Shopper Revolt

The relatively new phenomenon of the shopper revolt though becomes particularly interesting as the shopper reveals he/she is not merely the object of a technical and patriarchal discourse and design.  The shopper is also a subject who interprets his/her environment and appropriates meaning  to his/her purpose and in this case is aware. 

The time spent shopping reinforces our desires through the environment in which we shop, as shopping is still a social and spatial activity regardless of the recent Internet shop type, reinforced through a constant bombardment of desire related messages on billboards, TV and the Internet.  Indeed the act of purchasing has already been catalysed through these media outlets and the glut of information that the post modern consumer has at his/her fingertips.  This wealth of information has a two fold effect, as shopping becomes the dominant mode of contemporary public life there now persists a high cultural disdain for conspicuous mass consumption resulting from a puritanical fear of the moral corruption inherent in commercialism and materialism.  As a result an increase in offbeat, alternative trading posts and lifestyle warriors have began to emerge.  Communities are banding together to produce more and consume less as cultural moral consciousness becomes a new trend.  Almost 40 percent of people aged between 18 to 30 prefer to affiliate their purchases to brands that are culturally, socially and environmentally conscious.  The norm of what might be socially and environmentally acceptable may be changing and perhaps there is a hope that this will continue to grow.