot out there that falls into the latter category, as you can only imagine.

This view changes everything.

I know I don't live in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness (EEA), which was marked by hunter-gatherer societies and stone tools; however, using some awareness of survival (need) versus trinkets (wants), my buying behaviors have inevitably changed for the better.

Your buying behaviors may also see a positive trend with the help of these paradigm shifting principles.

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You can message Adam at wealthmapblog@gmail.com.