New Netflix documentary ‘Buy Now’ reveals the shocking aftereffects of overconsumption
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
In the wake of Black Friday and sliding headlong into the Buying Season, Netflix is streaming Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. Written and directed by Nic Stacey, the 84-minute documentary reminds us that corporations are for profit, not for humanity.
The voice of Sasha, a computerized personal assistant, guides the viewer through five rules of profit maximization: Sell More, Waste More, Lie More, Hide More, and Control More. Presented as a video tutorial, Sasha promises success to those who follow the guidelines. (The Sasha gimmick is effective but might grate on some. Her voice is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL smoothly saying, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”)
Under attack are the usual suspects. Amazon, Apple, Adidas, and the clothing industry at large (Gap, H&M, Shein, etc.) represent the major culprits. Marketing products that are single-use or have built-in obsolescence drive profits. Worse, companies rarely consider the end-of-life of objects. The film puts a great deal of focus on the environmental carnage of landfills and burnings. It is not litter. It is hazardous waste.
Statistics are a large part of Buy Now’s attack: 68,733 phones produced per hour, 190,000 garments produced each minute, and 12 tons of plastic produced each second. According to the Or Foundation, a not-for-profit trying to reduce textile waste, more than 15 million unwanted clothes are sent to Ghana—one of the world’s largest importers of used clothes each week. Globally, approximately 13 million phones are tossed out daily. An anecdote about the lightbulb cartel of 1925 introduces the established cornerstone of industry: planned obsolescence. In the present day, products are sealed and seamless. Laptops, printers, and phones are replaced, not repaired. And the sooner, the better.
The film calls out the fallacy of recycling, noting that barely ten percent of claimed recycling is accomplished. The markings on plastics range from half-truths to outright lies. Companies contend that recycling fixes the problem. “Truth is very different.” As packaging rules are lax, “You can say whatever the hell you want.” The symbols are largely meaningless. Most will be buried or burned. The sole solution is manufacturing less plastic.
The talking heads are mostly reformed staff members of the big companies, many of them openly paying penance for their part in the destruction. As one states, “I think I definitely have some sins to make up for.”
Buy Now’s tone blends horror with tongue-in-cheek commentary. The film only rests in the interviews and, even then, cuts to different angles. The peripatetic nature leans into a non-stop modern lifestyle as well as the problem’s urgency. The avalanche of shoes, laptops, and phones cascades, oozes, stampedes out of buildings and garbage cans, falls from the sky, and rolls down the streets. Clothing even vomits out of dryers.
The science-fiction essence harkens to films like The Blob, where cities are overrun, here played against the unknowing citizens in An Invasion of the Body Snatchers oblivion. The visuals have a mordant wit, and the techno music raises the future-of-the-damned tone. (A nice touch is the underscoring of the Adidas section with Saint-Saëns’s “Danse Macabre.”) Clips from Wall-E show the future of the planet. However, something is disconcerting about the presence of Disney/Pixar when it is probably responsible for more plastic toys and disposable souvenirs than any other company in the world.
Buy Now represents waste in myriad ways. These include shores clogged with plastic and shoveled into hell-like infernos. But the most startling image is the most common. Boxes upon boxes stacked in front halls and on kitchen floors; teetering piles spilling open. We buy everything we think we need—and more of it—often at one a.m. Amazon is the thing that occurs to you. “If the system is magic, what would it do? There is just a conveyor belt that goes straight from wherever the item is to your door as quickly and frictionless as possible.” With the internet, the next shoppable moment is always now. Buying new stuff feels great. But the flip side is where does it go?
The massive destruction of merchandise that prevents food and even healthcare products from being salvaged is equally horrifying. A United Kingdom Amazon warehouse destroys 130,000 pieces a week. There are five billion pounds of landfill waste in destroyed products. (More images, more statistics.)
Buy Now is an unequivocal indictment of the way we live. Enhanced by Brendan McGinty’s cinematography, Samuel R. Santana’s sharp editing, and engaging VFX and animation by Colin Thornton and Neil Wilson, the film is a bold statement about consumption and responsibility. You will look at your daily take-out cups of coffee, each plastic water bottle, and every item of clothing with a different eye.
The final line goes to Kyle Wiens, the CEO and co-founder of iFixit: “That’s it. Just buy less. It will be fine. Life is about experiences and the people that we’re with, and the stuff that we have supports it. But it’s not the end. It’s not the objective. Whoever dies with the most stuff does not win.”
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
