I’m just now recovering from what the ‘experts’ would call cold turkey. Yesterday I went to the local mall to buy some books that I had been meaning to buy online but couldn’t face the wait. The bookstore I went to is huge. It is spread across three floors. It is what I imagine walking in to Amazon.com’s warehouse would be like.
It took me a little while to find the section that the books I was after were located. Once I found the section I had a very enjoyable time looking at numerous different books before I found the books I was looking for. There is nothing like the smell of new books. I don’t know what it is but the newness of the books was something to behold. If I am honest I got a little intoxicated on that smell and off I went and bought a few additional books that I originally had no intention of buying.
The thing is I had only brought enough cash on me for the original two books but now I had five books that I wanted to buy. What did I do? Leave the three additional books back on the shelf? Hell no! I whipped out my credit card and bought the lot on credit.
As I was walking out of the bookstore and through the mall a strange sensation came over me. It was like a pleasant warm fuzzy feeling. The best way I can best describe it is that it was similar to the feeling I get when I drink a nice coffee. It’s that relaxed warm feeling. You’re almost without a care in the world. To be honest I was a little curious as to why my mood had suddenly lifted.
The only thing I could logically put it down to was the fact that I had just bought some nice new shiny books and I was really looking forward to getting home to start reading them. As I walked through the mall to the car park I began to look at the people around me. Did they notice that I had a spring in my step? Or more interestingly could I tell who was getting high from shopping? Here’s the best part – it looked like there was a lot of people getting high. It wasn’t just the stereotypical women with their ten bags of shopping that seemed to be getting a rush but men also – myself included.
From high to low
How long did the high last? Well to be honest I don’t think I got value for money for this high. Between the time I left the store and got home was about twenty five minutes. When I got home and took out the books to look at I felt deflated. I realised that one of the books was not what I wanted at all. I don’t know how or why I even picked it up. Not only that but I felt guilty that I had broken one of my cardinal rules about buying discretionary items with my credit card. It just kept getting worse.
This experience got me thinking about the whole psychology of shopping and how things are designed to trip us up and how this causes us to compound our debt until we are in trouble.
A huge industry exists to exploit and manipulate the consumer. Advertising agencies hire the best and the brightest minds to help them come up with ways that they can separate you from your money. It is scary the lengths that companies go to. When you enter a shopping mall you have to realise that nothing is random. Every single thing from the layout to the colors of the walls to the music that is played are all designed to make you want to shop more. No I’m not some paranoid anti-capitalist, far from it but what I am is concerned about the pain this shopping hypnotism causes.
How many people do you know that ‘shop til they drop’ and put it all on plastic only to realise that they did not need the stuff that they have bought? Have you done it? I did it yesterday! I have heard some horror stories about people who suffer from what can only be called an addiction to shopping. They buy stuff and bring it home but don’t even take it out of the packaging. The amount of debt they accumulate from this behaviour is frightening.
What to do?
If you suspect that you suffer from an addiction to shopping then please get help. I know there is almost a kind of cool that comes with the saying “Oh I’m addicted to shopping, I just love the winter sales” this holds true especially for women. In reality there is nothing cool about being up to your eyeballs in debt.
Short of getting professional help I suggest a policy of avoidance. Avoid the mall. Make it a goal of yours not to visit the mall for three weeks. On top of this reduce the amount of time that you spend watching TV. The advertisements on the television are again a not so subtle attempt to get you to part with your cash.
As for me well I’ve decided to leave the credit card at home the next time I go to the mall. At least that way while I may be tempted I can’t do anything about it. In the long run I should save myself a lot of grief. That said I think you will need to ‘watch this space’.