A Modest Proposal: Let’s Regulate Shopping Like We Do Sports Betting

And now, for a Jonathan Swift-style Modest Proposal.

It is high time for the federal government to step in and limit advertising, ban sales and bonuses, prohibit credit card purchases, institute affordability checks, and raise taxes to upward of 51%.

No, I’m not talking about the SAFE Bet Act for sports betting. I’m talking about shopping.

Yes, that’s right: Shopping is the scourge of our society, about 5% of adults suffer from “compulsive buying disorder,” and the government must — must! — step in and fix the problem before more Americans suffer from the consequences of problem shopping.

Why do I think this needs to happen?

Well, it was due to another one of those hit pieces on shopping, published on Page 1 of the New York Times Sunday, above the fold, with the foreboding headline of “Shopping Companies Preying on Unsuspecting Americans.”

Wait, hold up, I’m being told that’s incorrect. The Times did write a story. And it wasn’t exactly a hit piece as much as a jaunty feature on people who shop too much. And it was in the Business section, not Page 1. And the headline read, “What Does it Take to Quit Shopping? Mute, Delete, and Unsubscribe.”

So there I was, reading that headline, and I was gobsmacked. How dare the voice at the Old Gray Lady put the onus of shopping addiction — which, as noted above and in the story, affects 5% of adults — on the consumers? Shouldn’t the businesses bear the brunt of the outrage? Shouldn’t the government get involved?

Well, not so much, according to the hit piece. 

Sports vs. shopping

Let’s actually take a moment here to compare the dangers of shopping to sports betting, and, for that matter, gambling as a whole. To be fair, it’s very hard to compare the two, as shopping addiction is upward of five times more prevalent in America than gambling addiction. (That’s courtesy of the National Council of Problem Gambling, which puts about 1% of Americans as having a severe gambling disorder, and another 2% with “mild gambling problems.”)

But recent coverage of that industry — with the New York Times, in many respects, leading the way — puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the gambling companies, not the consumers.

But shopping problems? The businesses bear no burden.

Consider the case of Cassandra Orakpo, whom the Times interviewed for the story.

“Clearly my buying has gotten to a place where it’s bordering on hoarding,” she said.

Her solution? Unsubscribing from marketing emails, deleting apps, blocking companies from her X account.

Did the Times launch an investigation into TikTok Shop’s predatory algorithms? Did they expose Fashion Nova’s manipulative marketing tactics? An examination of credit cards maxed out at Macy’s? They did not. 

Instead, we find out that Ms. Orakpo has taken matters into her own hands by — the Times’ reporters words — “unsubscribing from daily emails from Shein” and changing “her TikTok settings to avoid personalized ads.”

Imagine if gambling coverage followed this model: “John Smith conquered his gambling addiction by deleting the DraftKings app and blocking FanDuel’s emails.” 

Ads, ads, ads

When the article does mention the corporate side of the equation, it gives a sympathetic platform to Amit Jhawar, CEO of Attentive, a company that sends marketing texts directly to your phone. 

Instead of painting him as a predatory villain, he is instead — Times’ words — “part of the solution,” claiming his company is “not sending you crappy messages that you have to go and sort through.”

Jhawar’s company uses AI to analyze “micromoments of shoppers’ behavior” including “the time of day they usually browse or whether they zoom in on an image.” They track when you leave a website without purchasing so they can “tailor a message to entice the shopper back to the site, like a mobile salesperson trying to close a deal.”

Gambling companies also do things like this, where they track consumer behavior, use AI to create betting markets, send personalized messages, and the like. As a result, half the country and a ton of legislators would like to toss the industry leaders in the water to see if they float. And if they do, burn ‘em at the stake.

But most interesting is how the article frames solutions. Hannah Radke, who ended up on probation after swapping price tags in a store, now finds “comfort at Shopping Addiction Support, a private Facebook group.” 

Devon Rule created an app to help people “use what you have” instead of buying more.

The message from both is clear: It’s on you, the consumer, to fix yourself.

“It’s unrealistic to look to brands to moderate us on this,” Rule said.

Proposal, modest

So here’s my modest proposal: If we’re going to demand gambling companies implement strict safeguards, perform affordability checks, limit advertisements, and face punitive taxes, shouldn’t we apply the same standards to the shopping industry, where — again — more people have more problems?

“It’s a whole ecosystem, and it’s hard to avoid,” Orakpo said. “But it is feeling predatory, it is feeling like manipulation.”

Again, she’s talking about shopping, an industry clearly ripe for government intervention.

I am calling on every American legislator to take a long, hard look at … shopping. 

Or — another modest proposal — maybe the mainstream media should take a beat and start looking at the gambling industry the same way they look at shopping, that adults make choices, that addiction is complex and not one-size-fits-all, that personal responsibility plays a role alongside the corporate capitalists.

Honestly, I think we’ll start eating babies before that happens, but dare to dream, right?