Buying for an Audience

Before a purchase it is useful to imagine that nobody will ever see it.

Does the wish survive?

The test works especially well on status objects. A car, a watch, clothes and an address can bring personal pleasure. But part of their value exists in other people’s reactions.

There is nothing automatically wrong with that. Social signals perform functions.

In a negotiation an expensive suit can say that you belong to a particular world and can follow its rules. In some professions visible success raises a client’s trust. Formal clothing helps a person get access to places where he is not yet known.

In that case the object works as a tool.

The trouble starts when someone buys the symbol of a profession or of wealth instead of building the thing it rests on. An expensive watch does not produce punctuality, and an executive’s suit does not issue you any staff.

It is also worth separating comfort from status.

A better chair, a quiet flat, good shoes and a fast computer may be economically suboptimal in the narrow sense and still substantially improve daily life.

Comfort is justified by how often it is used and how long the effect lasts. Paying extra for something used every day is sometimes more sensible than economising on it.

Before buying, it helps to ask:

• what function it performs;
• how often it will be used;
• what will change a week after the purchase;
• whether a cheaper alternative exists;
• whether I am paying for quality, service, design, or other people recognising a logo;
• whether the value survives without an audience.

A brand is not always an empty markup. It can include quality control, service, compatibility, resale value and predictability. But the price of the name should buy something besides the name — unless the name is a deliberately chosen function.

A question about hours helps separate comfort from status. A mattress works eight hours a day, a desk chair eight, shoes and a laptop nearly all day; paying extra for them spreads across thousands of hours and usually pays for itself in your back. A car that sits in the yard twenty-three hours a day falls under a different heading: it is seen more often than it is driven. That does not make the purchase stupid, but it moves it from the “convenience” line to the “signal” line, where different prices apply.

The difference shows in what a person is willing to hide. There is no regret in putting a good chair in a room nobody enters. An object it feels a shame to keep in such a room was not bought only for sitting on.