Isabela Heredia remembers growing up with her grandmother's constant Princess House deliveries. Weekly shipments would arrive at her family's front door, although their house already had far more silverware than they needed. Even in her childhood, Heredia knew there was no way her grandmother's large tableware collection was unnecessary.
"I basically grew up with overconsumerism since day one," she said.
Heredia attributes her grandmother's shopping habit as her first experience with overconsumption.
"My grandma is the biggest hoarder you will ever meet. If you go into her bedroom, I swear there's things from the 80's in there. She does not let anything go," Heredia said.
Reflecting on her own habits of consumption, Heredia described a feeling of "need" to own material objects from an early age, even recalling a specific desire for the "Wubble Bubble," a viral translucent ball from the 2010s.
But Heredia isn't alone in her relationship to consumption. Across the nation, no matter the economy's fluctuations, Americans continue to indulge in shopping. Older generations had Sears catalogs, millennials had infomercials and Gen Z had massive retail hauls on YouTube. The pressure to shop and keep up with overconsumption is overwhelming for many, and can lead people into debt and dissatisfaction.
It's not sustainable
Morgan Marquette, a senior studying sustainability, recalled caring for the environment and sustainable living from an early age — two things that drew her to her major.
Marquette said when she thinks of the term overconsumption, she thinks of how society has commodified everything, almost as a form of therapy.
"You can never be fulfilled from physical things and that's why it's an issue because you keep going back for more and more," she said.
Aside from personal fulfillment, Marquette emphasized that overconsumption contributes significantly to environmental degradation: "It's just infinite extraction and infinite consumption, so none of it is sustainable," she said.
Take thrifting, for example — a cheaper alternative to buying new clothes that has gained online traction in recent years. Marquette said that thrifting was originally a way for people to buy clothes if they couldn't afford "fresh out of the factory stuff." It was also a way for people to get rid of their old clothes without throwing them away.
Today, thrifting has strayed from its original purpose and Marquette noted that over 60% of the clothing items donated to thrift stores end up in landfills.
"A lot of the stuff people are donating doesn't even get to be used second hand," she said.
Goodwill is viewed by many as a donation junkyard. Marquette said that a disproportionate number of people do not take the time to sort through their donations, instead treating them like garbage.
"You will literally see people bring their garbage to Goodwill and be like, 'Oh, I'm donating this,'" she said. "And I think that's part of the reason why Goodwill has such high landfill rates is because they're throwing away stuff that people should have thrown away in the first place."
Marquette believes many people are stuck in an overconsumption cycle, like new year cleanouts or buying items to fill the space of donations.
"Why are you spring cleaning every single year? You shouldn't have all of this stuff that you're going to be throwing away every year," she said.
Marquette advocates for students to be more aware of their consumption, saying that a good first step is to avoid "easy access stores" like Target and Amazon.
"They're just selling junk, straight up junk, especially (like) Amazon where it'll come the next day. That's a waste of emissions and packaging and time and money," she said.
She also suggested increasing your awareness of spending and budgeting, as this helps to consume less.
"Delete Shein and delete all th(o)se crummy polyester apps," Marquette said. "Just put those literal barriers between unsustainable consumption."
Everything is an ad
Kara Keene is a senior studying media arts and sciences and a member of the Fashion Collective, an ASU student organization involved in fashion business. Keene noted that undisclosed advertisements are prevalent on social media, especially TikTok. While users may think they are watching an honest review of an item on the app, in reality, it's an undisclosed ad and the creator is receiving compensation. Keene said that "your subconscious is being trained to be a consumer without your knowledge."
Keene believes that influencer partnerships such as Molly Mae's recent Adidas collab, take away from artistry. Companies will work with influencers or celebrities over fashion designers and creatives because of the publicity and sales that celebrity names provide.
"Companies are going to choose that person (influencers) over somebody who's actually more passionate about fashion and has been working really hard to create unique and innovative designs," Keene said.
Ayla Kessary is a sophomore studying creative writing. Also a member of the Fashion Collective, she appreciates the art and creativity of the fashion and beauty industries.
Kessary said the competitive nature of many advertisements confuses consumers and leads to overconsumption. For example, many skincare advertisements contain persuasive claims rooted in data, such as "98% of people found their skin to be improved." When more ads look like this or claim to be the "No. 1 product," consumers feel fatigued and the ads lose their meaning.
"It isn't always rooted in truth, which is the main problem. The main problem isn't that there is all this advertising for all this stuff, it's that (brands) are focused on volume and quantity rather than the quality of the products that they're consuming and selling," she said.
The problem with beauty
The overconsumption of skincare and makeup could also be attributed largely to influencer and celebrity culture. For example, many celebrities in the early 2000s launched signature perfumes and body sprays. Fans often purchased the products not because they truly loved the scent, but because they felt they got to share a piece of their favorite artist. While today's social media stars don't launch many perfumes, they often launch their own lines of makeup or skincare brands instead.
Kessary has loved makeup since she was 11 years old. Seeing makeup as a form of art and a tool for self-expression, she didn't care to keep up with purchasing the newest products or what influencers were touting on YouTube. Kessary felt that makeup consumption has changed a lot in the past 10 years. Rather than makeup representing creativity, it now represents a trend.
"People will plug a lip oil that looks exactly like a CVS chapstick and it will be $72," Kessary said. "It's so expensive to use all these makeup products and then there's no creativity in it. People will slander the makeup of the past, but at least it was creative, and that's my main problem with it, it's become more about the product than the art or the expression of makeup itself."
Keene questions the authenticity of celebrity makeup brands and feels that many celebrities who release makeup products may not be using them regularly.
"If you were to look in their makeup bag, would they actually be using all their own brand?" Keene said. "I am assuming there's a whole other team of completely separate people that are making the majority of these decisions, and the artist is just sort of the face of the brand for advertising to get more views and to get more people to buy it."
She also feels that the creativity in the beauty industry has been replaced by the "clean girl aesthetic" as a marketing tactic to sell more products.
"They're (brands) trying to sell this idea of luxury in that simplicity is more luxurious, is more sophisticated, and if you buy these fancy looking bottles and these simple clean products, it will make you feel like you're richer," Keene said.
Can't live without my "Starbies"
Liliana Silverio is a junior majoring in justice studies. She also works at an on-campus Starbucks operated by Aramark.
Silverio believes that food and beverages are overconsumed on both an individual and corporate level. She said the food waste at Starbucks could easily be prevented if less was ordered.
"They (Aramark) would rather us have a bunch of leftover food than run out of food. So, sometimes the managers will have to order more, not because we know it's gonna sell, (but) because otherwise, the people above us, corporate, will come and yell at us," she said.
On an individual level, Silverio believes that social media has created a false reality that getting coffee out is a "normal" daily occurrence.
"The first thing that comes to my mind is exclusivity. I always viewed Starbucks as something that's a luxury. It was never something that I'd go and get with my family," she said.
She believes that more people should make their coffees at home to save time and money.
"I do think that some people really do look forward to it at the beginning of the day, getting their drinks and everything, but I think that's because Americans are naturally lazy and don't want to (make their coffee at home)," Silverio said.
Consuming for the sake of consuming can lead to dissatisfaction in the long term. Replacing meaningful relationships, experiences, art and other modes of self-expression with consumption won't leave you feeling happy, according to Keene.
"When you buy something just because somebody else told you to, or because it's the most popular, or because you think you need it because everybody has it, that dopamine hit doesn't last, because you're not buying something that you actually individually enjoy," she said.
Edited by Leah Mesquita, Natalia Jarrett and Abigail Wilt. This story is part of The Love Issue, which was released on February 25, 2026. See the entire publication here.
Reach the reporter at jbanihan@asu.edu
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Jude is a junior studying finance. This is her second semester with The State Press.
