WE LIVE in a consuming society. From all sides come messages urging us to spend. Newspapers and magazines, radio and TV, street posters and billboards flood our minds with messages that we may not consciously remember but that lead us to buy certain products. Manipulation goes on in more ways than you would imagine, to separate people from their hard-earned money.

Children are manipulated by toy ads, teen-agers by disc jockeys, and parents are lured into installment buying at startling charges. In his book The Innocent Consumer vs. The Exploiters Sidney Margolius says such manipulation prompts one to a “massive waste of family money and a diversion of family resources” needed for other more important things.

We are persuaded to buy in many ways. Let’s consider a few:

From all sides we are told to buy to be happy. But when we buy the item and take it home, we find that little has changed.

A mother sees pots and pans marked “gourmet” cookware. This suggests she could make better dinners with these. But we all know that the quality of cooking usually depends on the ingredients and the skill of the cook, not on what the manufacturer calls the pot.

The father sees a beautiful illustration of fine furniture, with the promise that he could make it if only he had a certain expensive power tool. No doubt such tools speed the job, but will this tool really turn him into a skilled craftsman? Craftsmen have made exceptional furniture for centuries with far simpler tools.

You would like to take beautiful pictures, but buying the most expensive camera will not necessarily make you a master photographer.

If you look at what a device actually does, at how much you really will use it, and at how great your need for it actually is, your money will go farther, and you will get more benefit from the things you buy.

Merchants of Discontent

Manufacturers do a good job of selling stoves, refrigerators, television sets, and even automobiles and clothing to people who already have these items. How? By making people feel that what they already have is out-of-date. Marketing people make the public style-conscious, then switch styles. There are various ways to change styles, but, as Vance Packard said in his book The Hidden Persuaders, the “use of color is one of the cheapest ways it can be done.”

The merchandisers thus become “merchants of discontent.” You have the “old style,” “last year’s color,” one that is not “up-to-date.” Before long you begin to wonder if you should not get a new one. This is the same method automobile manufacturers use to make you dissatisfied with the “old” family car, even though it still runs beautifully and does not look bad.

Read the Ads

Knowing how to read sales ads in the newspapers is another way to make your money go farther. Remember, some sales are legitimate; many are not. Here are some points on getting the best out of them:

Watch for seasonal sales. In many places business declines after the Christmas rush, so stores run January sales. Also, purchases of summer and winter clothing drop off midseason, that is, January–February and June–July. These are times to look for such sales. Some of the merchandise may be shop-worn, and the selection may not be as great. But careful selection at these times often can save you money.

A going-out-of-business sale may be legitimate, but be careful. In some stores the “going-out-of-business” sign seems never to come down.

Watch what the ads really say. “Regularly $99.95, now $59.95” should mean, if true, that the price will go back to $99.95 after the sale. “Comparable value $99.95” means much less. The store says this item compares with higher-priced goods, but that comparison may be only in the store owner’s mind. “List price $99.95” means even less. This is the price printed on the manufacturer’s list, or on the box. It could have little relation to reality, and may have been set excessively high so stores can seem to give bargains by marking it down.

“Below manufacturer’s cost” raises more questions, such as: Why? Was it a poor seller? Has it been discontinued? Are parts no longer available?

“Save!” Remember that this eye-catching word usually has only one aim​—to get you to spend. Words like “Special!” “Reduced!” and “Clearance!” obviously mean no more or less than the store manager wants. Even in well-known stores more than one employee has been told: “Mark it $7.95, so next week we can mark it down to $6.50.”

We fall victim to such games because we want to find a bargain. You can protect yourself by learning price and quality. Know what things cost. And remember, nothing is a bargain unless you really need it. Even if buying it could really save you 50 percent, not buying it would save you 100 percent!