- One of the dumbest purchases that I decided to buy came recently. There are a pair of shoes that were made by designer Rick Owens. I first saw the shoes a while back on many social media platforms by influencers all across the world. The shoe itself is very basic hightop black canvas with a white sole. It almost resembles an original converse. The Rick Owens high top shoe was priced at $710, which looking back is very absurd for something so basic. In my defense, I got caught up in the hype of the shoes and just felt like I needed them. When I got them in person, I was very underwhelmed. I felt as if they were not worth $700. I felt like I wasted money on the shoes. Although I do like the shoe, I just feel like the money that I spent could have been used In a more efficient way. $700 is a lot of money, let alone to spend on a sneaker that I did not need. I let social media influence me into buying something so silly and I feel for the hype.
- Now for the fun part. In hindsight, to what degree was this a “wise purchase?” Draw directly from the framework of Consumer Wisdom (you don’t need to touch on all aspects of consumer wisdom, but I do want to see evidence that you are applying what you have read to help assess the relative wisdom of the purchase).
- Now was it a wise purchase? Obviously no, but I was able to break down why it was not a smart purchase using the dimensions of Consumer Wisdom. One of the dimensions deals with responsibility with purchases. Responsibility is described by
- Take responsibility for making choices that promote your well-being
- Take responsibility for making choices that promote your values
- Don’t be influenced by people who don’t know you or genuinely care about you
- Buying those shoes did not do anything to help promote my own well being or promoting my values as a person. One thing that I realized is that material items like that do not show your value as a person or really help you in any way. It is just a way to get consumers to spend more money on things that they don’t need. I was also very influenced by celebrities who were wearing these shoes. I saw my favorite stars with these on and swore up and down that I needed to have them. I was easily influenced because I watch these people who don’t know me everyday. I see their lifestyle and what they wear and want to be like them. But being easily influenced into making big purchases like that because of people you see on the internet isn’t a responsible reason to buy a product.
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