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> Something about the whole thing always registered to me as, like, lame—too normcore, too boring, perhaps even too cheugy to an informed and taste-driven mille

> Something about the whole thing always registered to me as, like, lame—too normcore, too boring, perhaps even too cheugy to an informed and taste-driven millennial ur-consumer like me. The kinds of brands I like to buy aren’t what they sell at Costco Good example of how people can build identities through their brand choices and purchasing habits. It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. Yet the crossover between brands, identities, and lifestyles is deeply held by many people. I know some will try to turn this into a criticism of Americans, but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. In some countries I had to make a conscious effort to try to wear clothes from acceptable brands and swap my functional laptop bag for something more stylish to avoid letting my purchasing habits become a point of judgment from others. It’s actually refreshing to come back to America where as long as you’ve made some effort to look more or less appropriate for the occasion few people care about the brand of your clothes, laptop bag, or car. Some people are proud of their Audi or designer bag, but I rarely run into situations where I’d be judged for arriving in a sensible Subaru instead of a Mercedes.

krustyburger 6mo ago
It sounds like you’ve just been around toxic and superficial people in your international travels and then extrapolated from them to their whole countries. Unfortunately, they have people like that everywhere.
- giwook 6mo ago
  Not necessarily. South Korea is one example that I have intimate knowledge of where one's consumer habits (the clothes one wears, the car one drives, the logo on one's handbag) is the ultimate signal of status. You're automatically pre-judged by complete strangers without having to say a single word. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is in fact an unspoken rule over there.
  - bryceacc 6mo ago
    are you not describing "toxic and superficial" ? I specifically take issue with pre-judgement based on clothes, cars, and logos.
    - snapcaster 6mo ago
      superficial maybe, "toxic" is your own personal idealogy
    - giwook 6mo ago
      I think he was saying it was an unfair extrapolation to say that OP's limited experience with a small subset of people defined an entire nation. I'm saying that in the case of South Korea, that extrapolation is very much accurate.
  - RigelKentaurus 6mo ago
    The same is true in India. I live in the US, and when I visit relatives in India, they are nonplussed that I can afford a fancier car but choose to drive a Toyota. Clothes, watches, my phone brand - everything is under constant analysis and people feel free to comment on everything. I am used to it now but it gets tiring.
    - computerdork 6mo ago
      Was going to say this. Am in the US, and have Indian friends, and they are much more brand conscious than the average American.
      - ChoGGi 6mo ago
        Living in Canada, I specially choose clothes without branding or branding I can remove. I don't advertise for free.
        JKCalhoun 6mo ago
        Yeah, that's been my strategy since… college. Nike logo? Polo logo? Not a chance.
- a34729t 6mo ago
  Nope, the US (especially the West Coast and Mountain States) is extremely non superficial in certain very odd ways: * Almost nobody cares what kind of car you drive. The richest people I know literally don't care and drive Subarus and Toyotas and Ford pickups. * Nobody cares about watches or jewelry. * Clothing? It's literally Costco or Walmart for people I know who have tons of money. Unless their wives/gfs/bfs/husbands buy them something fancy for their birthday. * Fancy wines and liquor? Wines yes, scotch yes. But it's not outrageous. The things where you notice the money are private planes and nice houses/apartments (and multiples thereof) and art. And perhaps caring even less what people think of them.
  - chasd00 6mo ago
    In mountain states everything exposed to nature is just beaten into an average. The environment is so harsh it makes sense things affected aren’t much of a status symbol or at least don’t remain one for long hah.
    - eks391 6mo ago
      Not just mountain states. I lived in one of the windy US deserts, and everything outside is minimally cared about because it's getting practically sand blasted several times a year.
vunderba 6mo ago
> It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. For those of us who grew up in the era of the "Are you a Mac or a PC" [1], many Americans are intimately familiar with the concept of brand identity. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac
- TulliusCicero 6mo ago
  There are certain cases where brand attachment is stronger, but overall brand attachment in the US is pretty weak.
- wavemode 6mo ago
  Mac, yes. But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity. People use PCs for various reasons, usually pragmatic. (Reflecting on it, I don't think I ever knew anyone who was "loyal" to Microsoft, or, dare I say, even particularly liked them as a company. At least certainly not the way people like Apple.) In that sense, I feel as though Apple is the exception that proves the rule. There are really (almost) no other brands in Americans' everyday lives that elicit such a strong brand identity.
  - JackFr 6mo ago
    > But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity. But there were people who were vocally non-Mac, dismissing it as “great for students and graphic designers”, but not a computer for real work. (That was me in the 90’s. Of course eventually I began working on a Mac professionally.)
  - vunderba 6mo ago
    Yeah I could see that. I think Apple being naturally more vertically integrated (controlling the hardware and the software), was able to establish a stronger narrative around its identity early on in order to court certain types of people.
add-sub-mul-div 6mo ago
> Some people are proud of their Audi or designer bag, but I rarely run into situations where I’d be judged for arriving in a sensible Subaru instead of a Mercedes. I agree. You can go into Costco and see a store full of individuals who happen to be shopping at Costco that day, or you can go to Costco and see the same people as slaves to an imagined Costco lifestyle that you can then write about for 800 words. It says more about the author than the shoppers. This article is the worst kind of lifestyle trend engineering.
- stantaylor 6mo ago
  I would agree. The implicit (or actually pretty explicit in a couple of sentences) class disdain is so tiring.
  - jameshart 6mo ago
    You should probably read the whole article. Those sentences are dripping with irony that is entirely wrung out of them when they are quoted here.
- criddell 6mo ago
  Slaves to an imagined Costco lifestyle? That's not the vibe I picked up from the article at all. I enjoyed reading about the writer realizing he's turning into his father and taking photos of things his dad used to buy to share with his mom. He spots people that may be falling in love. Clumsy people apologizing to nobody. He counts eight different languages. I thought it was charming and a little nostalgic.
legitster 6mo ago
> "What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.” - Andy Warhol Unfortunately I think America is starting to lose this way a bit, with the influx of newer premium brands and the fracturing of American consumers into endless lifestyle personas. But there's still some truth left in it.
- alhazrod 6mo ago
  An Italian man once told me, "Coca-Cola is American champagne." Take it as you will.
  - RajT88 6mo ago
    I thought that was Miller High Life.
  - wcfields 6mo ago
    It's only Coca-Cola if it comes from the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée of Atlanta, otherwise it's only a sparking cola beverage.
  - scottyah 6mo ago
    Was that during our prohibition?
- giwook 6mo ago
  > where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest To say that "the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest" by using Coke as an example is a significant oversimplification and is cherry picking examples to prove a point. The richest consumers buy plenty of consumer goods that the poorest cannot even dream of buying or even renting. If there was a truffle-infused Coke with edible 24k gold flakes that cost 10x as much (and actually tasted good) you can be sure pretty much only the richest consumers would be drinking it, and that everyone who couldn't afford it would be doing everything in their power to keep up with the Joneses. What percentage of "the poorest" own their own home or go on international trips more than once a year let alone owning multiple homes, luxury cars, and private jets?
hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
>build identities through [...] purchasing habits > foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant But you are, yourself, defining yourself partially here through your own purchasing habits. In fact you are doing it to a far more universal degree than most of the ones you criticize. Not that I'm immune to it, but nor do I claim to be. I think it's useful signal just like anything else. Watch: My quintessential American habit is that I wear roughly the same nondescript black T shirt, black boxer briefs, black socks, and maybe an unlabeled black hoddie that I purchase off of Amazon, mostly just sorting by ratings. If at any point I reach into my closet and the stock-flow system that is my laundry habits have deemed it such that I am actually out of stock of any of these items, I immediately go to Amazon and purchase another 6- or 4- or 12-pack. If you feel you understand me better as a person after reading all that, you probably do.
- Exoristos 6mo ago
  Exposing my superficiality, perhaps: but it pains me that you don't wear pants.
  - Worf 6mo ago
    You mean leg prisons?
  - hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
    Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
tavavex 6mo ago
> I know some will try to turn this into a criticism of Americans, but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. Can you give a few examples of those brand-centric cultures? Which product categories do they follow? I've never seen anything like this, so if I were to go to one of the places that has this culture, I should probably know about it in advance.
- dghlsakjg 6mo ago
  China, India, Singapore, and Korea are a few off the top of my head.
elzbardico 6mo ago
> In some countries I had to make a conscious effort to try to wear clothes from acceptable brands and swap my functional laptop bag for something more stylish to avoid letting my purchasing habits become a point of judgment from others. It is kind of fascinating, having come from such a culture, to realize that in the end, Americans, at least the average of the America I met, are not nearly brand conscious as I and everyone in my place supposed them to be. Of course, America is a fucking giant and diverse place, and I think that even native born Americans have no fucking idea of how many different Americas exist, so, take my views of America with a giant grain of salt.
- Terr_ 6mo ago
  > It is kind of fascinating, having come from such a culture, to realize that in the end, Americans, at least the average of the America I met, are not nearly brand conscious as I and everyone in my place supposed them to be. Speaking as an American with a formative decade overseas, I think some of that may come from the economics of international trade. People think about a faraway place based on what gets transported and sold from there. If a country's most-visible exports are gourmet food, you'd start thinking that perhaps the average resident is a gourmand. In the case of the US, those "cultural exports" often involve branded goods, copyrighted media, food franchises, etc.
  - variaga 6mo ago
    Nit: a gourmand is the opposite of a gourmet
    - ishouldstayaway 6mo ago
      How so?
      - defrost 6mo ago
        Quantity. The original usage of Gourmand was synonymous with gluttony and excess; while a gourmet might be satisfied with exquisitely prepared micro portions tucked away within an expansive plate criss crossed by a drizzle of ??, a gourmand wants the full stack pyramided to the maximal stope angle.
throw0101c 6mo ago
> It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. Perhaps those folks found certain brands regularly have decent (enought) quality and stick with them, and/or they have a personal aesthetic that they've developed that may be 'limited' to certain brands. Some folks also don't want to go through the effort of constantly/regularly (re-)evaluating things: they've found that Brand X gives them enough quality/value, and have stopped looking.
- margalabargala 6mo ago
  > Some folks also don't want to go through the effort of constantly/regularly (re-)evaluating things: they've found that Brand X gives them enough quality/value, and have stopped looking This argument stops holding water when those same people start judging other people for not also using Brand X.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
Den_VR 6mo ago
South Korea?
beloch 6mo ago
Nobody is going to come to your funeral and tearfully wail that you had fabulous taste in handbags. Brands may serve as camouflage when you're trying to conform, but conforming is not an identity. Your identity is based on what you create, not what you consume.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- RHSeeger 6mo ago
  But, I won't be there to see how they feel about me at my funeral. I'm here now, to see how they treat me. So yes, doing things to conform / be one of the crowd may not be what people remember you for... but it may be what impacts your daily life. Just an observation. My computer bag is older than most of my coworkers.
  - beloch 6mo ago
    Disguises can be very useful, but one should be wary of becoming their disguise.
- JKCalhoun 6mo ago
  (If you're having to say this to someone, I suspect you are wasting your breath.)
- crazygringo 6mo ago
  Depends on which funerals you go to. I've absolutely heard eulogies that talk about stylish grandma was up to the very end. The could go on about how she never left the house without looking like she could have been ready for a photo shoot. How she brightened every gathering she was a part of, and even had this marvelous ability to pick the perfect accessories, including -- yes -- handbags. You seem to be conflating two things that are different -- "fabulous taste", and "conforming/consuming". Putting together and accessorizing an outfit is an act of creation. Looking sharp is usually quite the opposite of conforming. Remember that when you dress with style, you're brightening the day of the people who look at you, like a walking work of art. Some people look at it as vain, but other people understand it's making the world a more pleasant place, just like good manners or a helping attitude. If you can appreciate the way a tasteful statue adorns a park, you can appreciate the way a tasteful outfit -- handbag included -- does the same.
wlesieutre 6mo ago
The great thing about Costco is that everything they sell is reliably fine. Is it the best in the world? Probably not. But it's usually good. At worst it's average. When I find myself reading Consumer Reports or The Wirecutter looking for "what is the best toothbrush" it's not that I actually need the best toothbrush. I'd be perfectly happy with a good toothbrush. What I'm trying to do is avoid spending a bunch of money on something that looked like a good option and turns out to be ineffective, unreliable, short-lived, or otherwise terrible. Most retailers are absolutely overrun with trash now. Generally at Costco it's not a worry, if it's a crappy product they're not selling it.
- ChoGGi 6mo ago
  This right here, other places have a store brand that can be good or mixed, as well as just plain trash in the aisles. You know it's decent at Costco or you can return it in a few months when it craps out.
  - wlesieutre 6mo ago
    Meanwhile every other large retailer is trying to turn into a copy of Amazon where anyone can sell anything with no quality control
- brewdad 6mo ago
  This is how I approach Costco. Everything there will meet a minimum standard, so I'm more willing to try something new. Also, the prices will pretty much always be fair. Could I track down a better deal somewhere else? Possibly but I usually don't want to expend that extra effort to save a buck or two.
copperx 6mo ago
> but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. You can't just say this and leave us hanging. Which countries?
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
midtake 6mo ago
To add to your point: Someone should let the author know that considering oneself informed and taste-driven is itself cheugy. The performative aspect is the essence of cheug. So I hope he was being ironic. Costco itself, in a way, is a sort of Wittgenstein's ladder, or Wittgenstein's warehouse, because eventually you realize that everything sold under the Kirkland label is just a de-badged top brand. If you still reach for brand names for staple goods at Costco knowing full well the Kirkland product is either the same or superior, then you know that the shadows of brand names still haunt you and occlude your sight. When you are able to escape these shadows and see the sun, then you are free.
- brewdad 6mo ago
  While true concerning the quality of Kirkland brand, sometimes there are still differences that can matter. I love the Kirkland bacon but they don't sell a thick cut version (at least at my Costco) so sometimes I buy the "brand name" instead.
  - midtake 6mo ago
    You are correct, I may have exaggerated a bit.
  - wavemode 6mo ago
    That's interesting. Where I live, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most about buying Kirkland bacon from Costco, is how ridiculously thick-cut it is. It's literally the thickest bacon I've ever encountered lol
- jhbadger 6mo ago
  I also find it funny that many of the people who look down on Costco rave about Trader Joe's and find it cool -- even though, like Kirkland, Trader Joe's products are mostly de-badged brands as well.
Vinnl 6mo ago
Heh, I haven't seen it myself, but I'm suddenly reminded about derision for having blue (or was it green?) bubbles.
apsurd 6mo ago
But there's a cult following for various Costco products including food. The frozen croissants, the ~$5 rotisserie chicken, the vodka. The generic clothes items, shirts, socks etc. The pizza. I don't even have a Costco membership! Maybe this is a Socal/urban thing? In any case, I think you're overthinking it, people love Costco.
golemiprague 6mo ago
[dead]
blobbers 6mo ago
-- I actively seek out the Kirkland clothes.
xnx 6mo ago
I don't think much of class, but caring about brands is low class behavior (present in both the poor and the rich).
- draw_down 6mo ago
  [dead]
Scroll_Swe 6mo ago
Where? I feel like logos are 100% done now. The best clothes here in Sweden, from our own Swedish brands, have no logos. And have not been for a long time. Scandinavian minimalism and quality is the best. Asia is the one obsessed with brands. Europe is not. We care about quality.
- hansbo 6mo ago
  But quality is strongly associated with brand. Showing off the logo might be taboo, but everyone can tell the difference between an IKEA kitchen and a Funkiskök.
  - Scroll_Swe 6mo ago
    Yes, but one is obviously better than the other. I actually like this as someone with a big logo gucci bag is easy to frame right away as a terrible human.
    - dghlsakjg 6mo ago
      No irony in judging someone as a “terrible human” based on superficial signals because they seemingly care about superficial signals?
kakacik 6mo ago
Man, you must move in some shitty circles, no polite way of saying that. The other option is that its self-projection, I've met folks like that who overanalyzed to death what they thought others were thinking, usually being completely wrong since few other folks have OCDish personalities like them. This is not how we generally work in Europe, but you were not precise of your destinations. Life in 2026 ain't some Victorian novel.
butlike 6mo ago
Honest question: What does it matter if others judge you, in this time? Back in the day I understand; you'd be ostracized from the group or killed, but in this day and age people just give you a side eye or murmur at best. It really doesn't affect anything anymore. Why should we care?

krustyburger 6mo ago

It sounds like you’ve just been around toxic and superficial people in your international travels and then extrapolated from them to their whole countries. Unfortunately, they have people like that everywhere.

giwook 6mo ago
Not necessarily. South Korea is one example that I have intimate knowledge of where one's consumer habits (the clothes one wears, the car one drives, the logo on one's handbag) is the ultimate signal of status. You're automatically pre-judged by complete strangers without having to say a single word. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is in fact an unspoken rule over there.
- bryceacc 6mo ago
  are you not describing "toxic and superficial" ? I specifically take issue with pre-judgement based on clothes, cars, and logos.
  - snapcaster 6mo ago
    superficial maybe, "toxic" is your own personal idealogy
  - giwook 6mo ago
    I think he was saying it was an unfair extrapolation to say that OP's limited experience with a small subset of people defined an entire nation. I'm saying that in the case of South Korea, that extrapolation is very much accurate.
- RigelKentaurus 6mo ago
  The same is true in India. I live in the US, and when I visit relatives in India, they are nonplussed that I can afford a fancier car but choose to drive a Toyota. Clothes, watches, my phone brand - everything is under constant analysis and people feel free to comment on everything. I am used to it now but it gets tiring.
  - computerdork 6mo ago
    Was going to say this. Am in the US, and have Indian friends, and they are much more brand conscious than the average American.
    - ChoGGi 6mo ago
      Living in Canada, I specially choose clothes without branding or branding I can remove. I don't advertise for free.
      - JKCalhoun 6mo ago
        Yeah, that's been my strategy since… college. Nike logo? Polo logo? Not a chance.
a34729t 6mo ago
Nope, the US (especially the West Coast and Mountain States) is extremely non superficial in certain very odd ways: * Almost nobody cares what kind of car you drive. The richest people I know literally don't care and drive Subarus and Toyotas and Ford pickups. * Nobody cares about watches or jewelry. * Clothing? It's literally Costco or Walmart for people I know who have tons of money. Unless their wives/gfs/bfs/husbands buy them something fancy for their birthday. * Fancy wines and liquor? Wines yes, scotch yes. But it's not outrageous. The things where you notice the money are private planes and nice houses/apartments (and multiples thereof) and art. And perhaps caring even less what people think of them.
- chasd00 6mo ago
  In mountain states everything exposed to nature is just beaten into an average. The environment is so harsh it makes sense things affected aren’t much of a status symbol or at least don’t remain one for long hah.
  - eks391 6mo ago
    Not just mountain states. I lived in one of the windy US deserts, and everything outside is minimally cared about because it's getting practically sand blasted several times a year.

vunderba 6mo ago

> It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. For those of us who grew up in the era of the "Are you a Mac or a PC" [1], many Americans are intimately familiar with the concept of brand identity. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac

TulliusCicero 6mo ago
There are certain cases where brand attachment is stronger, but overall brand attachment in the US is pretty weak.
wavemode 6mo ago
Mac, yes. But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity. People use PCs for various reasons, usually pragmatic. (Reflecting on it, I don't think I ever knew anyone who was "loyal" to Microsoft, or, dare I say, even particularly liked them as a company. At least certainly not the way people like Apple.) In that sense, I feel as though Apple is the exception that proves the rule. There are really (almost) no other brands in Americans' everyday lives that elicit such a strong brand identity.
- JackFr 6mo ago
  > But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity. But there were people who were vocally non-Mac, dismissing it as “great for students and graphic designers”, but not a computer for real work. (That was me in the 90’s. Of course eventually I began working on a Mac professionally.)
- vunderba 6mo ago
  Yeah I could see that. I think Apple being naturally more vertically integrated (controlling the hardware and the software), was able to establish a stronger narrative around its identity early on in order to court certain types of people.

add-sub-mul-div 6mo ago

> Some people are proud of their Audi or designer bag, but I rarely run into situations where I’d be judged for arriving in a sensible Subaru instead of a Mercedes. I agree. You can go into Costco and see a store full of individuals who happen to be shopping at Costco that day, or you can go to Costco and see the same people as slaves to an imagined Costco lifestyle that you can then write about for 800 words. It says more about the author than the shoppers. This article is the worst kind of lifestyle trend engineering.

stantaylor 6mo ago
I would agree. The implicit (or actually pretty explicit in a couple of sentences) class disdain is so tiring.
- jameshart 6mo ago
  You should probably read the whole article. Those sentences are dripping with irony that is entirely wrung out of them when they are quoted here.
criddell 6mo ago
Slaves to an imagined Costco lifestyle? That's not the vibe I picked up from the article at all. I enjoyed reading about the writer realizing he's turning into his father and taking photos of things his dad used to buy to share with his mom. He spots people that may be falling in love. Clumsy people apologizing to nobody. He counts eight different languages. I thought it was charming and a little nostalgic.

legitster 6mo ago

> "What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.” - Andy Warhol Unfortunately I think America is starting to lose this way a bit, with the influx of newer premium brands and the fracturing of American consumers into endless lifestyle personas. But there's still some truth left in it.

alhazrod 6mo ago
An Italian man once told me, "Coca-Cola is American champagne." Take it as you will.
- RajT88 6mo ago
  I thought that was Miller High Life.
- wcfields 6mo ago
  It's only Coca-Cola if it comes from the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée of Atlanta, otherwise it's only a sparking cola beverage.
- scottyah 6mo ago
  Was that during our prohibition?
giwook 6mo ago
> where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest To say that "the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest" by using Coke as an example is a significant oversimplification and is cherry picking examples to prove a point. The richest consumers buy plenty of consumer goods that the poorest cannot even dream of buying or even renting. If there was a truffle-infused Coke with edible 24k gold flakes that cost 10x as much (and actually tasted good) you can be sure pretty much only the richest consumers would be drinking it, and that everyone who couldn't afford it would be doing everything in their power to keep up with the Joneses. What percentage of "the poorest" own their own home or go on international trips more than once a year let alone owning multiple homes, luxury cars, and private jets?

hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago

>build identities through [...] purchasing habits > foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant But you are, yourself, defining yourself partially here through your own purchasing habits. In fact you are doing it to a far more universal degree than most of the ones you criticize. Not that I'm immune to it, but nor do I claim to be. I think it's useful signal just like anything else. Watch: My quintessential American habit is that I wear roughly the same nondescript black T shirt, black boxer briefs, black socks, and maybe an unlabeled black hoddie that I purchase off of Amazon, mostly just sorting by ratings. If at any point I reach into my closet and the stock-flow system that is my laundry habits have deemed it such that I am actually out of stock of any of these items, I immediately go to Amazon and purchase another 6- or 4- or 12-pack. If you feel you understand me better as a person after reading all that, you probably do.

Exoristos 6mo ago
Exposing my superficiality, perhaps: but it pains me that you don't wear pants.
- Worf 6mo ago
  You mean leg prisons?
- hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
  Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

tavavex 6mo ago

> I know some will try to turn this into a criticism of Americans, but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. Can you give a few examples of those brand-centric cultures? Which product categories do they follow? I've never seen anything like this, so if I were to go to one of the places that has this culture, I should probably know about it in advance.

dghlsakjg 6mo ago
China, India, Singapore, and Korea are a few off the top of my head.

elzbardico 6mo ago

> In some countries I had to make a conscious effort to try to wear clothes from acceptable brands and swap my functional laptop bag for something more stylish to avoid letting my purchasing habits become a point of judgment from others. It is kind of fascinating, having come from such a culture, to realize that in the end, Americans, at least the average of the America I met, are not nearly brand conscious as I and everyone in my place supposed them to be. Of course, America is a fucking giant and diverse place, and I think that even native born Americans have no fucking idea of how many different Americas exist, so, take my views of America with a giant grain of salt.

Terr_ 6mo ago
> It is kind of fascinating, having come from such a culture, to realize that in the end, Americans, at least the average of the America I met, are not nearly brand conscious as I and everyone in my place supposed them to be. Speaking as an American with a formative decade overseas, I think some of that may come from the economics of international trade. People think about a faraway place based on what gets transported and sold from there. If a country's most-visible exports are gourmet food, you'd start thinking that perhaps the average resident is a gourmand. In the case of the US, those "cultural exports" often involve branded goods, copyrighted media, food franchises, etc.
- variaga 6mo ago
  Nit: a gourmand is the opposite of a gourmet
  - ishouldstayaway 6mo ago
    How so?
    - defrost 6mo ago
      Quantity. The original usage of Gourmand was synonymous with gluttony and excess; while a gourmet might be satisfied with exquisitely prepared micro portions tucked away within an expansive plate criss crossed by a drizzle of ??, a gourmand wants the full stack pyramided to the maximal stope angle.

throw0101c 6mo ago

> It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. Perhaps those folks found certain brands regularly have decent (enought) quality and stick with them, and/or they have a personal aesthetic that they've developed that may be 'limited' to certain brands. Some folks also don't want to go through the effort of constantly/regularly (re-)evaluating things: they've found that Brand X gives them enough quality/value, and have stopped looking.

margalabargala 6mo ago
> Some folks also don't want to go through the effort of constantly/regularly (re-)evaluating things: they've found that Brand X gives them enough quality/value, and have stopped looking This argument stops holding water when those same people start judging other people for not also using Brand X.
- deleted 6mo ago
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Den_VR 6mo ago

South Korea?

beloch 6mo ago

Nobody is going to come to your funeral and tearfully wail that you had fabulous taste in handbags. Brands may serve as camouflage when you're trying to conform, but conforming is not an identity. Your identity is based on what you create, not what you consume.

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RHSeeger 6mo ago
But, I won't be there to see how they feel about me at my funeral. I'm here now, to see how they treat me. So yes, doing things to conform / be one of the crowd may not be what people remember you for... but it may be what impacts your daily life. Just an observation. My computer bag is older than most of my coworkers.
- beloch 6mo ago
  Disguises can be very useful, but one should be wary of becoming their disguise.
JKCalhoun 6mo ago
(If you're having to say this to someone, I suspect you are wasting your breath.)
crazygringo 6mo ago
Depends on which funerals you go to. I've absolutely heard eulogies that talk about stylish grandma was up to the very end. The could go on about how she never left the house without looking like she could have been ready for a photo shoot. How she brightened every gathering she was a part of, and even had this marvelous ability to pick the perfect accessories, including -- yes -- handbags. You seem to be conflating two things that are different -- "fabulous taste", and "conforming/consuming". Putting together and accessorizing an outfit is an act of creation. Looking sharp is usually quite the opposite of conforming. Remember that when you dress with style, you're brightening the day of the people who look at you, like a walking work of art. Some people look at it as vain, but other people understand it's making the world a more pleasant place, just like good manners or a helping attitude. If you can appreciate the way a tasteful statue adorns a park, you can appreciate the way a tasteful outfit -- handbag included -- does the same.

wlesieutre 6mo ago

The great thing about Costco is that everything they sell is reliably fine. Is it the best in the world? Probably not. But it's usually good. At worst it's average. When I find myself reading Consumer Reports or The Wirecutter looking for "what is the best toothbrush" it's not that I actually need the best toothbrush. I'd be perfectly happy with a good toothbrush. What I'm trying to do is avoid spending a bunch of money on something that looked like a good option and turns out to be ineffective, unreliable, short-lived, or otherwise terrible. Most retailers are absolutely overrun with trash now. Generally at Costco it's not a worry, if it's a crappy product they're not selling it.

ChoGGi 6mo ago
This right here, other places have a store brand that can be good or mixed, as well as just plain trash in the aisles. You know it's decent at Costco or you can return it in a few months when it craps out.
- wlesieutre 6mo ago
  Meanwhile every other large retailer is trying to turn into a copy of Amazon where anyone can sell anything with no quality control
brewdad 6mo ago
This is how I approach Costco. Everything there will meet a minimum standard, so I'm more willing to try something new. Also, the prices will pretty much always be fair. Could I track down a better deal somewhere else? Possibly but I usually don't want to expend that extra effort to save a buck or two.

copperx 6mo ago

> but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. You can't just say this and leave us hanging. Which countries?

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midtake 6mo ago

To add to your point: Someone should let the author know that considering oneself informed and taste-driven is itself cheugy. The performative aspect is the essence of cheug. So I hope he was being ironic. Costco itself, in a way, is a sort of Wittgenstein's ladder, or Wittgenstein's warehouse, because eventually you realize that everything sold under the Kirkland label is just a de-badged top brand. If you still reach for brand names for staple goods at Costco knowing full well the Kirkland product is either the same or superior, then you know that the shadows of brand names still haunt you and occlude your sight. When you are able to escape these shadows and see the sun, then you are free.

brewdad 6mo ago
While true concerning the quality of Kirkland brand, sometimes there are still differences that can matter. I love the Kirkland bacon but they don't sell a thick cut version (at least at my Costco) so sometimes I buy the "brand name" instead.
- midtake 6mo ago
  You are correct, I may have exaggerated a bit.
- wavemode 6mo ago
  That's interesting. Where I live, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most about buying Kirkland bacon from Costco, is how ridiculously thick-cut it is. It's literally the thickest bacon I've ever encountered lol
jhbadger 6mo ago
I also find it funny that many of the people who look down on Costco rave about Trader Joe's and find it cool -- even though, like Kirkland, Trader Joe's products are mostly de-badged brands as well.

Vinnl 6mo ago

Heh, I haven't seen it myself, but I'm suddenly reminded about derision for having blue (or was it green?) bubbles.

apsurd 6mo ago

But there's a cult following for various Costco products including food. The frozen croissants, the ~$5 rotisserie chicken, the vodka. The generic clothes items, shirts, socks etc. The pizza. I don't even have a Costco membership! Maybe this is a Socal/urban thing? In any case, I think you're overthinking it, people love Costco.

golemiprague 6mo ago

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blobbers 6mo ago

-- I actively seek out the Kirkland clothes.

xnx 6mo ago

I don't think much of class, but caring about brands is low class behavior (present in both the poor and the rich).

draw_down 6mo ago
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Scroll_Swe 6mo ago

Where? I feel like logos are 100% done now. The best clothes here in Sweden, from our own Swedish brands, have no logos. And have not been for a long time. Scandinavian minimalism and quality is the best. Asia is the one obsessed with brands. Europe is not. We care about quality.

hansbo 6mo ago
But quality is strongly associated with brand. Showing off the logo might be taboo, but everyone can tell the difference between an IKEA kitchen and a Funkiskök.
- Scroll_Swe 6mo ago
  Yes, but one is obviously better than the other. I actually like this as someone with a big logo gucci bag is easy to frame right away as a terrible human.
  - dghlsakjg 6mo ago
    No irony in judging someone as a “terrible human” based on superficial signals because they seemingly care about superficial signals?

kakacik 6mo ago

Man, you must move in some shitty circles, no polite way of saying that. The other option is that its self-projection, I've met folks like that who overanalyzed to death what they thought others were thinking, usually being completely wrong since few other folks have OCDish personalities like them. This is not how we generally work in Europe, but you were not precise of your destinations. Life in 2026 ain't some Victorian novel.

butlike 6mo ago

Honest question: What does it matter if others judge you, in this time? Back in the day I understand; you'd be ostracized from the group or killed, but in this day and age people just give you a side eye or murmur at best. It really doesn't affect anything anymore. Why should we care?