Essentials of Sociology. George Ritzer

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      Consumption

      While consumption has been a central feature of societies for centuries, it is only in recent years that we can think in terms of a “world of consumers” (Trentmann 2016). Beginning in the 1950s, the center of many capitalist economies began to shift from production and work to consumption, or the process by which people obtain and use goods and services. During that period, the center of the U.S. economy shifted from the factory and the office to the shopping mall (Baudrillard [1970] 1998; Wiedenhoft Murphy 2017a). For many, work and production became less important than consumption.

      The dramatic rise in consumption was made possible by, among other things, the growing affluence of the population. A more specific factor was the introduction (in the 1950s and 1960s) and increasing availability of credit cards. The use of credit cards has now become widespread at shopping malls, on the internet, and in many other settings. One indicator of the increase in consumption in the United States is the increase in credit card debt. As you can see in Figure 1.3, credit card debt per household grew astronomically in the early years of credit card use (the figure begins with $37 in 1969). Credit card debt reached its high point, $8,729, in 2008 and steadily declined after the Great Recession to an average of $5,946 per household. However, credit card debt increased by almost 3 percent from 2016 to 2017 to an average of $6,375 per household.

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      Figure 1.3 U.S. Credit Card Debt per Capita, 1969–2017

      Source: Data from the U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. Census Bureau and Jessica Dickler, 2018. “Credit Card Debt Hits a Record High.” CNBC. January 23.

      Ask Yourself

      Have your consumption habits or credit card use changed over the last six months? The last three years? Do you anticipate that your habits will change in the next three years? If so, how and why? Will you consume more or less?

      Consumption is certainly significant economically, but it is significant in other ways as well. For example, culture is very much shaped by consumption, and various aspects of consumption become cultural phenomena. A good example is the iPhone, which is used in many ways to consume but more generally has revolutionized culture in innumerable ways. Billions of people have bought iPhones and similar smartphones as well as the ever-increasing number of apps associated with them. These phones have altered how and where people meet to socialize and the ways in which they socialize. In addition, the media and people in general spend so much time discussing the implications of the latest iPhone and similar products that these devices have become central to the larger culture in which we live. Rumors about the characteristics and release date of the next version of the iPhone continually add to the excitement.

      Consumption and globalization are also deeply intertwined. Much of what we consume in the developed world comes from other countries. In 2017 alone, the United States imported more than $505 billion worth of goods from China; the comparable figure in 1985 was only $4 million in goods (U.S. Census Bureau 2018a). Furthermore, the speed and convenience of internet commerce tend to make global realities and distances irrelevant to consumers. Finally, travel to other parts of the world—a form of consumption itself—is increasingly affordable and common. A major objective of tourists is often the sampling of the foods of foreign lands, as well as the purchasing of souvenirs (Chambers 2010; Gmelch 2010; Mak, Lumbers, and Eves 2012). Medical tourism is less common, but it is estimated that globally it is a $100-billion-per-year industry (Fetscherin and Stephano 2016). Large numbers of Americans—and many others—travel great distances for such services as cosmetic procedures and even open-heart surgery. They do so largely because the costs are much lower elsewhere in the world. Many U.S. women who have difficulty conceiving travel to developing countries such as India in order to hire surrogates, “rent” their uteruses and ovaries, and exploit their eggs (Pfeffer 2011).

      New consumption sites and products are often a hot cultural phenomenon. Many people will line up for hours, even camp out overnight, just to be among the first to be at such an event or to get such a product. This is clear from the crowd in Beijing, China, in line for a chance to buy the latest iPhone.

      Imaginechina via AP Images

      Sociologists are understandably interested in these developments in the realm of consumption. Early sociologists completed many studies of work, production, factories, and factory workers. Today’s sociologists continue to study work-related issues, but they are devoting increasing attention to consumption in general (Warde 2017) and more specifically to such phenomena as online shopping, done increasingly through the use of smartphones (Kim et al. 2017); the behavior of shoppers in more material locales such as department stores (Miller 1998); and the development of more recent consumption sites, such as fast-food restaurants (Ritzer 2019) and shopping malls (Ritzer 2010b). All these have become increasingly global phenomena. The most popular destination for visitors to Barcelona is not one of Antoni Gaudí’s amazing architectural creations but rather a new outlet mall on the outskirts of the city (Mount 2014). Online shopping is increasingly popular in many places, including in India and especially in China (Bearak 2014; Wang and Pfanner 2013). The growth of online shopping in developed countries, and even more in less developed countries, has been made possible by the massive expansion and growing popularity of smartphones.

      McDonaldization

      Ritzer’s study of a major site for consuming food—the fast-food restaurant—led to the development of the concept of McDonaldization, or the process by which the rational principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society and more societies throughout the world (Ritzer 2019; Ritzer and Miles, 2019; for a number of critical essays on this perspective, see Ritzer 2010c). This process leads to the creation of rational systems—not only fast-food restaurants, but also, among others, online shopping sites (see Trending later in this chapter)—that have four defining characteristics:

      • Efficiency. The emphasis is on the use of the quickest and least costly means to whatever end is desired. It is clear that employees of fast-food restaurants work efficiently: Burgers are cooked and assembled as if on an assembly line, with no wasted movements or ingredients. Similarly, customers are expected to spend as little time as possible in the fast-food restaurant. Perhaps the best example of efficiency is the drive-through window, a highly organized means for employees to dole out meals in a matter of seconds.

      • Calculability. You hear a lot at McDonald’s about quantities: how large the food portions are—the Big Mac—and how low the prices are—the dollar breakfast. You don’t hear as much, however, about the quality of the restaurant’s ingredients or its products. Similarly, you may hear about how many burgers are served per hour or how quickly they are served, but you don’t hear much about the skill of employees. A focus on quantity also means that tasks are often done under great pressure. This means that they are often done in a slipshod manner.

      • Predictability. McDonaldization ensures that the entire experience of patronizing a fast-food chain is nearly identical from one geographic setting to another—even globally—and СКАЧАТЬ