A Note on Bazaar Consumer Collectives

This commentary forwards the bazaar consumer collective as a distinct way to view popular consumer sociality. Instead of just building social relations through a particular commodity or brand, bazaar consumer affinities emerge by “grabbing” the moment of potentiality. This commentary argues that what defines bazaar consumerism is about getting onto a trend very quickly through ad hoc and informal production networks. Unlike in previous analysis of popular consumer cultures, bazaar consumerism is no more about aspiring toward upper-class consumption; it is about encapsulating whatever is trending in their environment. A loose bazaar consumer collective gets formed by the possibilities of wearing garments that are thoroughly capturing the moment, not about wearing a specific brand. By this logic, bazaar consumerism is an act of mimesis of decentering corporate discourse at one level and introducing copies as new symbols at the other end.