I began the writing of this book convinced that products and brands provide tremendous transformational opportunities for consumers, that the promise of these transformations is never more powerful than when we are on the cusp of acquiring the product and that it is just at that moment, when we are excited and invigorated by the product’s potential, that retailers seek to convince us that price is the only thing that matters. That cheap is better.

I remain convinced of this. What has changed for me is what I think can be done about it. When I began, I thought a wake-up call for retailers was in order. But, after coming to terms with the essential paradigm shift in our psyches that has made us willing coconspirators in this race to ...

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