For Just 10 Dollars More…

           The more you spend, the better the quality. That’s what they say, right? This break, I needed a new pair of running shoes. My old ones still worked, they covered my feet, they weren’t breaking in half. But the “experts” told me there were “too many miles on them”, that they would eventually harm me if were to continue wearing them. I’m no expert on the science behind running shoes, so I decided to invest in a new pair so as to not cause “harm”. At the store, I immediately find the brand I’ve always had, zoning out the other 50 shoes on the wall. As I look through the 10 “models” of running shoes, I notice the pattern. Each shoe is 10 dollars more than the last on the wall. I grab some shoes on the cheaper end and try them on. They feel good, fine. They feel like shoes should feel. They’d be effective.  Just as I’d made my decision, the dreaded shoe salesman walked over and began rapid-fire questions on my running habits. He used big words, maybe even made up words, to explain the technology behind the shoes, how it is more sophisticated in the higher end shoes. Suddenly, I found myself trying on shoe after shoe, each one more expensive than the last. The 100 dollar ones feel good, but not quite as good as the 120 dollar ones. Should I try to the 140 dollar ones? The salesman explained they have a fancy sounding built in shock technology to give me an added boost. Before I knew it, I’ve doubled the price of my original choice.

            I had to stop myself and take back control that I had so easily given to the salesman. Does this shoe really feel 50 dollars better than the original I tried on? Will it make me twice as fast when I run? How do I know that this is all made up? And since when do shoes even have such complex technology? They’re all essentially the same, yet the different colors, stitching, and price tags make us believe otherwise. I let that salesman manipulate me simply because he used big words and sounded like he knew what he was talking about. But its more than just the salesman at work, it’s the long paragraphs on the tags, filled with diagrams and stats, it’s the bright colors, the flashy ads.  In my ignorance of the subject, I chose to believe every one of these claims. It was only when I found myself so far from my original choice did I realize how powerful the manipulation had been. We often chose to blindly accept the unfamiliar information rather than looking at it through a critical lens. I walked out of the store with my original choice, feeling embarrassed of how close I came to falling into the salesman’s trap.