Rating: 
Summary: Want in one hand, and...
Review: "Columbus killed more Indians than Hitler did Jews, but on his birthday you get sales on shoes" --The Goats What at first might seem mundane subject matter is made illuminating and interesting by Thomas Hine's engaging narrative, personal and historical examples, and downright deep digging. Excavating our culture of consumption from the perspectives of power, responsibility, discovery, self-expression, insecurity, attention, belonging, celebration, and convenience, Hine unearths the desires and rituals that have made us all shoppers in one sense or another. In the spirit of the quote above, I Want That! points out the fact that we "mix up reverence with consumption." Our every holiday is tied to purchases and a subsequent sale of some sort. Are women born to shop? Do today's shoppers truly have choices? Why do we buy what we buy? All of these questions and more are answered and explained in a free-for-all spree of analysis of what Hine calls the 'buyosphere.' "The buyosphere," he writes, "is both a set of shopping opportunities and a state of mind. It encompasses the shopping streets of the city, the mall, the supermarket, the home shopping channels, advertisements, and the Internet." Comparing the shopping experience of a Persian bazaar to the non-experience of shopping at Wal-Mart, as well as how humans have moved from hunting/gathering to sharing their surpluses through marketplaces, Hine shows just how far the story of consumption has come throughout history. He even highlights the postmodern aspect of our current ubiquitous marketplace, writing, "There are no fixed identities in the buyosphere." Shopping is something we all do with little thought as to why or how. As Hine writes, "Whether you are a buyer or a seller, when you are in the market, you're a part of the performance. You're looking. You're learning. You're alive." I Want That! will make you rethink your purchasing habits and why you want to buy what you buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all it might have been...
Review: As excited as I was about this book when I heard about it, I wasn't sure what to think after reading a few reviews -- several were quite tough on the book for being a bit superficial and anecdotal. Still, Hine -- who writes about design and consumer culture and the like, most famously in the book Populuxe -- has an eye for great subjects, so I decided to check it out. His "cultural history" of shopping is in fact rather slim, at just over 200 pages. And Hine is clearly aiming for a pop style, not an academic one. That's fine, but the reviewers did have a point -- he glosses a lot of things that I would like to have seen explored more fully, and I never could figure out exactly what Hine's motivation was for doing the book in the first place. In many ways he's simply defending shopping as natural human behavior, but he frequently resorts to sweeping generalizations, and rarely presents surprising facts. The result is fine as an overview, but kind of unsatisfying -- and I was particularly annoyed at how vague his end notes/source notes were. On the plus side, this is an excellent book if you're slightly interested in the topic, but don't want to be weighed down with a lot of heavy theory. But if you're *really* interested in the topic, you'll be frustrated -- and you'll end up scrutinizing the bibliography trying to figure out which of the books Hine relied on might be the most illuminating. So in the end I was slightly entertained, but not very fulfilled -- which sort of sounds like a lot of shopping trips I've been on.
Rating:
Summary: Too much and yet not enough
Review: I really wanted to like this book. The reviews were glowing and, as a former marketing professor, I was more than a little interested. I Want That is a birds eye view of shopping, with pages devoted to everything from gift giving to mall design to deviant buying behavior. There's a history of shopping and a sociology of shopping. Each chapter -- and some of the headings -- could be the topic of a doctoral dissertation. Brevity in this case has become misleading and, frankly,
not very exciting. All the juicy stuff has been edited out! For example, Hine devotes just a few pages to compulsive buying, yet there has been considerable research on this topic by marketing researchers as well as clinical psychologists. There are correlations with other forms of addiction, while Hine notes only gambling. There are degrees of compulsion that vary by person and situation.
The chapter on attention emphasizes that shoppers can judge without being judged. Hine suggests that friends who join the shopper may be judgmental, implying that friends decrease shopping; however, research shows that people who shop together buy more. The author cites research that suggests people continue to follow traditional gender roles. The real story is the change. In fact, some observers believe retailing has been transformed by gender roles more than by any other factor. Why do stores stay open 24/7? Why do more teens do the family shopping these days? What about men who are self-described clothes horses? And while women still buy most Christmas gifts, we need too recognize the increasing numbers of single-person households and families who choose to spend Christmas on a cruise. Anyone who says, "Wow -- a book on shopping! What a great idea!" will probably enjoy this book. Those who are aware of other books on the topic, offering greater depth and insight, will be dissatisfied. This book lacks the focus, depth and analytical underpinnings of Paco Underhill's Why We Buy and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. And I wish the author had looked at some research published in journals, not just a selection of books.
Rating:
Summary: Too much and yet not enough
Review: I really wanted to like this book. The reviews were glowing and, as a former marketing professor, I was more than a little interested. I Want That is a birds eye view of shopping, with pages devoted to everything from gift giving to mall design to deviant buying behavior. There's a history of shopping and a sociology of shopping. Each chapter -- and some of the headings -- could be the topic of a doctoral dissertation. Brevity in this case has become misleading and, frankly,
not very exciting. All the juicy stuff has been edited out! For example, Hine devotes just a few pages to compulsive buying, yet there has been considerable research on this topic by marketing researchers as well as clinical psychologists. There are correlations with other forms of addiction, while Hine notes only gambling. There are degrees of compulsion that vary by person and situation.
The chapter on attention emphasizes that shoppers can judge without being judged. Hine suggests that friends who join the shopper may be judgmental, implying that friends decrease shopping; however, research shows that people who shop together buy more. The author cites research that suggests people continue to follow traditional gender roles. The real story is the change. In fact, some observers believe retailing has been transformed by gender roles more than by any other factor. Why do stores stay open 24/7? Why do more teens do the family shopping these days? What about men who are self-described clothes horses? And while women still buy most Christmas gifts, we need too recognize the increasing numbers of single-person households and families who choose to spend Christmas on a cruise. Anyone who says, "Wow -- a book on shopping! What a great idea!" will probably enjoy this book. Those who are aware of other books on the topic, offering greater depth and insight, will be dissatisfied. This book lacks the focus, depth and analytical underpinnings of Paco Underhill's Why We Buy and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. And I wish the author had looked at some research published in journals, not just a selection of books.
Rating: 
Summary: Treating our addiction (with a light and thoughtful touch)
Review: Rarely does one happen upon a sociological and economic analysis that is truly fun to read, as hard to put down as a good mystery, amusing, insightful. That is what is so amazing about I Want That. It is anthropology, and a sound analyis of why two-legged creatures have wanted to acquire since time when, and it is a real joy to read. From the author's creation of the concept of 'buyosphere' onward (and this is the same observer who created the so-Fifties and so descriptive term for that era, Populuxe), you have to sit back and enjoy his perceptive analysis of our behavior and our culture. Read it as entertainment, read it as cultural introspection. Either way, it is illuminating, thoughtful - and fun. More than worthwhile for the buying season - and after.
Rating:
Summary: Treating our addiction (with a light and thoughtful touch)
Review: Rarely does one happen upon a sociological and economic analysis that is truly fun to read, as hard to put down as a good mystery, amusing, insightful. That is what is so amazing about I Want That. It is anthropology, and a sound analyis of why two-legged creatures have wanted to acquire since time when, and it is a real joy to read. From the author's creation of the concept of 'buyosphere' onward (and this is the same observer who created the so-Fifties and so descriptive term for that era, Populuxe), you have to sit back and enjoy his perceptive analysis of our behavior and our culture. Read it as entertainment, read it as cultural introspection. Either way, it is illuminating, thoughtful - and fun. More than worthwhile for the buying season - and after.
Rating:
Summary: Good start, but I wanted more
Review: The previous reviews by C. Goodwin and R. Walker pretty much sum the book up. I liked the book, but would have preferred a little more depth.
Rating:
Summary: Good start, but I wanted more
Review: The previous reviews by C. Goodwin and R. Walker pretty much sum the book up. I liked the book, but would have preferred a little more depth.
Rating:
Summary: It's The Real American Pastime
Review: Thomas Hine heavily researches and objectively looks at the history, psychology, and sociology behind what drives the almighty American economy: consumer spending (shopping). He also examines the Internet, demographics, other current trends, and the future of the almighty American pastime: shopping. What was shopping like in the 1850s? Read this book. How has the role of different sociological groups such as women, teenagers, and the elderly changed? How has these shopping patterns affected society? Many retailers depend on the fourth quarter (christmas shopping) to make a profit at all. What is the second largest shopping bonanza after Christmas? Surprisingly, it's the "Back to School" onslaught. I hear a lot of Americans complain, and rightfully so, about the crass materialism, long lines, jammed parking lots, and frenzied rude shoppers every Christmas. "I'm tired of it all, it's too much," people tell me. "The spirit of it all is lost," they add. And yet this year in 2002, Americans forked out 110 Billion dollars for the christmas holiday. Glad I've spent the last three christmas holidays outside the United States. Hopefully, this will continue.
Rating:
Summary: It's The Real American Pastime
Review: Thomas Hine heavily researches and objectively looks at the history, psychology, and sociology behind what drives the almighty American economy: consumer spending (shopping). He also examines the Internet, demographics, other current trends, and the future of the almighty American pastime: shopping. What was shopping like in the 1850s? Read this book. How has the role of different sociological groups such as women, teenagers, and the elderly changed? How has these shopping patterns affected society? Many retailers depend on the fourth quarter (christmas shopping) to make a profit at all. What is the second largest shopping bonanza after Christmas? Surprisingly, it's the "Back to School" onslaught. I hear a lot of Americans complain, and rightfully so, about the crass materialism, long lines, jammed parking lots, and frenzied rude shoppers every Christmas. "I'm tired of it all, it's too much," people tell me. "The spirit of it all is lost," they add. And yet this year in 2002, Americans forked out 110 Billion dollars for the christmas holiday. Glad I've spent the last three christmas holidays outside the United States. Hopefully, this will continue.
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