Why You Buy

We live in a consumer society. Household spending accounts for a bigger share of the country's total economic output than all other activities put together. The world's biggest company, Walmart, operates more than 10,000 stores in twenty-six countries and employs 2.2 million people. Shopping permeates our culture. The concept of branding is ubiquitous, to the point that individuals are urged to develop their own "personal brand."

But why do you buy? It's clearly not just because you need things. Buying-and often buying more than we need, at great cost to our credit ratings and even our mental health-is a vast social phenomenon, deeply embedded in the structure of society itself. In this unique book, Lorne Tepperman and Megan Markus examines the many reasons people buy things, untangling both the complex web of human motivations and efforts by sellers large and small to get them to buy more-efforts often informed by the latest research in the social sciences.

The authors also offer a series of quizzes designed to help you figure out what kind of shopper you are, and what factors most influence your purchases.

The result is a fascinating-and sobering-look at why you buy, and what the consequences of that buying are likely to be for your bank book, your well being, and even for society and the planet as a whole.