Deal Breakers
The recession is supposedly over but is sale shopping thwarting your attempts to regain financial footing? By Caletha Crawford In a scene from this summer’s “Sex and the City 2” movie, lead character Carrie Bradshaw proclaims “Shoes for everyone!” after learning the footwear she spots on a trip to Abu Dhabi is only $20. For a girl who’s known as much for her mountain of pricey Manolos as her sex life, it’s no surprise that she can’t resist scooping up multiple pairs of these discount darlings. A deal’s a deal right? Right, if you’re married to a millionaire and living in a fictional wonderland. If, on the other hand, you’re the average woman living in the real world, it would behoove you to consider whether that cheap item might cost you in other ways. For instance, unlike Carrie, you’d have to think about whether you genuinely need the shoes, where you’d wear them, how you’d get them home and if they’d fit in your already overflowing closet—not to mention whether the fabulous footwear purchase would lead to strife with your husband who has been recently laid off and spending his days reviewing the statements for his decimated stock portfolio. But even when we know better, it can be so very hard to keep a clear head when presented with a desirable object at an unbelievable price. And retailers know it. That’s why every where we turn these days our computers, phones, televisions and radios announce a new low price on this and a rock bottom deal on that. It’s like a game. They know we know we should be saving. And we know they know we can always justify a purchase if the discount is deep enough—even in the face of shrinking bank accounts. “[Sales are] very much along the
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lines of low-fat diet foods, which give people the idea that they can eat as much as they want because they think it’s healthy,” stated Pam Danziger, founder of the market research firm Unity Marketing. “When I hear people say ‘I bought it only because it was on sale,’ that points to some significant problems with this discount shopping mindset.” For some, a scary job market and nonexistent raises aren’t enough to snap them out of their want/need confusion, according to April Lane Benson, Ph.D. and author of “To Buy or Not to Buy.” While some people reined in their expenditures due to the guilt associated with still having the means to spend and others have breathed a sigh of relief now that everyone is in the same economic boat they’ve been floating in all along, another group is charging full speed ahead, unable to resist bleeding their wallets dry. “There are about as many reasons to over shop as there are people who do it,” Benson stated. “Some people do it to repair their mood, feel better about themselves, feel in control or put forth an im-
age of wealth and power,” she said. “For some, it’s the lesser evil. If they weren’t buying so much, they might be gambling compulsively or doing drugs or alcohol.” Unfortunately—and somewhat counter-intuitively—the spiraling economy actually makes people who are predisposed to using shopping as an emotional outlet spend more. If stress and depression can be triggers for compulsive behavior, it stands to reason that a dwindling savings account or a foreclosure could trigger a shopping spree. “Because the economy is bad, it causes more stress and depression,” said Reef Karim, a psychiatrist and executive director of the Control Center for Addictions, explaining the vicious and costly cycle. “So people who are vulnerable to shopping addiction then feel lousy [and want to shop].” Of course, you don’t have to be an addict to fall into bad habits or to allow a temporary funk to cloud your better judgment. Beth Fahey, a 34-year-old technical development