credit cards

i totally forgot to post this!!!! ahhhhh im soooo sorry!!!

After reading this my first thought is immediately that i am so glad i do not have a credit card. I honestly do not understand the whole system and why you cant just pay things in money, and building up your credit and credit score. It all goes right over my head, so parts of the article did to. And i am not surprised at all about how much companies know about their customers and all the different techniques they use, their are entire industries dedicated to learning such things. I work in retail and part of my job is to set up displays and sales in a way to attract people like the companies do. For example, certain colors in different sections of the store will attract different types of people (i.e older or younger), and during sales we put things in bins messy because people think they are getting a better bargain when they have to rummage through bins. My store (Victoria's secret) actual has it's own credit card which can be used in the store and paid off directly in the store, and as a sales associated i have a certain amount of cards i have to open each segment. Although the company never officially trained me in how to target people to get to open credit cards, after reading this article i realized that i applied a lot of what the major companies do , and i feel horrible about it. Usually I'll go for younger women shopping in smaller groups, either by themselves or with one other person. I'll start by looking at what they are wearing, and what section of the store they are shopping it. I then go in and ask if they need help, if they say yes i do an amazing and extensive job in helping them. Usually judging off their clothes i can start some conversation topic, like if its preppy i'll talk about the hills or something, or if its kind of off beat i'll mention fall out boy, stuff like that (listening to their conversation if she's with someone helps a lot, then i talk about something like that and they think i actually care about them. . . man i feel horrible). Then when they find what they want to buy i start by saying, "this is such a great choice but did you know that with our angel's card you can get x amount off of your purchase, and also over 100 dollars in coupons instantly?" If they are not looking for anything then i will usually take out the newest selection in our popular pink brand that they would like based off what they are wearing, say something like how its brand new and we have hardly any left and wont be getting any more in, and that with our angels card you get x amount off. . oh you dont have one? well it only takes 2 mins to apply, is free, and you get 100 dollars in coupons instantly! I didnt even realize how many tricks i use, i feel horrible, i target stupid young girls who obviously dont have any credit and dont know better, or older women with a lot of things in their bag who are obvious bargain hunters!
So in terms of credit cards, and industries in general, it is hard to imagine how situationist techniques can work. All of these things go on behind curtains and closed doors, most people dont even know they are being manipulated in such a way so they would not even know there is a situation to stand up against and take situationist action against. From my understanding the situationist wanted to life to move away from capitalism and wanted to focus on the natural human desires shy of convention and restriction. It seems that this would be pretty hard to do when these companies base their job on knowing these very tendencies and desires. You could certainly assert yourself and create and share your own values by boycotting and avoiding such industries, but in our society that is nearly impossible to do. I know hardly anything about credit, since i have none, but from my understanding you cannot take out loans of buy houses or cars and such without having credit and good credit. If one wants to function in this society they almost have to conform to these industries. The situationist techniques i honestly do not think could work today, at least in the way they once did. Their technique in the past was about open resistance and overthrowing the government, i can honestly never see such a thing happening in our society since our government is a. so extremely complicated, b. already very separated and split, and ban all controlling aspect of our society. Certianly their techniques of open resistance would probably not be used today or work in todays climate, you just do not see things like the million man march anymore. In this digital age i feel that if the situationist were to fight against these industries it would be in the form of facebook groups, online petitions, twitter, and texting. Unfortunately that seems to be the way our society is heading, people don't gather in masses like they used to, they blog about it and tweet about it.
After reading this article and thinking about how it could affect me, I will certainly take great care in deciding when i open a credit card, because i no it is inevitable that i will have to. If i can i would love to avoid it because it sounds like more trouble then its worth, however i feel like the way our society is set up you have to have credit, hopefully some day soon i'll understand it all! =/