Can You Break Up With Your Gym? How About Your Bank?

Last week in our discussion on Robert V. Kozinets's article, "Can Consumers Escape the Market" we touched on the many highlights of consumption in regards to Burning Man. As we all now know, Burning Man encourages a sense of community at it's event as well as a theme of non-consumption. While the Burning Man committee nudges it's attendees to abide by these guidelines, Kozinets makes a strong argument that non-consumption is nearly impossible. Kozinets writes about the participants of the festival, "From their comments to me, people indicated that they were constantly judging others in terms of the degree of their participation in the event" (Kozinets 2002). When discussing this phenomena we brought up other situations in which the theme is common, some examples were; the Sturgis bike rally, online gaming sites, and my personal favorite, gyms.

My thinking in relating the theme of forced non-consumption was that when signing up for a gym membership, a person is often persuaded by an extremely fit looking individual who will give a run down all about how the gym has a great community and some very exclusive services offered only to members. This reminded me of an episode of Friends where Chandler tries to quit his gym  but requires the assistance of Ross to terminate the membership.

As you can see from the clip, ending Chandler's gym membership doesn't go over so well. Ross also becomes a member of the gym and then they end up with a joint checking account! Chandler and Ross feel pressure from the other members of the gym and bank communities to join and participate, much like the attendees of Burning Man. Kozinets says of his experience with less enthusiastic participants, "These outsiders were judged as inauthentic" (Kozinets 2002). One could argue that it is hard to win as a skeptic of the theme. Unless the participant is convincingly authentic about their participation they may be judged for their motives. Whether its joining a gym or attending Burning Man, consumers need to be aware of the choices they will be making, be it consumption or non-consumption. 

This couple has taken a relaxed approach to the consumption of clothing, but very practical footwear!