The Outside View: The Narcissistic Consumer

Enticed by a free Beauty Insider birthday gift, Janice set out to give herself a 55th birthday makeup splurge at sephora.com. She ended that shopping session vowing to never shop Sephora again. “I spend more on skin care and makeup in a month than the twentysomethings they think are so precious spend in a year,” Janice told me. “Oh, and those gift cards I usually get my daughters for stocking stuffers? Never again, it’ll be Ulta this year.” Janice’s wrath was caused by what she perceived to be ageist search results on Sephora’s web site. Looking for inspiration, she had searched “value and gift sets” then filtered by her 50-plus age. The search produced only three of nearly 400 products in that category. Another shopper in another era might have been momentarily irritated by the inconvenience. But Janice took it personally and then took action. When I spoke with her weeks after the event, she was still enraged and eager to share her story. Something she already had done with several of her friends, both in person and on social media. In psychological terms we might call Janice’s reaction narcissistic rage — the white-hot emotional reaction to feeling unseen and unappreciated. It’s

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