Whenever I’m sad, mad, frustrated or annoyed, I’ve always found exercise to be cathartic. I use all that negativity to harness my energy for the workout. Exercise is great way to let it all out, rather than letting it out through retail therapy.
Mind you, I’m not much of a shopper. If I was to go on a spending spree for no reason because I felt any of the emotions above, I think I would feel all of those emotions EVEN MORE, because I have a hard time spending money (if it was for travel, then well that would be a different story).
Many people do use retail therapy to help themselves feel better, which I guess in a sense can be good if it’s once in a while, you really wanted something for a long time and you had enough money for it. However, many people can use it to the point where they rack up a lot of consumer debt.
It doesn’t help either that stores play with our emotions and give us the FOMO feeling (fear of missing out).
Image Courtesy of stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.NetSales happen several times a year and are on for a limited time only. The sayings on their signs always emphasize an urgency to buy something right now. It’s almost as if the signs are practically yelling out loud to you.
HURRY!
SALE ENDS SOON!
LAST CHANCE!
DON’T WAIT!
BUY NOW!
(Your heart’s racing, you’re about to have a panic attack).
OH MY GOD. WHAT DO I DO?!?!
It’s as if you don’t buy something right now, you’ll miss out on the most amazing sale of the year and your life will never be the same. They want you to regret not buying anything that was on sale. The store emails you subscribe to are like a double-edged sword. They notify you of upcoming sales, but at the same time they are constantly notifying you of the sales, eventually making you believe that you have to buy stuff you don’t really need. At first you may think, phew, thank goodness I made it just in time for the sale. However, you may end up with a bit of buyers’ remorse.
You would think that someone with very little patience like myself, would jump on the chance during these sales and go nuts. Surprisingly, I have the discipline to walk away from it.
While stores try to instill the FOMO on sales, my FOMO has been instilled on finances. It’s amazing how the media can scare you when you hear about people not being able to save for retirement or people up to their eyeballs in debt, but not even batting an eye. They’ve certainly managed to scare me! 🙂
Do you go into panic mode when you see those sales? Or do you just walk on by?
I’ve done the opposite with sales. I’ll often pass them up, figuring they’ll come back, then regret it later when I really do need that item I’d passed up 40% off on.
One thing I get annoyed with is when I’m constantly buying certain items and they pretty much almost never go on sale or how certain stores never really have storewide sales (ie Lululemon)
Luckily I just walk on by. Unless something is priced at a huge discount and it’s something I’ve been waiting for for a long time and it was on my list, I don’t have a problem not buying something.
I try to put myself in a certain mindset and put on my imaginary horse blinders to block out the signs. 🙂
I can’t remember the last time I went to a store and there WASN’T a sale. Of course, I don’t go shopping very often, but seriously, I never feel like I’m missing out because there’s always some kind of discount to be had somewhere.
Sometimes the sales they have aren’t even really sales to begin with. I’m surprised they don’t have sales almost every week to keep up with the heavy competition. It’s too bad you can’t price match clothing, the way you can price match with groceries and toiletries. 😛
I used to be really susceptible to those marketing tactics. I spent so much time working and traveling on business I’d spend my free time at the mall. I’d come back home with bags of new clothes stuffed in my carry on. There was even a time I had to buy a new bag to fit in all the clothes. It was my way of calming my mind from all the time I was away from home. Now I just spend the free time finding something on Meetup.com or exploring a park.
I’m not going lie, there have been a few times, where I have been a sucker and purchased things in the mall to kill time. I find the airports are like a mall. Nothing but duty free shops and restaurants.
Stores have become efficient at manipulating our emotions. You see a sale sign every day at the store, it makes you kinda realize that there will always be a sale somewhere, so no need to panic. There is that fear of missing out now though.
Sometimes you have to wonder though, do those items have a discount on them for real, or its the “SALE” sign that convinces us?
I think it’s the latter. The word SALE can get people all excited, but then people have to decide for themselves whether or not it is a truly sale. I think it can sometimes be subjective too. What may be a sale to one person, may not even come close to being a sale for another person.
Although you can’t do this with all purchases you buy, but I found that keeping a price book and keeping track of prices of many grocery items has helped me determine what is a good price for many things.
Actually, it’s those stupid ad’s about their sales that kept me going back to Macy’s to buy more work clothes over and over. I kept thinking “I could always use more work clothes” so I kept going back. The first time I went I really did need work clothes, but then I got on their mailing list and they kept having 50% off sales every month, after a few months I caught on and decided I needed to ignore all mailings from them. Just because it’s a sale doesn’t mean I need it. Glad I learned that lesson before things got too bad.
I think I could use more clothes in general. My closet is actually quite bare for a female. Although I do have quite a few coats/jackets. Not sure why. Most girls are more into shoes and bags, but I seem to like coats and jackets. I would eventually like to get a decent leather jacket, but I know those can go for a few hundred bucks.
The stores want you to think you need it. I’m surprised they haven’t created advertisements saying, “You need this!!”
When I was younger, I would definitely be lured into the store to see about the sale event of the year. But now that I have learned of their tricks, I tend to walk on by. The more you know/understand about how marketers get you to spend, the better you will be at not letting your emotions make decisions for you.