With the approaching festive season, companies are going mad trying to sell us everything.
This is what the Amazon homepage looks like in India.
And here’s what the homepage for Flipkart, Amazon’s biggest competitor looks like:
“Best deals of the year”
“Craziest Discounts”
Boy oh boy, it would be silly of me not to buy buy buy.
All these ads tempting me to buy products that I don’t need, reminded me of a poem that I wrote on this subject. At this moment, temporarily, this poem has helped me restrain my urges to press “order”.
Alright, poem starts in 3… 2… 1!
A purchase decision a product to buy. An unnecessary thing you want to try. 🤑🤑 A flimsy attraction, some niche merchandise. A whimsy of art, or a nifty device! 💻📱🎧🎸🖼️🎮 It screams "ADD TO CART" and it waits for your click "JUST ONE MORE IN STOCK", it says, as seconds tick. ⌚⏰🕰️⌛⏳ You look at your wallet and at your account. You justify spending this foolish amount. 💰💰💰💰💰 "Click, click!" you purchase it. The delivery guy calls. The product arrives - . . . you don't use it at all. 🙃🙃
That’s it! Thanks for reading edition 132 of Hello Universe.
I’m curious to know - what was the last online purchase you made that you didn’t get much use out of?
Mine was an ice tray mold that I thought I would use to freeze my meal-prepped curries for the week. Aaaaand I haven’t really gotten around to doing any meal-prep yet 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Some Fun Stuff
This is a place where I share something cool to read, something cool to listen to, and something cool to watch! The underlined words are links that you can click to visit the recommended content.
1. Consider buying or renting a Private Island - Hey, if you’re in the market for a bit of land surrounded by water on all sides, you’re in luck! Why not consider purchasing a private island of your own? Let the schmucks spend their money on Amazon sales, you my friend should be out there buying yourself a piece of the private island action. 😆
On a serious note though, I had no idea that islands were sold online. This is a surprising discovery for sure. Totally worth browsing and losing an afternoon dreaming up the perfect island life.
2. Listen to Dreamcatcher by Bahramji: I remember listening to this track 4 years ago for the first time and being completely captivated by it. It is a timeless tune, full of mystical and trance-like elements while being super approachable and foot tappy. Make this the one new song you listen to this week.
3. Watch this quiet city walking tour of Amsterdam’s city center: I love these kind of quite walking tours on Youtube because they offer me a chance to feel the vibe of a place without really going there. And it ends up feeling even sweeter to revisit a place that I’ve already been to, reliving its vibe through a video walkthrough. So if you haven’t yet been struck by this awesome Youtube genre of quiet city walking tours, here’s my recommendation to get you started - my favorite city in the whole world, Amsterdam:
That’s it for this week, see you next Tuesday!
Perhaps this is a good reason to shop more at the Thrift shops. I absolutely buy things I don’t need.! There seems to be a human need in us for something “new” or different. Shopping recycled helps. I also love refinishing furniture that can fill that desire for “new”, while at the same time being creative.
Everybody knows that, they are doing unnecessary shopping. But, they can't control themselves 😂😂