Are you addicted to shopping?
Drive past a shopping mall on the weekend and you’ll see a jam packed parking lot. Attempt to find a parking space and you’ll spend many minutes circling as you desperately wait for someone to leave.
It used to be that this was only the case on the weekend immediately following pay day. Now it’s every weekend. Are we earning more money? The state of the economy and statistics about unemployment indicate this isn’t the answer.
Why do we go shopping?
Author, entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin describes how we think about shopping as an entertaining act. But more than a billion people have never gone shopping, he says.
“Never once set out with money in their pockets to see what’s new, to experience the feeling of, ‘maybe I’ll buy that,’ or, ‘I wonder how that will look on me…’.”
For the rest of us, shopping is often something we do on a Saturday afternoon when we’re feeling bored.
Says Godin: “Shopping is looking around, spending time in search of choosing how to spend money. Shopping is buying something you’ve never purchased before. For many, replenishment, buying what your parents bought, getting enough to live on … that’s all there is, that’s enough.”
Why do we enjoy shopping?
The shopping mall has become the destination where many flock to when they’re looking for entertainment. An architect named Victor Gruen is credited with designing shopping centres and retail spaces. He wanted to create a third space, after home and work, where people could spend time, feel connected and build community. But years later be became disenchanted with what he had created.
“I am often called the father of the shopping mall,” he said two years before his death in 1978, while looking back on his career. “I would like to take this opportunity to disclaim paternity once and for all. I refuse to pay alimony to those bastard developments. They destroyed our cities.”
Are you addicted to shopping?
A team of psychologists at Norway’s University of Bergen created a simple seven statement test for people to determine if their shopping habit is actually an addiction. The researchers found that shopping addiction was on the increase because it was more accessible.
Many of us are emotional spenders, choosing to go out and shop to cheer us up. Although the Consumer Protection Act protects consumers and allows the return of goods in certain instances, people must be cautious when making emotional purchases. Shoppers must also always take careful note of the return policies of the shops that they buy from. If you buy items on credit, you must also be certain about other applicable legislation such as the National Credit Act.
Do you think you might be a shopaholic? If you “agree” or “completely agree” to more than four of these simple statements, you might showing the symptoms of a shopping addiction.
- You think about shopping all the time.
- You shop or buy things in order to change your mood.
- Shopping has made you miss a daily obligation.
- You need to shop or buy more to feel as good about it as you used to.
- You try to shop less but you can’t.
- You feel bad if something prevents you from going shopping or buying things.
- You shop so much it makes you feel bad.