Few among us are immune to the thrills of a good buy. Whether you’re partial to designer handbags, mall brand clothing hauls, high-tech gadgets, or whatever’s on the shelves as you browse your favorite megastore, there’s always another item for sale that feels like it’s just right for you. And as it turns out, that’s all by design.

In Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, a new documentary written and directed by News & Documentary Emmy Award nominee Nic Stacey (The World According to Jeff Goldblum), the architects of our collective desire for endless consumption reveal how corporations are hell-bent on increasing profits, how they convince unsuspecting consumers time and time again to part with their money, and what happens when all of our discarded purchases make their way to landfills. Commentators who witnessed the inner workings of corporations from Amazon to Apple sit down to talk about the unsavory practices their former employers are still using. But while we’re all being encouraged to quench a bottomless thirst for more stuff, it’s the future generations and our environment that end up paying the price. 

Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy is produced by Flora Bagenal, with Alex Marengo, Chloe Leland, and Orlando von Einsiedel serving as executive producers. The documentary premieres on Netflix on Nov. 20.