Few people shop as much as Zina Kumok.
Kumok is 26 years old and a communications major in Indianapolis. Before she shops, she asks herself questions like, “Do I really need it? ” and “Will it work in the long run? “
At one point, she splurged, buying things she didn’t need and going out for big meals, which caused Kummerc to overspend. If her credit cards weren’t maxed out or she wasn’t already in debt, she would go on a spending spree.
Today she has a list of products she would never buy, including books, laptops and office supplies – three things she doesn’t need, but used to love to spend money on until she ran out of money.
The main reason for this: the shopping impulse. For example, when she moved to London for a year, she bought every travel guide she could find, including special ones with titles like the Book Lover’s Guide to London and other specific guides on an obscure area of the city. She always had trouble controlling herself.
“Mostly because of the shopping impulse,” she says with a laugh. “It’s easy to spend 10 here and 20 there, but it adds up to more.”
Impulsive spending is a major problem for many people. For example, a 2012 survey by the Bank of Montreal showed that the average Canadian makes $3,720 in impulse purchases ($2,987) per year. A 2014 survey by Creditcard.com found that 75 percent of Americans have experienced impulse purchases, and 10 percent spent more than $1,000 on a single item. A Nielsen study conducted last year showed that impulsiveness led 52 percent of Thais, 48 percent of Indians and 44 percent of Chinese to buy things they didn’t need.
Why is it so easy for people to make split-second decisions to spend money in a way that hurts their bank accounts? And how can this impulse be curbed?
Shortage of stimuli
The urge to shop is somewhat of a survival instinct, according to Ryan Howell, an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University in California. Going back to the days when humans lived by hunting and picking, when people saw something they wanted they grabbed it, even if they didn’t need it, because it was likely they wouldn’t stumble upon it later.
If you see something that seems to be in short supply, you’re going to buy it,” do you feel the same way?
Harvall said.
These days, that shortage isn’t a problem anymore – we can buy anything we want if there’s a way – but we still approach life the way our ancestors did, especially when it comes to shopping. The thrill of that shortage comes when we see a 50 percent off clearance price tag, Harvall says. The feeling is like if we don’t buy it right away, we’ll lose it forever – or at least for such an affordable price.
Another thing that causes people to shop impulsively: the thrill they can get from it. Scott Rick, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, found that the concept of shopping therapy is real. For some people, if they feel sad, shopping makes them happy because it allows them to regain control of their lives.
Making choices between buying and not buying can make people feel more in control. Of course, these choices must be more or less difficult, and the results must be pleasant. “These choices are typical of shopping trips,” he says. “So shopping therapy may be beneficial in some ways. We do get pleasure from spending, and my research shows it does help. “
Of course, this “therapy” is more expensive than other activities to regain control. Rearranging bookshelves or yarding up clothes to give to charity can also make people happy with their lives, Ritchie says.
There have also been studies on how touch affects our shopping decisions. In 2003, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office issued a statement during the Christmas season warning shoppers not to pick up an item at random lest they resist the urge to buy it. It may be one of the stranger of the public service announcements, but research shows that touching increases the desire to own – and we don’t want to lose what we have, Ritchie said.
The moment you touch it, it feels like you’re its “prospective owner,” he said. That’s when the aversion to loss sets in – the theory that people can’t stand to lose possessions – and it’s hard to let go, whether you need it or can afford it.
It also partly explains why you have to buy that car after a test drive or the devastating frustration of being snatched up by someone else in a home bid. Usually, the moment we test drive or walk around a place, we want it.
However, we don’t immediately hand over our credit card for the keys to the car because buying a car or a house requires a lot more paperwork than buying a game or a pair of pants. In the previous scenario, there was a time lag between wanting and buying, Harvall said. “It takes a lot of time and effort to think about a house and make a final decision,” he says.
However, we still make mistakes in bidding wars. It’s too easy to raise the price for a house by $5,000, even if it’s over the limit you set. What’s the worry? Still the excitement of the shortage. If you don’t buy this house, the rest may be gone, too.
“There are a lot of physiological indicators involved in a bidding war,” says Harvall, including the fact that winning a bid can be exhilarating and exciting.
Ultimately, the instantaneous decision to spend our money on the idea is essentially the same: not taking the time to think. Imagine if the bidding had gone on for days or even weeks, instead of minutes or hours, and you probably wouldn’t have kept raising the price for that house, says Harvall.
Curb the impulse
Can you stop your primal impulses? It may be possible to do so by making good use of some guidelines. Harvall recommends waiting 24 hours before an impulse purchase might develop, no matter how big or small. Of course, this means that you have to stay calm when tempted. If you still want to buy the next day, then do so if you can afford it. But most likely you’ve forgotten or that strong feeling of having to have it has dissipated.
Another trick: monitor how you spend your money and pay with cash. If you can see how much money you’re saying goodbye to, it’s likely that you’ll resist the urge to end up buying only those things you really need.
A two-pronged approach of consciously double-checking purchases and excluding certain kinds of items has worked for Kummerke. By consulting a list of questions, she postponed the decision to buy and seriously considered whether she needed it. She almost stopped buying books during this time, instead borrowing them from the library and buying only those editions she wanted for her permanent collection.
Of course, the impulse to spend money hasn’t gone away. Just a few weeks ago, Kummerke walked into a store and then spotted a box of chocolates with a yellow label on it. She thought the label meant it was on sale, and the familiar “buy it now” urge came back to haunt her. As she got closer, she saw that it wasn’t a discount label. So would she have bought the chocolate if it had been on sale? Probably, she replied.
“Those little labels can really drive people crazy,” Kummerk said.
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