“I shop, therefore I am” is a slogan made ubiquitous by one of my favorite artists, Barbara Kruger, whose pop art often deals with consumerism and feminism. But the text-atop-screen-print, which was originally produced by Kruger in 1987, has never rung more true than for our current generation.

The anthropology behind shopping rituals is exceedingly interesting to me. These days, I buy the majority of my clothing at thrift stores. Besides the frugality factor, there’s magic in thrifting. I put a lot of thought into scavenging through racks, piles, and bins, to find that one hidden taxidermy butterfly for 99 cents, and in that hallelujah rewarding moment, I think about the past owner — what novelist’s wall the butterfly may have hung on, or even the very life of the butterfly, before it was encased in a glass fixture. But even with all of the meaning I try to appropriate to stumbling upon such curiosities, there is always a whole other aspect to shopping that looms in the back of my mind: “Who made this? In what conditions? And at what cost?” Up until now, I’ve tried to suppress these questions.

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