Our Favorite Shopping Scenes

Phillip: [00:01:28] Hello and welcome to Future Commerce, the podcast about the next generation of commerce. I'm Phillip.

Brian: [00:01:33] I'm Brian.

Phillip: [00:01:33] We're taking a look back today. You know, we like to have fun at Future Commerce. We do things a little different sometimes. And we were talking, Brian, you and I were talking and we were like, "What are some of our favorite scenes from movies, favorite shopping scenes from movies," and how have those maybe changed the way we think about shopping or they just live in our brains rent free?

Brian: [00:02:03] Yeah, and just thinking about what would happen today, these scenes. {laughter}

Phillip: [00:02:08] Yeah, most of these are from the prior era, right?

Brian: [00:02:10] Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we're going to count down some of our favorite shopping scenes in movies. We had to exclude television because there's so much good stuff.

Phillip: [00:02:20] There's way too much television.

Brian: [00:02:21] Seinfeld didn't make it in because it's television.

Phillip: [00:02:25] And Brian would have had 30 Seinfeld clips for me to have to pull.

Brian: [00:02:29] It's true.

Phillip: [00:02:30] I got bored after seven, so this will be the top seven shopping scenes from movies, and we only considered... Miracle on 34th Street, not in the not in the running. These are movies from 1980 forward. Which is the entire time that I have been alive.

Brian: [00:02:50] There you go. They're like our era.

Phillip: [00:02:52] It's the Quantum Leap of shopping scenes from movies. They're only allowed from within my lifetime and we're going to generation skip around to find the number one best shopping scene from a movie.

Brian: [00:03:06] Note that. Phillip's era.

Phillip: [00:03:09] My era, not Brian's era. My era.

Brian: [00:03:14] Want to hear something really funny?

Phillip: [00:03:15] I do.

Brian: [00:03:16] I am the age that you were when we started Future Commerce.

Phillip: [00:03:21] I hate your guts right now. Shut up, Brian. It's true. Don't you feel so old, though?

Brian: [00:03:29] I feel old. So old.

Phillip: [00:03:31] Feel so freaking old. I'm old. I'm very old now. Ok, let's get going. Number seven, this was your pick.

Brian: [00:03:43] Is this my pick? I feel like this is we were both on board. These are all our picks.

Phillip: [00:03:48] No, there are all of our picks. But if you start here, then it follows a natural order. So you start with this one.

Brian: [00:03:54] Ok. Actually, yeah, that's pretty good. Actually, you're right. I like  this order.

Phillip: [00:03:58] I know. I've already thought through this whole thing, Brian.

Brian: [00:04:01] This is my pick.

Phillip: [00:04:03] This was your pick.

Brian: [00:04:03] It was actually. I did come up with this.

Phillip: [00:04:05] I know. Just frickin introduce the clip, Brian.

Brian: [00:04:08] At number seven, we have Jingle All The Way, the Turbo Man doll scene in the store when Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to go buy the doll. It's Black Friday, and he goes and he tries to buy the doll. Let's play the clip, and then we talk about it.

Movie Clip for #7: [00:04:26] Oh, excuse me.

Yes.
I'm trying to find the Turbo Man doll.
Me too. Me too.
Do you have any more in the back?
{laughter}
What?
These guys are looking for Turbo Man.
A Turbo Man doll. Yes.
{laughter} Turbo Man.
Hey, everybody, these two are looking for a Turbo Man.
{roaring laughter from group}
And what's so funny?
Where have you guys been? Turbo Man is only the hottest selling Christmas toy ever. {laughter} We got plenty of Turbo Man...

Phillip: [00:05:11] Ok, so I want you to just for a moment, Brian, replace the word Turbo Man with At-Home COVID test and this was me. This was me two weeks ago. {laughter}

Brian: [00:05:24] Oh! Oh!

Phillip: [00:05:25] I went into a CVS...

Brian: [00:05:26] I would laugh. But it's sad, but it's also really funny.

Phillip: [00:05:28] There was this Tik Tok-er who posted a clip of a woman who works at a CVS, and she's wearing a homemade hat that has big letters on it that says, "We have no COVID tests, and we don't know when they'll come back in stock." And she answers the phone and she's like, "Thank you for calling your local Royal Palm Beach CVS. We have no COVID tests, and we don't know when they're coming back. How can I help you?" And everybody in the store is laughing and that is literally the moment that we're all in right now.

Brian: [00:06:03] Yes, and that's the perfect... I mean that we don't have this with toys anymore, so this is like the only thing left that we all want to buy that we can't get. It's not true, but...

Phillip: [00:06:14] The It thing changes every year. This year, I had a really hard time trying to find my wife wanted a Dyson vacuum cleaner, and I was very afraid that by buying her a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, that I would be, you know, I would be the Peloton husband. You remember that whole thing that went around a couple of years ago. It's like the wife who got a Peloton for Christmas, and everyone's like, "Her husband is fat shaming her."

Brian: [00:06:40] You're clean shaming your wife.

Phillip: [00:06:42] I'm clean shaming my wife. "This house is really dirty. I wish somebody would do something about it. Here's an overpriced vacuum cleaner." Yeah, but we've talked about this before, right?

Brian: [00:06:54] We've talked about Jingle All The Way before. In fact, I'm really sad we didn't title this episode, what was it? I don't remember what number it was, but it was back, I think, near the beginning of December, or maybe right before Black Friday. And we titled it Jingle All The Way, but we should have titled it Jingle All The Way NFT, which was our joke about how NFTs are basically the new toy you can't get. And I feel like we've commented on this already. Black Friday is dead. But it's just shifted to other things, I guess. {laughter}

Phillip: [00:07:27] It's true. It's actually really interesting because the Black Friday Cyber Monday is really a whole cyber season. The demand peak has definitely spread out to where you don't... This hysteria around getting into a store to get a toy before it's out of stock doesn't exist anymore.

Brian: [00:07:49] Yeah. Yeah.

Phillip: [00:07:51] But you still do have toys out of stock. I mean, PlayStations and Xboxes and Switches are all things that it's very difficult to get in a retail store, but you can absolutely get them on the secondary market. If you're willing to pay the price, which is actually right after this clip, he chases, he runs out of the store to try to buy it off of somebody who already got the last one.

Brian: [00:08:15] Yes. In fact, the movie is not that good of a movie. I rewatched it maybe a couple of years ago. I was like, "This is bad."

Phillip: [00:08:23] {sarcasm} No! Jingle All The Way isn't the best movie that you've ever seen?

Brian: [00:08:26] It was the worst Christmas movie I've ever watched, but it was kind of prophetic. Everyone that now has a secondary market for their stuff should have been like, "You know what? Jingle All The Way was right. We could have done this a long time ago."

Phillip: [00:08:41] Is it a worst Christmas movie than Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas ever? Because that's my kids favorite Christmas movie featuring Aubrey Plaza.

Brian: [00:08:47] No. My kids like Santa Claus. What?

Phillip: [00:08:48] Aubrey Plaza is the voice of Grumpy Cat.

Brian: [00:08:55] I'm kind of in on that.

Phillip: [00:08:56] It's very bad, but it's actually kind of... There's a scene where Grumpy Cat is shooting a paintball gun at a bunch of robbers trying to steal her and sell her for the memes. It's a whole thing. All right. Well, continuing on.

Brian: [00:09:14] Moving on to your pick.

Phillip: [00:09:17] Great pick at number seven. Number six. Brian, this I was inspired by you. You actually wrote a Future Commerce Insider's piece not too long ago, which referenced the following movie. You had an Insiders piece early in, you know, over a hundred years ago called Shop Like It's your Job. And I remember your piece referenced a movie that I had not seen before until recently. And so this is from Confessions of a Shopaholic, which is a 2009 film starring, I believe, Isla Fisher, who well, let's just take a listen to the clip, and I'll explain why it's one of my favorite shopping scenes.

Movie Clip for #6: [00:10:11] There's another entrance this way.
{screams}
Well, these cashmere gloves I need as it is winter and I have hands, so that's all.
I'll buy these and these alone.
Now walk away. Strong and frugal. Huh, Oh my God. Gucci boots. 50% off? Do I need these? Do I need these? Do I need these?
No.
Gucci boots!
I'm so sorry, I had them first.
I know, but you put them down.
No, I know I did, but I saw them first, so I'm going to take them.
Yes, but then you took your hands off.
Give me the boots and no one gets hurt.

Phillip: [00:10:56] {laughter} So this is everything to me, because it is exactly it describes Veblen Goods. And Veblen Goods being an example of something that is only valuable or is only desirable because the demand for it is high. And whenever I think to myself, there's like two things happening in this clip, Brian. One is she's in line for this sample sale, and she's just going to get one thing just to be part of it, and she's like, she doesn't need anything, but she's justifying to herself, "I'm going to get these gloves because, you know, I have hands." But then afterwards, you know, she sees this deal that she just couldn't pass up, but then she passes it up, only to come back and get into a fist fight with someone because someone else wanted it. It's very 2022 of Isla Fisher in this scene, because all of that sounds like the way that a lot of eCommerce and a lot of hype culture operates.

Brian: [00:12:08] Yeah, I also think that this was like the perfect precursor to the flash sale site, like the flash sale site took off right after this movie.

Phillip: [00:12:19] It's true. Yeah.

Brian: [00:12:20] And like dropping like really, really discounted goods. I'm thinking like some of those early ones like that Nordstrom acquired.

Phillip: [00:12:31] I mean, Gilt still operates to this day.

Brian: [00:12:34] Gilt. Yeah.

Phillip: [00:12:34] Right? Gilt still exists to this day. That's the thing. Yeah. It's funny how some of these things are still around. Definitely still around, but I think the drop culture and the hype culture have definitely created a shorter half life and a much more shorter attention span for where these are happening.

Brian: [00:12:55] It's interesting, though. I think that like the sale aspect was a really big part of back then. Sales drove a lot of that like, "Oh, we're all going to be there because it's all going to be a really good deal." And now, like, I feel like we are moving away from sales driving that sort of behavior to more like, "Oh, I'm going to be in the know." Instagram was not as big of a thing in 2009 as it is in the past 10 years. And so there were fewer ways to show things off. There were fewer reasons to like get in the hype that required a discount to achieve this kind of behavior. And now it's like, "Oh Nordstrom's half yearly sale? Not a big deal," compared to the high culture you're talking about. The mania is found in the difficult to get items that you can show off.

Phillip: [00:13:54] You know, what's interesting actually about both of these clips is that in both cases, there's a hysteria around wanting something that other people want.

Brian: [00:14:05] Yes. Exactly.

Phillip: [00:14:06] And yeah, and that is as a {singing} tale as old as time. It's like, there's, you know, that's Beauty and the Beast, baby. Yeah, that is just a human behavior. And yay, we're in a totally different decade. We're two decades removed from the early aughts when this would have taken place. But it's it feels like it could happen today. Only we cue online now and we trample over each other. Yeah, we trample over each other virtually to get to those goods.

Brian: [00:14:42] That's right. Yeah. We hit refresh as fast as we can.

Phillip: [00:14:47] I posted a Tik Tok, and we'll link it up in the show notes. I learned a technique to try to get sneaker drops. Did I ever show you this?

Brian: [00:14:58] No.

Phillip: [00:14:58] Ok. This is bananas. Totally bananas.

Brian: [00:15:02] Are you divulging an industry secret that you're not supposed to.

Phillip: [00:15:06] Yeah, but I learned it from a Tik Tok, so it's not like it's a trade secret.

Brian: [00:15:09] Ok.

Phillip: [00:15:10] I have a percussion massager because I run a lot, and so I have this Theragun, which will pummel your muscles at seven hundred or 1200 revolutions a second. And if you put your finger on a touch screen device...

Brian: [00:15:30] No! No.

Phillip: [00:15:30] I swear to God. You put your finger on a touch screen device.

Brian: [00:15:33] Oh my gosh.

Phillip: [00:15:35] And Theragun, your finger just right. You can tap the screen twelve hundred times a minute.

Brian: [00:15:43] This is not real,

Phillip: [00:15:44] I swear to you. This is going to make for terrible podcast audio, but I have to see your reaction when I show you this. This look at this. This is this is true. I watch it go up. Watch it. Oh, hold on, one more time. One more time.

Brian: [00:16:04] This is like a fake. This is like a fake video. They faked this.

Phillip: [00:16:08] This is real. I'm telling you.

Brian: [00:16:11] This is not real.

Phillip: [00:16:11] This is my finger. This is me. I'm showing you.

Brian: [00:16:13] Your finger cannot...

Phillip: [00:16:16] Ok, so number six. Confessions of a Shopaholic. That's a great clip, as chosen by me, as inspired by you. And it's as true today in a different form and channel as it ever has been.

Brian: [00:16:31] I'm not sure what's crazier. Like the scene in that movie or the thing that you just showed me. {laughter}

Phillip: [00:16:39] {laughter} If you want to buy something online, you need a $300 massage device.

Brian: [00:16:48] Sorry. I'm legitimately losing it right now.

Phillip: [00:16:50] Ok, Brian, you're up at number five, which, by the way, is the saddest clip of all of these clips.

Brian: [00:16:57] I'm going to bring this one right back down.

Phillip: [00:16:59] You're taking it down.

Brian: [00:17:00] We are coming down the roller coaster here.

Phillip: [00:17:02] I don't know that you remember how cringy this clip is, so I will have you set it up.

Brian: [00:17:08] It's really uncomfortable. The whole scene's really uncomfortable. Say Anything is an incredible movie, but it's also really cringy at moments and uncomfortable. There's parts of it that maybe don't hold up, but it's really good movie still. And this scene is devastating. It's about a dad who's trying to buy a graduation gift for his daughter, but he's a thief and the FBI has put, or maybe it's the IRS. Some agency has put a hold on his credit card, and it's like getting him in trouble and he is trying to check out.

Phillip: [00:17:47] Yeah, let's roll the clip.

Movie Clip for #5: [00:17:48] Is it a gift for your wife? We could put a little set together.
No, I'm not married. It's for my daughter.
Oh. Going to school.
She won a fellowship.
Good for her.
I'll take the whole set.
Excellent.
I got to tell you, you got the best smile I seen all week.
Thanks. I like yours, too.

Listen, I don't know your name, but what are you doing for lunch?
I'm sorry, but they turned down your card.
Oh, let me give you another card.
Thank you. I'm afraid I can't accept this one either. There's a decline code on your account. I'm supposed to confiscate your card, but why don't you just go ahead and take it?
Keep it.
You sure?
Yeah, I don't want it. Thank you very much.

Phillip: [00:18:51] So much levels of cringe there. Why is this one so important to you from a shopping perspective?

Brian: [00:18:59] Here's why I thought it was interesting, because what does this look like today? Does he switch to Klarna? {laughter}

Phillip: [00:19:11] {laughter} You can five pay this.

Brian: [00:19:13] He goes to a Zebit. Online, it's just a totally different experience. "Oh, your credit card's declined?" "Oh, no, my credit card's declined." It's not like this really uncomfortable experience at a shop. It's just now when people who are in financial trouble try to go buy something online their experience is, "Oh, your credit card didn't work." It's not the same kind of experience that this guy went through

Phillip: [00:19:52] There's so much, actually, that's visually happening in the scene. There's another patron who's like standing nearby who kind of has given, you know, by the way, this is the dad from Frasier, who plays the dad. I don't know if you know that. He's a little younger in the 1989 John Cusack starring, Say Anything. But the dad from Frasier is the guy. He's hitting on this poor woman who works in this luggage store. It's really uncomfortable. There's a lot of like shifty eyes that are happening in this clip, which you would have to watch in context for it to like, really land. But I imagine if we were to remake this today, Brian, this could be done in sort of one of those scenes where it's a very modern thing in film where people are texting each other and there's like the phone screen, like the chat bubbles are superimposed on the actor's face. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're looking at their phone and they chat bubbles are happening.

Brian: [00:20:54] Totally. Yes.

Phillip: [00:20:54] I can see this playing out where he's swiping between Tinder, like hitting on women and sending like, I don't know, pics or something. So I don't know, do we need to bleep that out? I don't know.

Brian: [00:21:06] I think we do.

Phillip: [00:21:07] Feeling saucy right now. He's swiping between Tinder. He's hitting on someone he's, you know, getting a text message from his bank, saying, "We've declined this for fraud." You know, at the same time as he's like trying to check out and he's like, "Yeah, I'll just try another card." But he keeps like trying to autofill it with, like mobile Chrome. And it won't like autofill because he's using, you know, whatever. Then his card gets...

Brian: [00:21:32] He gets on the chat support.

Phillip: [00:21:34] The chat support. And he's like, "I really like your smile." And the person's like, "You haven't responded in 30 seconds. So we're going to close this now. Have a wonderful day."

Brian: [00:21:47] {laughter} Oh, my gosh.

Phillip: [00:21:49] He's like, "I'll take the whole set," but for whatever reason, when he adds all three to the cart, the discounts not applying.

Brian: [00:21:56] Oh my gosh.

Phillip: [00:21:58] There's some modernity. There's layers of modernity that could be added to this.

Brian: [00:22:01] Feel like this is why these are all old clips. There are not as many like modern shopping scenes anymore.

Phillip: [00:22:08] Well, there's some coming up. Well, there's one coming up I'm extremely excited about.

Brian: [00:22:13] Yeah, yeah, me too. I'm definitely excited about this. You're next.

Phillip: [00:22:15] Ok, Say Anything. The dad's a fraudster and a perv, and that's Brian's number five favorite clip. Ok. Up number four. This movie is seared in my brain, but the way that I see it in my brain is very dim and blurry because I saw this movie when I was like nine years old at a drive in.

Brian: [00:22:44] {laughter}

Phillip: [00:22:45] So there is a scene in In Joe Versus the Volcano. Do you remember this movie?

Brian: [00:22:55] Yeah, of course.

Phillip: [00:22:56] A movie actually almost contemporaneous to Say Anything. Came out the year after in 1990. Tom Hanks in Joe Versus the Volcano, and he is shopping for luggage, which would be probably the last purchase he'll ever make.

Brian: [00:23:14] That's two luggage purchases in a row.

Phillip: [00:23:16] Is it really?

Brian: [00:23:18] Yeah. The last one was luggage set as well.

Phillip: [00:23:19] Are we going to have a third? Let's see. I don't know. Here's the clip from Joe Versus the Volcano.

Movie Clip for #4: [00:23:23] ...about luggage, Mr. Banks.

No, I never really have.
It's a central preoccupation of my life. You travel the world. You're away from home, perhaps away from your family. All you have to depend on is yourself. And your luggage.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
Are you traveling light or heavy?
Heavy.
Flying?
Flying and by ship.
An ocean voyage?
Yes.
Huh. Yes. So. A real journey.
And then I'll be staying on this island, and I don't even really know if I'll be living in a hut or what.
Very exciting. As a luggage problem. I believe I have just the thing. {Angel Choir music}
Wow.
This is our premier steamer trunk, all handmade. Only the finest materials. It's even watertight. Tight as a drum. If I had a need and the wherewithal Mr. Banks, this would be my trunk of choice.

Phillip: [00:25:03] That to me... I cut it off. He says, "I'll take four of them." [00:25:09] I am in love with this scene because it shows someone who has an actual passion for the thing that they're selling and a desire to see people use it in a way that enhances their life. It's clienteling at its finest. [00:25:29]

Brian: [00:25:29] Guiding commerce.

Phillip: [00:25:31] It's guided commerce, and it's the kind of thing that has such emotional and personal impact when you when you do this in person that never happens or lands quite the same way when you're doing it from a questionnaire. If I were to land on Louis Vuitton's website and take a luggage questionnaire to get to which trunk, which Louis Vuitton trunk I should purchase, it has nowhere near the same amount of impact as somebody who is delivering it with that kind of gravitas of, "This is the trunk I would buy," and then Angel Choir.

Brian: [00:29:15] Angel Choir should get cued at the end of every guided commerce survey that you take. {laughter} That needs to be a feature in Octane's guided commerce quiz.

Phillip: [00:29:27] {laughter} Really should be. You know what's interesting is those sorts of sensory moments in commerce are often overlooked, but those are the things that actually make customer experience. I know everything is about NFTs right now, and these these conversations of this era will not age well in three to five years. But when Pool Suite put out their NFT, you know, they're an audio platform and they have new music is core to the Pool suite experience and vibe. And when you mint their NFT, it prints out as a faux receipt and it makes the old like impact printing sound.

Brian: [00:30:07] Now we're talking.

Phillip: [00:30:08] As it prints you the receipt for your membership. It's brilliant and those are the kinds of things that, yeah, I think would lend themselves to better experience.

Brian: [00:30:19] Engage all the senses. And you know what? I think you nailed it, though. Even all of that isn't as powerful as a person that's passionate about product, that understands it, that cares about how you use their products.

Phillip: [00:30:37] Yeah.

Brian: [00:30:38] And I mean, I think if you can communicate that when you're when you were talking about guided commerce and clienteling online, if you can communicate that you care about how your customers are using your products in that experience, that's a great lesson. That will sell.

Phillip: [00:31:00] I'll tell you, there's something really powerful about being sold something. That's always it's always used as a pejorative as, "Oh, you got sold." But in reality, like, we want to be "sold." Like I want to be thoroughly convinced that not only is this the best thing for me, but it's the thing that you wish that you had too. Or that you do have this and you're trying to evangelize the fact that other people should have it too. You can't see me right now. My eyebrows are going up and down a lot. Like, it's very enticing for me right now.

Brian: [00:31:37] Yeah, you're like, "Man, please just sell me on something," for real, like actually sell me on something. Don't just put in front of me. Like, make me really know that when I'm getting is the thing that I should have.

Phillip: [00:31:51] You know, it's in stark contrast to the John Cusack clip from Say Anything where he's like, "I don't want to sell anything. I don't want to buy anything." I do. I want to sell things and I want to be sold on things.

Brian: [00:32:04] You don't want to just buy. You want to be sold on things.

Phillip: [00:32:08] I want to be sold. I love that feeling.

Brian: [00:32:12] Turn that whole phrase into a positive thing. I love it.

Phillip: [00:32:17] Yeah, I role play in my mind as being Tom Hanks in this clip in a very fancy luggage store looking for the last luggage I'll ever buy from 1990s Joe Versus the Volcano. That was my choice at number four. Brian, you're up. Number three. What is your number three favorite shopping scene from a movie?

Brian: [00:32:41] To be fair, we were both in on this one.

Phillip: [00:32:44] This was a mutual choice. This isn't really a draft, but it was a mutual choice.

Brian: [00:32:48] This was a mutual choice. Crazy, Stupid Love. If you haven't watched it, it's Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling are the most contrasted characters that I can think of, like two opposite people. All right. Steve Carell is like this dad in a failing marriage, and he's just a mess and he looks like a mess. At least he did.

Phillip: [00:33:16] "He looks like a mess."

Brian: [00:33:18] And Ryan Gosling adopts him. He like, takes him under his wing. He's like, this... He is Ryan Gosling. He like, literally plays himself in the movie.

Phillip: [00:33:26] Yeah, 100 percent. That's actually... Play the clip.

Movie Clip for #3: [00:33:33] How much money you got today for clothes?
Um...
What happened to your feet?
What do you mean? These are my 407s?
Oh, they're 407s? Can I see them?
Yeah. These offer a lot of support.
Right. {throws shoes}
Whoa, come on.
What are you in a fraternity?
Are you insane?
Are you in a fraternity?
You could have hit somebody. What was that?
I'm asking you a question. Are you in a fraternity?
No.
Are you Steve Jobs?
What?
Hold on a second. Are you the billionaire owner of Apple computers?
No.
Oh, OK. Well, in that case, you got no right to wear New Balance sneakers, ever. Come on.

Brian: [00:34:09] Did he slap him?

Phillip: [00:34:10] He slaps him. He slaps him. {laughter}

Brian: [00:34:16] "Are you Steve Jobs?"

Phillip: [00:34:17] Can I can just point out that this movie is not age too well, because literally every single person on the Aimé Leon Dore website looks exactly like Steve Carell's character in this movie right now. Literally everybody. Every man in New York City looks like this guy.

Brian: [00:34:39] No, man.

Phillip: [00:34:39] Yes.

Brian: [00:34:40] I watched like the first half of this movie on an airplane recently, and it's actually he's even worse. He's like, he has the fat tie, and it's not even tied well, like it is...

Phillip: [00:34:51] Well, in this scene he's wearing like a baggy polo.

Brian: [00:34:54] Yeah. That scene, you're right.

Phillip: [00:34:56] Baggy polo, baggy khakis and New Balance 407. He looks like he walked out of like a Rowing Blazers catalog. He looks like Todd Snider, like personally outfit him at his boutique.

Brian: [00:35:13] Oh my gosh.

Phillip: [00:35:14] It's kind of a funny thing.

Brian: [00:35:16] You know what I love about this, though? Ryan Gosling is not getting a kickback from anyone on this. This is forecasting how things get sold old, frumpy guys that don't know what they're doing end up looking at Ryan Gosling and being like, "Oh man, I need to like, buy that guy's stuff, but I'm going to click his link. I'm going to click his referral link." {laughter}

Phillip: [00:35:40] The Velcro wallet. We didn't get that into the scene because there's a whole music montage, but the Velcro wallet is hilarious to me. Maybe when you're checking out on these websites, like as you scroll down to payment, it like Velcros open with a sound and it makes it sound.

Brian: [00:35:59] You're opening up your Velcro wallet.

Phillip: [00:36:01] Your Velcro wallet is opening up. Yeah. Here's something that I would love. As I'm thinking about the modern way that this happens, like the modern way that people are... Well, first of all, I believe that there, you know, this isn't actually all that long ago. This is the movie's 10 years old. Maybe. The fact is, is that this sort of like personal shopper outfitter thing is sort of like a fantasy for a lot of people. They want to go around, spend a lot of money. They want to be told sort of how to dress and how to shop. You could go get that right now. Go to Rothmans in New York and you'll get this experience. You'll have someone. Ken Giddon. He'll take you.

Brian: [00:36:49] Yeah.

Phillip: [00:36:50] He'll get you hooked up, right? And you'll come out looking like a million bucks.

Brian: [00:36:52] You kind of have to fly to New York to get that.

Phillip: [00:36:55] Oh, of course you do.

Brian: [00:36:56] Yeah.

Phillip: [00:36:57] Of course you do. Of course you do. But anybody could have that experience. I mean, you're going to spend money, right? But anybody could have that experience. That still exists, which is great. You don't have to have some guy overhear you at the bar to get this, which is how it plays out in this movie. What I find really interesting, though, this is not durable, like the clothing purchase, the style is not timeless, it's sort of like you kind of have to learn...

Brian: [00:37:31] This is from 2011. Actually, if you believe that.

Phillip: [00:37:34] Ok, so it is 10 years old. Yeah, yeah, it's funny. It's like the constant need to sort of reinvent yourself and be able to do that for yourself or you're going to need a Ken Giddon for the rest of your life, which is perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I just find this like it's sort of like the fantasy. There's sort of like a fantasy aspect to this is like everybody wants to be Steve Carell in this situation, right?

Brian: [00:38:00] Are you sure they don't all want to be Ryan Gosling in this situation? I feel like everyone wants to...

Phillip: [00:38:05] No. Do you want to be the guy dressing everyone else or do you want to be the one getting dressed? I kind of want to be the guy getting dressed.

Brian: [00:38:11] I feel like there's a whole culture out there, though, of like, it's like we've talked about this, these sort of personal network effect. What if Ryan Gosling actually is getting kick backs? That's the backstory here. He, like sits in bars and looks for like old frumpy men to like, pull in and then like dress, and then he gets paid for it.

Phillip: [00:38:31] Yeah. {laughter}

Brian: [00:38:32] That's like Instagram now.

Phillip: [00:38:35] Yeah, he takes them to the boutiques and they give him a little tip. That could be the case. Actually, personal shoppers, they do get, you know, something from...

Brian: [00:38:44] I'm talking about like more than personal shoppers. Like you've said this before, like everyone's going to become their own sphere of selling. It's going to be like these little multi like chasms that everyone, everyone, everyone will be selling something.

Phillip: [00:39:01] Let me tell you my fantasy. I imagine that Katrina Lake went to the movie theaters, you know, 11 years ago and saw this movie and was like, Stitch Fix. That's what we need.

Brian: [00:39:15] There it is.

Phillip: [00:39:16] Stitch Fix will solve this problem at scale for everybody.

Brian: [00:39:21] Yeah, no. I mean, when did Stitch Fix come out? Maybe there's a direct correlation.

Phillip: [00:39:27] Yeah, my head cannon is that Katrina Lake was inspired by Crazy, Stupid Love. And that's why she made Stitch Fix. All right. It's definitely not the truth, but I like to believe it.

Brian: [00:39:38] We've got ten minutes getting right to your next clip. Do it!

Phillip: [00:39:42] This is me. Oh, shoot, I did so much talking, I'm so sorry. This is the same clip, but in a little bit of a different way, it's the same sort of a situation. It's the same kind...

Brian: [00:39:57] Isn't this like a combination of like Pretty Woman and Say Anything together?

Phillip: [00:40:03] Well, it is Pretty Woman, and you just ruined it. Thank you.

Brian: [00:40:05] I'm sorry. Oh, shoot, I meant Crazy, Stupid Love and Say Anything. I did ruin it. Dang it.

Phillip: [00:40:10] All right. Yes. Here's let's roll the clip.

Movie Clip for #2: [00:40:15] May I help you?
Well, I'm just checking things out.
Are you looking for something in particular?
No. Well, yeah, something conservative.
Yes.
You got nice stuff.
Thank you.

How much is this?

I don't think this would fit you.

Well, I didn't ask if it would fit. I asked how much it was.

How much is this, Marie?
It's very expensive.
It's very expensive.
Look, I got money to spend in here.
I don't think we have anything for you. You're obviously in the wrong place. Please leave.
{Music interlude}
May I help you?
No thank you. Hi.
Hello.
Do you remember me?
No, I'm sorry.
I was in here yesterday. You wouldn't wait on me.
Oh.
You work on commission, right?
Yes.
Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.

Phillip: [00:41:21] So, so, ok, obviously we fast forwarded a little bit there in the clip because there's a whole montage. How would this take place today online? What is this exchange look like?

Brian: [00:41:34] I don't know if this would happen online. This doesn't happen. It is not possible.

Phillip: [00:41:40] It doesn't happen.

Brian: [00:41:42] Interesting. Interesting, if you have money, you can spend it.

Phillip: [00:41:46] No, I would even say that even if you don't have money, you have access to see the goods themselves.

Brian: [00:41:55] Some sites require membership to see their coolest stuff. Some sites require an account to shop. Kate Spade? Someone requires that. Not Kate Spade. Not Kate Spade. I forget who it was. Some sites do require accounts to shop, but you're right. If you look at all of the highest of high end stuff, it's almost all out there with pricing.

Phillip: [00:42:20] It's all kind of available and it's all for display. And in fact, I frequent some luxury boutiques here on Worth Avenue and in Palm Beach and in Boca Raton. You know, there's some bougie places around here. I mean, I certainly I can imagine that people get turned away from coming in to browse, but that does not happen online. I would say eCommerce is democratized access of at least the understanding of what's available and to browse and to shop unfettered. There's also this really interesting exchange there of what size does this come in and she responds with a wrong answer of like, "It's very expensive." I have had this same interaction with the chat bot at least once.

Brian: [00:43:16] So but that was more of a factor of bad technology?

Phillip: [00:43:19] There is discrimination. There is discrimination in this clip. It was discriminating against my tech savvy, you know, forming of a question.

Brian: [00:43:30] Discriminating against you being a human is what it did.

Phillip: [00:43:33] Yes, exactly. It was like, "Now this is not for you." Also, the fact that like they prompt her. She comes in and she's looking and they're just like popping up at her. I imagine pop ups as being very much the same way.

Brian: [00:43:47] Oh, this reminds me a little bit of that like short story that I wrote recently.

Phillip: [00:43:51] Oh my gosh, yes. "Bing."

Brian: [00:43:56] Oh my gosh.

Phillip: [00:43:57] You were ahead of your time with the Bing Bong's. You were right there. You were ahead of your time. Anyway. 1990 Julia Roberts Pretty Woman is my choice at number 2.

Brian: [00:44:05] Bad clienteling you what it was.

Phillip: [00:44:07] Bad clienteling is what it was. So we've we've seen good clienteling. We've seen bad clienteling. Let's run down the list just in order, so that as we build up to number one. So here we had at number seven Jingle All The Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger. At number six, we had Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher. Number five we had Say Anything. John Cusack. But he wasn't in the clip. That's OK. Number four Joe Versus the Volcano with Mr. Tom Hanks. Number three Crazy, Stupid Love with Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell. Number two Pretty Woman and Julia Roberts. And at number one, Brian Lange. Our number one.

Brian: [00:44:48] Home Alone!

Phillip: [00:44:49] Gosh, I was going to set it up, but you just jumped in there.

Brian: [00:44:51] Well, I'm out of time, so we got to get it. Let's get into the clip and then let's talk ad nauseum about this for the next four minutes.

Phillip: [00:44:58] Here we go.

Movie Clip for #1: [00:45:01] {Christmas music}
I need a price check for the value. Thank you.
Are those microwave dinners any good?
I don't know.
I'll give them a whirl. For the kids. Hold on, I got a coupon for that. It was in the paper this morning.
$19.83.
Okay.

Brian: [00:45:35] Yes. Home alone, Kevin McCallister shopping by himself at the supermarket. He gets peppered with a bunch of questions about whether or not he should be there by himself shopping. And he gives all these phenomenal answers, retorts. There are so many great shopping scenes in Home Alone, though I feel like. We picked one. But there's also the toothbrush buying scene, and in Home Alone 2, there's the toy buying scene where he's at the counter, and he gets the turtledoves as a result of being so nice and donating to a hospital.

Phillip: [00:46:08] How old is he in this clip? Eight?

Brian: [00:46:11] I think he's supposed to be nine.

Phillip: [00:46:14] Eight or nine years old. How old were your kids with their first shopping experience and was it an online shopping experience?

Brian: [00:46:22] Where they actually purchased things themselves?

Phillip: [00:46:24] Yes.

Brian: [00:46:24] It was cash based when they were very young.

Phillip: [00:46:27] Very young. You were waiting in the wings, of course, right?

Brian: [00:46:31] Yeah. Oh no. Yeah, shopping by themselves, actually. So I have one hundred percent sent my son with my credit card to make purchases by himself before. And when he was probably...

Phillip: [00:46:42] Kids have exposure to... How old?

Brian: [00:46:46] He was probably 10.

Phillip: [00:46:48] Ok. All right. So the little older than Kevin in this clip. I have this story that I've told on the like speaking circuit in times past. I used to give this talk called the Future of Commerce, which actually birthed this show. But that's a whole other story. But I talked about how, you know, gesture based shopping, especially like slide to complete your purchase is a thing that actually enabled my youngest daughter at the age of two to accidentally purchase something on Amazon that then arrived at our house. I didn't realize that she had done it, but she purchased some silicone, potholder glove thing and she bought it. It wasn't either of us, but it was from my wife's device when at the time that she was making dinner. My daughter purchased something at the age of two. It's amazing. Also, Child Online Privacy and Protection Act would be playing the role of the cashier.

Brian: [00:47:52] Or would it though? I mean, it's kind of like Kevin ends up using a credit card and cash in Home Alone 2 as well.

Phillip: [00:48:02] Yes, that's true. Yeah.

Brian: [00:48:03] And would it actually play a role? If your kids stole your credit card and went on an online shopping spree, would the child online...

Phillip: [00:48:17] Would it ever come into effect? Yeah, definitely not. No. I rarely get stopped buying stuff online. I doubt my children will. I mean, go ahead...

Brian: [00:48:27] What's really interesting about all of the shopping scenes in Home Alone, and you should go rewatch both movies for sure and just focus in on the shopping. The things that I think stood out to me were the way that Kevin went about his shopping. He brought a coupon, right? He's trying to mimic his parents. What he buys when he goes to buy the toothbrush, he asks a question about whether or not the toothbrush is certified by the American Dental Association.

Phillip: [00:48:58] Exactly. Trust builders.

Brian: [00:49:00] I think what is really well, captured by the director, Chris Columbus, and I'm absolutely blanking on the actual writer, and I should note this off the top of my head because he's done like some of the most iconic movies ever. And I love Home Alone, but the way that they portray like children trying to mimic purchasing of people that are older than them, I think it still plays a role in purchasing today. When my kids go make purchases, they're saying, "Oh dad, look it up on Amazon. How much is it? What does it compare to others...?"

Phillip: [00:49:49] They're doing the same thing you are. They're mimicking you.

Brian: [00:49:51] Yeah, they're asking all the questions. "Is there another site that I can go buy this from?" "What are the features?" "Let's read the description." They literally ask me these questions. And so I think today, if they were, it was to be a child shopping scene I think there would be a whole host of questions and looking through things and like maybe even chatting with a chat bot or doing a price comparison shopping. I think it's very interesting, and I think my kids technically classify as Gen Z, but I don't know what. What do you think? How do your kids go about shopping?

Phillip: [00:50:29] Yeah, I think that you're very, you know, it's a very astute observation. It was like the way that our kids shop or the way we learn to shop is people is we mimicked people that we saw shop before us. You probably see most commerce exposure that our kids have is probably those high frequency purchases like at grocery and so kind of watching that play out here in this scene where Kevin comes in with a, you know, he's thumbing through a magazine while the cashier is ringing him out. He's presenting a coupon. Hey, these are all learned behaviors. It's such a powerful thing. And I love it. This has been such an awesome time. I had so much fun doing this with you, Brian.

Brian: [00:51:15] Me, too.

Phillip: [00:51:15] I hope you guys had fun in listening to it. I want to know what's your favorite shopping scene in a movie? Drop us a line. Hello@FutureCommerce.fm. And let us know about it. And hey, if you want some actual real deep meat and potatoes insight and strategy into how other businesses are meeting their goals in commerce, how they are rising to meet the expectations of customers, or how they are future proofing their business, join our community of retail futurists and risk takers by joining Future Commerce Insiders. You can get our newsletter in your inbox twice a week and every single episode of Future Commerce. It's available all at FutureCommerce.fm. And thank you so much for listening to this episode of Future Commerce.

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