Until this weekend, whenever I heard someone say “Stanley Cup,” I assumed they were talking about the massive silver trophy awarded to the champion of the NHL season.
Indeed, I was unaware of the rapid increase in popularity of the Stanley tumbler, made by the company Stanley, which can cost as much as $60. That was until a viral video cured me of my ignorance.
The video depicts a mad dash of consumers clearing out a display shelf at Target that is full of pink and red Stanley tumblers that were recently released as part of the company’s Valentine’s Day collection. Because of high demand, the display even has a sign that says customers are restricted to two tumblers.
The video is a reminder that while the United States has generated the most wealth of any nation on Earth, it is also the most opulent. The horde descending on the display, eager to spend $120 on two tumblers of different colors, is another addition to a long tradition of rabid American consumerism.
The video is reminiscent of an era when Black Friday was the pinnacle of American consumerism. Long lines outside of department stores before the sun rose were followed by stampedes once the doors opened, with everyone in a mad dash to spend as much money as possible.
But while the early morning stampedes on the day after Thanksgiving have largely become a thing of the past, the attitudes of American consumers haven’t changed, only their methods. Online shopping has replaced most stores as the primary platform of excess spending due to its convenience. But the Stanley stampede is evidence enough that the appetite for material consumption remains, even if it is less visible.
In his 1978 Harvard commencement address, Alexander Solzhenitsyn noted that while the people of Western nations generally enjoy extensive material comfort, “the constant desire to have still more things and a still better life … imprint[s] many Western faces with worry and even depression.”
One might call it greed in less academic terms. And it is a greed that has an immediate effect on one’s fellow consumer.
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As the Stanley tumbler craze shows, the accumulation of material things has become a sort of competitive enterprise as people race to buy the latest product. Those who miss out become obsessed with remedying their predicament.
I certainly won’t fault Stanley for providing a product that people want to buy. But obsessing over an expensive material product because of its color and its status symbol is yet another reminder of the dangers of unhinged consumerism.