Culture

The $12 Croissant and the Psychology of Feeling Fancy


There is something so profoundly New York about paying $12 for a croissant and feeling special only to potentially discover that your fancy French pastry may have arrived in a Costco box.

A NYC content creator recently went viral after filming what appeared to be Costco croissant boxes being delivered to a bakery near Times Square, shortly after she had paid $12 for a pistachio croissant. The bakery denies the croissants came from Costco and says it simply reuses the boxes.

But honestly, the croissant almost feels beside the point.

What cracks me up is the psychology of premium everything. We don’t just want a croissant. We want an experience. We want artisanal. Handcrafted. Small-batch. European. Perhaps a French word we cannot pronounce correctly. We want to believe that our $12 pastry has lived a more interesting life than we have.

And New York is exceptionally good at selling us the feeling that we are getting something exclusive.

Because sometimes we’re not paying $12 for a croissant.

We’re paying $12 to sit in the right chair, under the right lighting, in the right neighborhood, while pretending we are the sort of person who casually eats $12 croissants.

That’s not necessarily stupidity. It’s psychology. We don’t just buy products. We buy stories about ourselves.

And apparently, sometimes the story comes in a Costco box.

Which may be the most New York plot twist imaginable.

Somewhere, a $12 croissant is whispering “I am artisanal.”

And Costco is standing behind it saying: Are you sure about that?


4 replies »

  1. SMiLes It’s around 150 bucks to visit a
    Psychotherapist/Psychiatrist for 20 Minutes
    Just for someone to quietly Listen to you Mostly

    And Perhaps Offer the

    same old

    dam pill or
    even new
    one hehe

    Dear Miriam

    True there is the
    Expensive $12 Dollar
    Croissant Second Hand
    From Costco for Just the
    Right Chair under the Right
    Lighting in the Right Neighborhood

    A Beautiful Atmosphere

    to just sit and
    therapeutically
    Relax and Hey
    If it’s a 7 Dollar
    Star Bucks Brew

    The Barista May even
    provide a Listening ear
    for free in slow Periods
    of work too even cheaper
    than the Modern Bartender

    For me at least i offer a Free Public
    Dance my Wife’s Coffee she brews
    specially at Home in one of those fancy
    flavored ground bean cups is really better

    to me for
    50 Cents
    for both
    taste and
    coffee effect

    Yet True i’ll surely
    Buy a Cup for 7 Bucks
    for the Opportunity to bring
    smiles to stranger’s faces for
    what they Might have Never guessed
    the Law Enforcement/Military Looking
    Dude with the extra Big Head Might

    Other wise

    Never ever

    Do yes

    Incongruent
    Humor can
    and will be the
    Best too all 7 bucks
    a Cup just a free Give away too

    hehe don’t tell anyone it’s a secret
    Not well kept Yet i do Pay my Psychiatrist
    150 Dollars A Quarter that the Insurance
    Company reimburses me 50 Percent mostly

    so i can
    offer him Life
    Experiences
    that may help His
    Other more challenged Patients

    as true he already understands
    i am the real ‘Jonathan Livingston

    Seagull’

    no
    kidding
    he actually
    said that with SMiLes

    for the patient long ago
    No one gave a chance in
    hell to recover at all indeed
    literally hell too not much into fiction

    hehe it’s
    been challenging
    Enough to do me with

    SMiLes

    and
    wings
    for real
    at least on
    Terrestrial Smooth Store
    Dance Floors ‘these days’

    -ET

    for
    real too..:)

    Liked by 1 person

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