Since the 1980s, Black Friday has signified the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Stores offered almost-impossible doorbuster deals on TVs and hand blenders, shoppers rose before dawn to wait in line to get them, violence ensued, and the tinsel-covered period when retailers finally operated in the black began in earnest. Its probably for the best, then, that Black Friday is not what it was even 20 years ago. A movement to recognize its toll on retail workers eventually convinced several stores to close on Thanksgiving so workers could be with their families, instead of stocking for the busy day ahead. Holiday shopping has continued to move online. And the thrill of a deep, one-day discount has morphed into a numbing, month-long thrum of flash sales, Cyber Monday specials, and member appreciation events. Future Perfect deputy editor Izzie Ramirez has reported extensively on the state of American consumerism, from our habit of buying, using, and throwing away literal tons of stuff each year, to how the quality of the things were purchasing from appliances to undergarments is progressively getting worse. I caught up with her to talk about why Americans shopping habits have transformed, what the threat of high tariffs might mean for big-ticket goods, and how sales bonanzas like Black Friday are part of a larger effort by retailers to keep us shopping, to our own detriment, and the planets. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.Lavanya Ramanathan: So, the quality of our stuff is worse now. Tell me a bit about that, as we stare down a period when Americans will be buying a ton. Izzie Ramirez: I would like to preface this by saying everyone thinks that Im anti-shopping, and its not that Im anti-shopping; I actually love shopping. Materials are fun, materialism is fun, except for when its not. I started writing about it because I came across a problem, and the problem was that my brand-new bra absolutely sucked. Shouldnt new things be better? Isnt this, like, the whole promise of capitalism, in a way? I really wanted to get a mass-production understanding of whats going on, and talk a little bit about the decline of repairability, and what we can do about it. Because I do think that people want to buy things that make them happy, that last and fit into their lives. And it sucks when you invest your money and you dont get your moneys investment.Its less that companies want to be making worse-quality goods. In the case of my bra, its more that for the cost of producing something like my bra, you cant do the same thing for the same amount of money. Something has to give, and its going to either be labor or the quality of the material, and its usually a little bit of both. Knowing all of that, what is a good way to approach something like Black Friday? There are all sorts of deals, like TVs for $50. With some of these, is it just throwing good money after bad? Is there actually a way for the consumer to be a winner?Im going to be a hypocrite with this. I usually think Black Friday is bad, but if Trump does enact tariffs, then maybe Black Friday might be good for larger purchases, such as washing machines, dishwashers, and other major appliances, because tariffs would create conditions for those globalized objects, where you need parts from a billion different places, to become way, way, way more expensive. And if they dont become more expensive, those are going to be the very objects that become way worse, very, very rapidly. Thats bad advice for most circumstances. There is a lot of science and psychology behind buying things. On Black Friday, you feel like you dont have time. It is entirely a lie, because they run the same sales regularly. If you know anything about Black Friday, they do the same sales every year. Its not like that sale is never going to happen again. Or the Sephora sale. It really grinds my gears when I see people posting Sephora hauls, like theyre never gonna do the members sale again. They do, two or three times a year. Its the scarcity mindset. Shoppers flooded the Polaris Fashion Place mall in Columbus, Ohio, on Black Friday in 2023. Bloomberg via Getty ImagesYou have also written about hauls. We are shopping differently now. We shop online. Its become that much easier to get things from all over the world. If I had to guess, Id say there are a lot more brands, too direct-to-consumer sellers of things like jewelry. What is happening to shopping itself?Hauls are when people buy 10 or 15 or 20 different items in one go, and usually parade them around on social media. Theyre buying things from places like Amazon, Temu, Shein, Abercrombie & Fitch. The thing about haul culture is that it also creates that mindset around scarcity, like, Oh, you need this. It normalizes mass consumption, and buying a lot all at once and regularly, and that it is a regular practice to spend that much money. And if youre not spending that much money, then youre going to be spending at places like Shein that have $1 T-shirts, and that normalizes a dangerously low price for workers and the planet.A lot of the things that youre describing feel like new behaviors. Theres also a thing happening in our shopping ecosystem, and in our consumer culture, around demand for the new for newness at all times.Yeah, and I think so much of that is driven by that normalization of excitement around buying dopamine shopping, wanting to feel something. So much of it is social media, and so much of it is the scale of globalization and all of these new players that are in the market. Its just a whole other level of consumer deception, too this false sense of urgency from companies.Yes, there is the demand, but it is also companies knowing that they could take advantage of us like this. Its like ouroboros, the snake thats eating itself. Its never going to end if we dont make a conscious choice of saying no. Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: