Can Shopping Make You Happy?

From the looks of these people, no.


In 2001, citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the US economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live.

Flushing, NY, 2004
 

Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 2006
 

Edinburgh, UK, 2003
 

Chicago, IL, 2003
 

Gurnee, IL, 2003
 

Edinburgh, UK, 2003
 

Chicago, IL, 2003
 

Gurnee, IL, 2003
 

Untitled, Thrift, 2006
 

Chicago, IL, 2003
 

Cleveland, OH, 2003
 

Gurnee, IL, 2005
 

Gurnee, IL, 2005
 

Lyndhurst, OH, 2004
 

Chicago, IL, 2003
 

Medford, NY, 2003
 

Granger, IN, 2003
 

Untitled, Thrift, 2006
 

Untitled, Thrift, 2006
 

Kenosha, WI, 2003

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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