On today's show: we're ... venting.We at Planet Money are an ensemble show – each with different curiosities and styles. But we recently realized many of us have something in common: We're annoyed consumers.So we're going to get ranty ... but then try to understand the people annoying us. Like stingy coffee shops, manufacturers that don't design things for repair ... and stores that send way too many emails every day.Along the way, we learn a very sad thing about satisfaction and the future of skilled labor in the U.S.(Also, we should all just stop using umbrellas. They have negative consumption externalities. Come on people.)This episode was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What are the common annoyances of consumers?
So, all right. I was out on maternity leave for a while. And, I don't know, something about that time just made me view things in the world differently. I was questioning why everything is the way that it even is. Contemplating the big questions. Like, like... Why in the world do stores send me so many emails? An email a day from every store I have ever bought anything from ever? Why?
Things like that, you know? So, okay, yeah, no, not the most important issues of our time, but, like, that little pet peeve that just, like, gets you every single time you open your email. I actually really need to know how bombarding us with email like this doesn't backfire on them. Like... Let's get to the bottom of this.
And I was certain that other people at Planet Money also had little petty annoyances that, once we understand them, could maybe make us less bitter about it all. So I told everyone, come to me with your complaints. Vent to me what is annoying you in the world that I can help make sense of. And I'm just going to say, some of us really needed the catharsis. James Sneed, you have a list.
Sure, yeah, okay. Like, driving is terrible. There's, like, traffic everywhere. Nobody knows how to drive. Everything's expensive. Nothing's cheap. Nothing's cheap.
Mary Childs. Oh, you know, I wish that we had peace on Earth.
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Chapter 2: Why do stores send so many emails?
We're not interested in the big ones. We want petty complaints. Okay, right, sorry, sorry, sorry. Lexi Horowitz-Gazi. What's your beef? You got some beef.
Okay, my beef is... Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. We don't do free refills. And then you have to buy an entire another, like, $3 to $6 cup of coffee. Outrageous.
Alex Goldmark, Planet Money's boss boss.
Yeah, it was about my microwave.
Okay.
Okay. The short version is my microwave broke. I'm now mad at, like, all appliance designers. I am sad for skilled labor in the U.S. Like, this took me on a journey.
I think I haven't gotten a single thing fixed since like 1999. Like I think I just go like buy a new product.
Okay. Well, here's what I'm thinking. I don't want to live in that world. I want to live in a world where we can like fix.
Yes. Hello and welcome to Planet Money Complaining. I'm Sarah Gonzalez and we are complaining for the sake of learning. We can't tackle world peace, but there was a theme to some of our complaints. We are annoyed consumers. we are going to try to understand the other side, the annoyers. Today on the show, why appliance companies maybe don't want us to repair things.
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Chapter 3: What is the impact of too many marketing emails?
I will say I do enjoy clicking and deleting. I'm an inbox zero girl. I was just about to ask you if you were an inbox zero person.
I mean, that is part of the difference between me and you.
If you, like me, think that email has gotten out of control, we are right. Cynthia says stores send more emails. than ever. Okay. If I open my GMO right now, it's like Chase, Massage Envy, Thrive Market, Chase, Carter's, Carter's, Carter's, Carter's. Why is Carter's emailing you so much? Carter's emails me four times a day, every single day, Cynthia. What is that?
Carter's is a kid's clothing store. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's a lot. Like who buys things from an email that they get?
A lot of people.
Yeah, of course, they're sending emails because it works. But how? How could this possibly work? It's like a great form of marketing.
It is. There are very few tactics that you can use as effectively, as immediately as email.
We're out of luck, guys. Of all the forms of marketing, email has one of the highest returns on investment. We know this because stores can usually see when we open their emails. So there's data. And Here's how it all plays out. Let's say you're a store with 100,000 people on your email list and you send out an email that's like spring deals are in bloom or 70% off your winter faves now.
Something like 20 to 40% of people will open that email, like see it. That doesn't mean they're actually clicking through to your store's website, though, to see any of your spring deals.
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Chapter 4: Why do coffee shops charge for refills?
It gets cold.
You're totally right. It's just a mood thing. It's just a mood thing. It's just the tiniest signal I get about what kind of business this is.
For Alexi, it's less about the money or even what's practical. It's more about how all of this makes him feel in a coffee shop. So I called up a sort of expert in how we experience things.
I study both experiences that cost something as well as experiences that don't cost something. So I'm really interested in how paying attention to certain things gives us more or less enjoyment. So, yes.
Enjoyment. Kristen Diehl studies joy, technically satisfaction, at the University of Southern California. Like the joy we get out of experiences. She teaches consumer behavior, among other things. And I'm just going to say it. Kristen is very joyful.
I'm generally a happy person, I think. And my advisor told me that people either study what they're good at or what they're bad at.
Okay, I think this is the perfect match.
I think I have some insights there, yes. Much more complicated question than you would think it is. I agree.
First of all, Kristen says, we can blame diners for the expectation of free drinks.
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Chapter 5: What is the psychology behind customer satisfaction?
There's research on how satisfying good surprises actually make us.
That works the first time. But then the next time he was like, OK, where's the rogue employee here?
Turns out customer happiness is not as valuable as you might think it is. The problem for companies is that when they give things out for free as a surprise. We come to expect it the next time, and we are not happy if we don't get it. Yeah, and then you're like, is Jack working today? Is Jack here? Because he's normally the guy who gives me my tea. Kristen says, there's actually a sad ending.
to anything that brings us satisfaction. We adapt to that and we get accustomed to that. Even if the rogue employee always reliably gave us the rogue free refill, or even if it wasn't rogue at all, if it was company policy like Alexi wants it to be, they could do the exact same thing that made us happy last time. But we're just not as happy. That is sad.
Yeah, I think that's sad, but it's called hedonic adaptation. Yeah.
hedonic adaptation or the hedonic treadmill. The theory behind this is basically that you don't just go up, up, up in happiness forever. For instance, as you make money and you can buy more and more things, your expectations also rise.
This seems like a good reason for a coffee shop to not give free refills because they're like, whatever, you're just going to get mad at us about something later on anyways.
It definitely will, like, Give your colleague a bigger bump the first time than the fifth time. No question asked.
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Chapter 6: How does consumer behavior influence marketing strategies?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to tell him just suck it up because we're just going to be dissatisfied eventually anyway. Because we're terrible. Because people are terrible.
On the upside, that got us out of the caves. Right? If we had been happy in the caves, we wouldn't have ventured out.
Yes. She did just say, on the upside, dissatisfaction is why we came out of the caves. By the way, Alexi might be on to something here because Starbucks, of all coffee shops, is bringing back some free refills, which might sound very exciting now, but we know the excitement will fade. After the break, why it's so hard to fix things these days. Hint, it's all by design. But first... Yes!
Umbrellas are the worst! A quick complaint from Kenny Malone.
The umbrella is an inherently selfish... You build a little bubble around yourself that is going to poke other people, take up too much room, pour water on other people. An umbrella has negative consumption externalities is how we would put this in the econ world. You use it. You benefit. I'm happy for you. But you are making my life worse when you use the umbrella. So can we just stop?
All right. Alex Goldmark, Planet Money's executive producer. His microwave broke and he got ranty and just like the perfect amount of concerned about the future of fixing things.
I go to use the microwave and it just doesn't work. It doesn't turn on. The little digital clock doesn't tell you the time. I've got one of the ones that goes over the stove. The light underneath it doesn't work. Nothing. And it seems pretty, pretty obvious to me that like a fuse blew like that's just the way it broke. Right.
Alex wants to fix the fuse himself, even though you apparently definitely should not try to do this. It can be very, very dangerous. But there's no like fuse panel on the microwave, no little door to open where he can swap it out. And he's like, oh, come on. Why would you bury the fuse?
So I'm being a little dramatic with my fuse panel, but it's a stand in for why don't we design things for repair? Like a appliance that is in your house made out of lots of metals and like like toxic parts. He doesn't want to throw it out. I want to try to fix it. Like, it's just a thing I believe in, and I'm so sure it's a fuse.
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