ANSWERS: 8
  • This will probably answer your questions - it's taken from an article by Christy Best, a Professional Organizer. The following link will take you to the complete article. I also included it at the end of this answer, for convenience: http://www.clutterbug.net/articles/addictiveshopperbug.shtml "We all get bitten by the shopping bug now and then. We just have to have the lastest fashion or coolest new electronic gadget. Our material-based society encourages us to open our wallet and empty it in the mall. It's a difficult pressure to resist. Some people simply can't. Recently I've had a streak of clients whom I would classify as compulsive shoppers. They shop to feel good, not because they need more stuff. Their homes are littered with unopened packages and multiples of the same item. What's worse, many of these people really can't afford to buy the things they're buying. Some of my clients are drowning in debt, yet continue to shop until they drop. I see this evidenced all the time in my work. I see rooms full of electronic equipment and software still sitting in their boxes. I've seen garages stacked with unopened purchases. I helped one client remove the clothes off her bedroom floor-- it took four hours. Who can wear that many clothes, and how could that time be better spent? Compulsive shopping manifests itself in the kitchen as well. One woman I know had an entire pantry full of canned green beans. Then, when people become buried underneath a mountain of stuff, they go out and buy mass quantities of organizing tools, plastic bins and filing cabinets and closet organizing components and the like. Or they hire me. So the irony here is they're spending even more money to get a handle on the stuff that put them into debt to begin with. And interestingly enough, some of these people aren't connecting the dots. They don't make the connection that their shopping habit has dissolved their home into disarray and buried them in debt. So how do you know if you're addicted to shopping? If you can say yes to most of the following questions, you could be a compulsive shopper: Do you buy things simply because it feels to good to buy them? Do you buy things just because they're on sale? Do you make purchases based on packaging? Do you own new items that are still in their boxes? Do you buy clothing and shoes you never wear? Do you buy duplicates of items because you can't find the originals? Do you buy things for your familyfriends, knowing they're unneeded? Has shopping sunk you into debt? Compulsive shopping is a real psychological condition that should be treated by a professional therapist. If you think you might be a shop-a-holic, please seek out therapy. However, here are some simple tips that I think everyone should follow on every shopping trip, be it a quickie to the corner convenience store or a trek to the mall: Don't shop when you're feeling anxious, depressed or powerless. If you're shopping for pleasure or to pass time, find another activity. Leave your credit cards and checkbook at home. {Christy lists several other good, practical suggestions and elaborates on all, including the three above.} Remember that by buying lots of stuff, you're not only depleting your own financial resources to feed the corporate monster (and make someone else rich), but you're depleting the Earth's resources as well. If you think of it in those terms, it might be easier to leave stuff on the shelf. Most importantly, keep in mind that stuff cannot possibly make us happy. Quite the contrary, I have found. Too much stuff bogs down our minds, space and time, while simplicity frees us up to pursue the worthwhile things in life, be it family, career, athletic or creative endeavors, or simply getting lost in a good book. Keep it simple, and enjoy life. All the Best, Christy Best Professional Organizer Member NAPO Founder, Clutterbug.net LLC" The full article is well worth the read, especially if you find this is a problem area for you or someone you know: http://www.clutterbug.net/articles/addictiveshopperbug.shtml
  • It's called impulse buying. Big department stores, car dealers, pharmacuticle company's, and other business' with good marketing consultants know how to trick or fool people into buying things they don't neccessarily need. This is the strategy of war that marketing consultants use against the consumer for the benefit of the corporations. Marketing consultants in the corporate world, are the military equivilant of government propaganda specialists. It is there job to alter your perception of life and way of thinking. The general public, (aka; sheeple) are the most susceptible to impulse buying, it radiates through the music industry, and television, these programmed "fads" are like a plague upon the human psychi. But it can reach farther than that, it can distort the sheeple's perception politically as well, hence the continuing downturn of voter turnout in recent decades. Especially of those in their twenty's and thirty's who are dumbed down thinking their vote is useless or doesnt count. For instance; More sheeple would rather vote for some nobody on American Idol, (whom will not have any effect on their lives other than to wrench money from their pocket books in the future through sales of Coke, Ford cars, and music media) than vote for a political candidate (, which will have a profound after effect on their lives, and neighborhood that will reverberate for years to come). The Q of popularity of a person, product, place or thing has a profound effect upon the human brain to those who are easily susceptible to such advertisement and hype. The illusion that a certain product will enhance your life and make it better may be accurate to some degree, but it is short lived, it may be purchased as required by a certain class of people who consider themselves the "well to do" or "IN" crowd. But the upkeep can be quite expensive when your racing with the Jones'. A lot of sheeple believe that these products purchased also enhance their character...that assumption could not be any farther from the fact. Like the old addage, "the cloth's make the man", which is not really true at all, I have met very many hippy hoppy, and well dressed sheeple who are complete utter assholes...so no I do not buy that addage. Buying into the latest fad does not make people like you, they are only attracted to the illusion you are playing on. It's all one big scam. What sheeple want, and what sheeple need, are totally two entire seperate things. "Who ever said; Let the buyer beware...was probably bleeding from the asshole." - George Carlin.
  • I guess they must eventually become garage sale-oholics.
  • There are many reasons why: people are inherently weak and will heed to any kind of brainwashing. They're just as susceptible at the bombardments from advertisements. Another reason is because of peer pressure, they like to keep up with their peers even if they can't afford it. People also like to give the impression that they have more than they actually do and project that by buying expensive and uncessary stuff. And probably the last in the list is the fact that many people use shopping as therapy to mask unhappiness, loneliness, sadness, etc. It is a good thing thou that the US is a Christian Nation and that god allegedly frown upon that kinda thing, eh?
  • That sounds like me.
  • I buy things I dont need to sell at a profit later on or keep, to allow them to mature into something more valuable when the next craze hits. Like 70's spaghetti lamps. If I had a dollar for every weirdo that paid $200.00 + dollars for one of those a few years ago... Oh wait... I do! hundreds of them actually...
  • It could also be OCD(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).
  • True answer- Because they are BRAINWASHED SUBLIMINALLY into buying it. Robbery? I think so. Just a legal form of it.

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy