Shopping

America has changed from a country that makes things to a country that buys things.

Danny Schechter, journalist, media critic, and director of the documentary “In Debt We Trust,” which shows how “the mall replaced the factory as America’s dominant economic engine.”

http://www.barneys.com/History/HISTORY,default,pg.html

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The brain chemical dopamine plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health….Dopamine can cause someone to get caught up in the shopping moment and make bad decisions.

Why Shopping Makes You Feel So Good

Tara Parker-Pope

Wall Street Journal

December 6, 2005

When Wazhma Samizay and her friends have a bad day, they go shopping, a ritual dubbed "retail therapy."

"When you are shopping to buy a gift or get something for yourself, either way it's kind of a treat," says Ms. Samizay, who three years ago opened a Seattle boutique named Retail Therapy. "The concept of the store was about finding things that made people feel good."

Science is now discovering what Ms. Samizay and many consumers have known all along: Shopping makes you feel good. A growing body of brain research shows how shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting our mood and making us feel better — at least for a little while. Peering into a decorated holiday window or finding a hard-to-find toy appears to tap into the brain's reward center, triggering the release of brain chemicals that give you a "shopping high." Understanding the way your brain responds to shopping can help you make sense of the highs and lows of holiday shopping, avoid buyer's remorse and lower your risk for overspending.

Much of the joy of holiday shopping can be traced to the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health. The brains of people with Parkinson's disease, for instance, contain almost no dopamine. Dopamine also plays a role in drug use and other addictive behaviors. Dopamine is associated with feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, and it's released when we experience something new, exciting or challenging. And for many people, shopping is all those things.

"You're seeing things you haven't seen; you're trying on clothes you haven't tried on before," says Gregory Berns, an Emory University neuroscientist and author of "Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment."

University of Kentucky researchers in 1995 studied rats exploring unfamiliar compartments in their cages — the laboratory equivalent of discovering a new store at the mall. When a rat explored a new place, dopamine surged in its brain's reward center. The study offers a warning about shopping in new stores or while out of town. People tend to make more extraneous purchases when they shop outside their own communities, says Indiana University professor Ruth Engs, who studies shopping addiction.

But MRI studies of brain activity suggest that surges in dopamine levels are linked much more with anticipation of an experience rather than the actual experience — which may explain why people get so much pleasure out of window-shopping or hunting for bargains.

Dopamine can cause someone to get caught up in the shopping moment and make bad decisions. Dr. Berns of Emory says dopamine may help explain why someone buys shoes they never wear. "You see the shoes and get this burst of dopamine," says Dr. Berns. Dopamine, he says, "motivates you to seal the deal and buy them. It's like a fuel injector for action, but once they're bought it's almost a let down."

Dr. Berns and his colleagues have devised studies to simulate novel experiences to better understand when and why the brain releases dopamine. In one set of studies volunteers reclined in an MRI scanner while a tube trickled drops of water or sweet Kool-Aid into their mouths. Sometimes the Kool-Aid drops were a predictable pattern, while other studies used random drops. Notably, when the Kool-Aid was predictable the brain showed little increased activity. But the scans showed a high level of activity when the Kool-Aid was given at random. This indicates that the anticipation of the reward — whether it's Kool-Aid or a new dress — is what gets our dopamine pumping.

Because the shopping experience can't be replicated inside an MRI scanner, other researchers are using electroencephalogram, or EEG, monitors that measure electrical activity in the brain to better understand consumer-shopping habits. Britain's Neuroco, a London consulting firm, uses portable monitors, strapped on to shoppers, to produce "brain maps" as a way to understand consumer buying habits. The brain maps show a marked difference in the brain patterns of someone just browsing compared with a consumer about to make a purchase.

"Shopping is enormously rewarding to us," says David Lewis, a neuroscientist and director of research and development. But Dr. Lewis also notes that stressful holiday crowds, poor service or the realization that you've spent too much can quickly eliminate the feel-good effects of shopping.

Knowing that shopping triggers real changes in our brain can help you make better shopping decisions and not overspend while in a dopamine-induced high. For instance, walking away from a purchase you want and returning the next day will eliminate the novelty of the situation and help you make a more clear-headed decision.

Dr. Engs of Indiana has compiled a list of dos and don'ts to help people make better shopping decisions. Although the steps are aimed at people with compulsive shopping problems, they are useful for anyone caught up in the holiday shopping frenzy.

Buy only the items on your shopping list to avoid impulse purchases.

Use cash or debit cards. Financial limits keep you from buying things you can't afford in the midst of shopping excitement.

Window-shop after stores have closed or when you've left your wallet at home. You'll get the pleasure of shopping without the risk of overspending.

Don't shop when you're visiting friends or relatives. The added novelty of shopping in a new place puts you at higher risk of buying something you don't need.

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Self-Help for Shopaholics:

How to Cut Your Cash Consumption in Half in Just One Week!

Sophie Kinsella

Sophie Kinsella, a former financial journalist, is the author of the bestselling ‘Shopaholic’ series published by Black Swan (London). In this selection from The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (2000: 64-67), Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist who spends her working life telling others how to manage their money and her leisure time shopping tries cutting back.

Frugality. Simplicity.  These are my new watch-words.  A new, uncluttered, Zen-like life, in which I spend nothing.  Spend nothing.  I mean, when you think about it, how much money do we all waste every day?  No wonder I’m in a little bit of debt.  And really, it’s not my fault.  I’ve merely been succumbing to the Western drag of materialism – which you have to have the strength of elephants to resist.  At least, that’s what it says in my new book Controlling Your Cash by David E. Barton.

            When you start thinking about it, you can save money everywhere.  And as David E. Barton says, there are lots of free pleasures which we forget because we’re so busy spending money, like parks and museums and the simple joy of a country walk.

            It’s all so easy and straightforward.  And the best thing is, you have to start out by going shopping!  The book says you should begin by itemizing every single purchase in a single normal spending day and plot it on a graph.  It stresses that you should be honest and not suddenly curtail or alter your spending pattern – which is lucky, because it’s Suze’s birthday on Thursday and I’ve got to get her a present.

            So on Monday morning, I stop off at Lucio’s on the way into work and buy an extra large cappuccino and a chocolate muffin, just like I usually do.  I have to admit I feel a bit sorrowful as I hand over my money, because this is my last ever cappuccino and my last ever chocolate muffin.  My new frugality starts tomorrow – and cappuccinos aren’t allowed.  David E. Barton says if you have a coffee habit you should make it at home and take it into the office in a flask, and if you like eating snacks you should buy cheap cakes from the supermarket.  ‘The coffee merchants are fleecing you for what is little more than hot water and polystyrene,’ he points out  -- and I suppose he’s right.  But I will miss my morning cappuccino.  Still.  I’ve promised myself I’ll follow the rules of the book – and I will.

            As I come out of the coffee shop, clutching my last ever cup, I realize I don’t actually have a flask for coffee.  But that’s OK, I’ll buy one.  There are some lovely sleek chrome ones in Habitat.  Flasks are actually quite trendy these days.  I think Alessi might even do one.  Wouldn’t that be cool?  Drinking coffee out of an Alessi flask.  Much cooler than a takeaway cappuccino.

            So I’m feeling quite happy as I walk along the street.  When I get to Smith’s I pop in and stock up on a few magazines to keep me going – and I also buy a sweet little silver notebook and pen to write down everything I spend.  I’m going to be really rigorous about this, because Davie E. Barton says the very act of noting down purchases should have a curtailing effect.  So when I get into work, I start my list.

.     .     .     .     .

            David E. Barton says that when you make a real effort, particularly in the early stages, you should reward yourself – so I pick up some coconut bath oil from the Natural range as a little treat.  Then I notice there are double Advantage points on the moisturizer I use.

            I love Advantage points.  Aren’t they a wonderful invention?  If you spend enough, you can get really good prizes, like a beauty day at a hotel.  Last Christmas I was really canny – I let my points build up until I’d accumulated enough to buy my granny’s Christmas present.  What happened in fact was, I’d already built up 1653 points – and I needed 1800 to buy her a heated roller set.  So I bought myself a great big bottle of Samsara perfume, and  gave me 150 extra points on my card – and then I got the heated roller set absolutely free!  Thate only thing is, I don’t much like Samsara perfume – but I didn’t realize that until I got home.  Still, never mind.

            The clever way to use Advantage points – as with all special offers – is to spot the opportunity and use it, because it may not come your way again.  So I grab three pots of moisturizer and buy them.  Double Advantage points!  I mean, it’s just free money, isn’t it?

            The I have to get Suze’s birthday present.  I’ve already bought her a set of aromatherapy oils – but the other day I saw this gorgeous pink angora cardigan in Benetton, and I know she’d love it.  I can always take the aromatherapy oils back or give them to someone for Christmas.

            So I go into Benetton, and pick up the pink cardigan.  I’m about to pay. . .when I notice they’ve got it in grey as well.  The most perfect, soft, dove-grey angora cardigan, with little pearly buttons.

            Oh God.  You see, the thing is, I’ve been looking for a nice grey cardigan for ages.  Honestly, I have.  You can ask Suze, my mum, anybody.  And the other thing is, I’m not actually on my new frugal regime yet, am I?  I’m just monitoring myself. 

            David E. Barton says I should act as naturally as possible.  So really, I ought to act on my natural impulses and buy it.  It would be false not to.  It would ruin the whole point.

            And it only costs forty-five quid.  And I can put it on VISA.

            Look at it another way – what’s forty-five quid in the grand scheme of things?  I mean, it’s nothing, is it?

            So I buy it.  The most perfect little cardigan in the world.  People will call me the Girl in the Grey Cardigan.  I’ll be able to live in it.  Really, it’s an investment.

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Recreational shopping enthusiasts are found to engage more extensively in a range of retail shopping behaviors, to spend more money shopping (i.e., they are not just browsers), and are more ‘multi-channel’ than other shoppers, reporting higher levels of Internet, catalog, and TV home shopping as well as traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ shopping.

“Defining and Measuring Recreational Shopper Identity,” Michael Guiry; Anne W. Magi, & Richard J. Lutz. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 34, No. 1, 74-83 (2006).

By Michelle Singletary

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Washington Post

Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary invites you to start curbing your need to consume in a plan she lays out in her book The Power to Prosper (2010).  This selection is an excerpt from her “The Color of Money” column in the Washington Post. 

Curbing the Need to Consume

I'm inviting you to take a 21-day financial fast in which you will buy only necessities. The fast is really about curbing the need to consume. It doesn't matter whether you're a good steward or a spendthrift; all of us consume more than we need.

A 21-day financial fast

Whatever your financial situation, I challenge you to spend the next 21 days fasting. The path to prosperity begins by breaking the yoke to buy and buy and then buy some more....

For three weeks you must refrain from buying anything that is not a necessity. And by necessity, I mean the bare essentials, such as food and medicine.

You will refrain from going to the mall or retail stores. Even window shopping is off-limits.

No restaurant meals -- fast food or otherwise. This includes buying breakfast or lunch at work. You can't stop for coffee. Make it at home instead.

You are not permitted to buy gifts or gift cards. I often get a lot of objections on this last rule. People are hesitant to show up empty-handed at a birthday party or wedding. So they ask if they can tell the birthday person or bride and groom that they'll get a gift for them later. No.

Instead, use this opportunity to share with the honored person why you are fasting. Then find a way to bless them without purchasing something....I want you to internalize that you can celebrate life's greatest occasions without having to bring or receive a gift. I know this will be tough, but what in the world do most of us need anyway? Find a way to give of yourself without spending.

The banks know, and studies have shown, that even those of us who think we are using credit wisely are being duped. That's because when you use credit, you often spend more than you would have if you had used cash.

In one study aimed at marketers, Greg Davies at Britain's Warwick University found that customers using credit cards spend more than those paying with cash or checks in situations that are otherwise identical in every other respect. Davies concludes that credit cards boost spending because of the psychophysics of how our brains work. He found that credit cards reduce the pain of payment because we don't do the same mental accounting as we do when we pay with cash.

Taken from "The Power to Prosper" by Michelle Singletary. Copyright 2010 by Michelle Singletary. Used by permission of Zondervan (www.zondervan.com).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103495.html

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