Netflix’s Buy Now Cast: Meet the Real People In ‘The Shopping Conspiracy’ Doc (Photos)

Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy assembles industry insiders and whistleblowers in a new documentary that unpacks several secret consumer tricks of major global brands. 

Directed and written by Nic Stacey, Netflix’s new documentary exposes the major secrets influential brands use to lure customers into buying new stuff. 

Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy premiered on Netflix on November 20.

Every Main Interviewee Who Appears in Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy Cast

Roger Lee

“When you dispose, what happens? And brands are not responsible for that today.”

Instagram: @rklnyc

Roger Lee, a clothing manufacturer, joins the conversation by discussing the introduction and emergence of fast fashion, a way for brands to “rethink about having newness every month” to lure consumers into buying goods quickly. 

Chloe Asaam

“Whatever the brands are doing right now, it’s hurting a lot of people.”

Instagram: @chloe_asaam

Designer Chloe Asaam is one of the interviewees in Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. 

She talked about Ghana’s fashion industry and how clothing waste has become an issue. Chloe revealed that many donated clothes from brands are exported to Ghana, and the country has no way to deal with the large volume of supplies. These end up affecting their local beaches. 

Jim Puckett

“They’re making someone else pay, but they’re paying not with money, they’re paying with their health.”

Jim Puckett is a waste investigator and founder of a non-profit organization that aims to reduce toxic waste. He is known for being the “James Bond of waste.”

At the center of Puckett’s efforts is tracking waste and figuring out what happens to it after it is thrown away. 

Anna Sacks

“Usable items that get discarded are depressing to see.”

Instagram: @thetrashwalker

Anna Sacks (aka @thetrashwalker from TikTok) is a New York City influencer and waste expert. She uses her platform to raise awareness about the alarming rate of usable item waste across the country. 

Anna pointed out in the documentary that corporations throw out perfectly usable unsold products daily, peaking during holidays in the United States. 

Nirav Patel

“The voices of, ‘We’re going to protect the business went out over the little voice in your head saying, ‘Should we really be doing this?'”

Nirav Patel was previously a member of the founding team of Oculus at Apple, with his responsibilities mainly focused on hardware organization. He was also part of the team that developed FaceTime. 

In Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, he divulged Apple’s consumer marketing strategy and how other consumer electronics companies emulate what Apple has done in their business models, essentially targeting customers’ desire or need to replace the ones they already have.

Mara Einstein

“The issue with companies connecting themselves to the environment is that they’re doing what marketers always do, which is showing the shiny little thing over here because they don’t want you to look at what they’re doing here.”

Instagram: @drmaraeinstein

Mara Einstein, a former marketing executive, said that what’s interesting about how consumers view businesses today is that they trust them over large social institutions. However, that trust isn’t well-placed. 

Using Coca-Cola as an example, she talked about how the company has been pumping out plastic for its containers while telling consumers that recycling is the solution to the environmental problem. It is an unending cycle. 

Eric Liedtke

“There [are] definitely things that I participated in that I feel like I could’ve and should’ve done better.”

Instagram: @eric.liedtke

Eric Liedtke, the former president of the Adidas brand, opened up about the sins he needs to make up for, which is why he decided to be interviewed for Netflix’s new documentary. 

As the one responsible for everything related to product, communications, digital efforts, and strategy, Eric is primarily responsible for Adidas’ rise. 

He believed then that storytelling helped shape the buying ways of consumers.

Maren Costa

“You’re being 100% played and it’s a science.”

Instagram: @marencosta

Maren Costa is a principal user experience designer who worked at Amazon for 15 years. 

Some of her responsibilities at Amazon were working on product detail pages and launching different categories in different countries. 

In her interview, she says that Amazon’s shopping site was designed to help consumers buy everything they need, “more of it than you ever thought you needed.”

Kyle Wiens

“Honestly, it’s getting worse. We’re seeing more and more companies that are now actually gluing phones, tablets, and laptops together, making repairs really difficult.”

Instagram: @kylewiens

Kyle Wiens, the founder and CEO of iFixit, joins the conversation in Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. iFixit provides consumers with tools, parts, and repair manuals for a wide range of gadgets across all brands. 

Kyle revealed that the default idea that repair should be a go-to option has mysteriously disappeared in the minds of many consumers. 

He also said they are not fixing things because lawyers will “censor that knowledge from the world.”

Jan Dell

“The vast majority of recyclable labels on plastic packaging today are false.”

As a chemical engineer, Jan Dell has been an open critic of the “lying labels” on most products that consumers see in grocery stores. 

While she helped different companies figure out how to design and manufacture products safely and efficiently, she thinks it is a lost cause since “they wipe their hands off it.” She believes they are not responsible once the products are on store shelves.

She believes the solution is to produce less plastic to save the environment.

Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy is streaming on Netflix.