I hate shopping. When I go anywhere, I take a list: I get in, shop, and get out as soon as possible. Computers and electronics are the only exceptions.
My husband, however, can go into a store and shop for hours.
For clothes: oh hell no. I remember once driving to Tyson’s Corner (DC folks will know this as the be all and end all of shopping malls with something like 6 major department stores as anchors) and I could feel my blood pressure rise as I got into the parking area (which would be a reasonable reaction even if someone loved shopping, that parking area is a morass).
Then I got into one of the stores and my mind just spazzed out at everything. I hate finding clothes. I hate the act of dragging them into a fitting room. I hate never being able to find nice things even when the store is literally overflowing with them… I wear a lot of Lands End clothing and I have about 2 pairs of wearable shoes at any time.
Now, for stuff for the house… I love shopping for kitchen stuff. I love shopping for furnishings not that I’ve done much of that. I even sort of enjoy shopping for the kids’ clothes. And grocery shopping can be relaxing, now that the kids are old enough to be left behind.
If I never set foot in another shopping mall for the rest of my life, I’d be very happy. Malls are homogeneous and dull. I buy 90% of my clothing online, and I tend to zero in on what I want and order it in four different colors.
Strolling through a quaint or quirky neighborhood with interesting shops or antique malls is a whole 'nother thing. I can dig that. I also love hitting bead shops or gem shows, although I make an effort to go with a list of specific things I need so as not to go overboard.
I hate shopping. I hate shopping for groceries, clothes, shoes… everything.
Why? Well, in my experience, every time I leave my house and venture into the marketplace, I run into a bunch of wank fucktards who do the kind of shit described here:
I like it if I don’t feel pressured. I love grocery shopping and like poking around in thrift stores. I adore browsing vintage- i love the feel and smell of old clothes. I still enjoy it now that I’m lugging a toddler, but I’m always conscious that I have a small loud time-bomb along.
This kind of sums it up for me. If I don’t feel pressured.
I would add “if I know the store I’m going to will have what I need”. I plan our dinner menus a week at a time. One of the reasons I enjoy grocery shopping is that I know that what I need will be found at one of the stores on itinerary. From my menu planning, I extrapolate a shopping list. I hit Aldi first. What they have that I need will almost certainly be less expensive than it would at Kroger. But if Aldi doesn’t have it, Kroger will. Therefore, grocery shopping is low-stress and enjoyable.
Whenever I read recipes that have ‘hard-to-find’ type ingredients, even if they look interesting, I almost immediately discount them, because I’m not sure where I’d find that particular ingredient around here. The alternative is to see if I can figure out a substitute ingredient. For instance, today I read a recipe that called for “Store-bought green salsa”. Hmmmmm. This is Nowheresville. Even if I go into the nearest “sizable” town, I probably could not find green salsa in a grocery store. So immediately (because the recipe looked pretty tasty) substituted “regular salsa” in my head.
I’m much like this. I hate shopping if I need a single, specific item. Such as black pants, because nobody ever has exactly what I need, until I go into a high-end store “just to look”, then there there are, for $200, and then I’m really, really annoyed because I’ve found the holy grail of pants, but can’t buy them.
I very much enjoy going shopping when I need things that are less specific, like a nice outfit for an event, or some seasonal clothes in general.
I don’t like to shop, but I love to buy.
I don’t like it.
Say I go into a store looking for a jacket. Say they sell 50 different jackets. Logically 1 of those jackets must be the best jacket for me, which means the other 49 are the wrong jacket for me. Since I’m not very trained at jacket-appraisal, that means maybe 5% chance of buying the right jacket and 95% chance of fucking it up. I find the whole thing very stressful.
Also the money thing.
That’s me too. My Wife and I don’t live in a place that we can shop. When I had to buy a sport jacket and slacks and shoes and my wife had to buy a dress a few years ago (an occasion sneaked up on us) we where in and out of the mall in 45 minutes.
I love to shop, whether for food, clothing, electronics or anything else, either in stores or online. I like the fact that with most items i have a choice, and that I can afford to buy it. When I’m food shopping, I always have a list of the must-buy items, then go up and down every aisle to find other things and bargains. I have no idea why, but I find this fun, and wind up spending a whole lot more time in stores than anyone else . . . yet I never buy things I don’t use.
Next month I’ll be shopping for a new tux. I haven’t bought a new suit of any kind in more than 10 years, and I’m looking forward to it.
But the most fun type of thing to shop for is any kind of electronics. I always do a lot of research and know exactly what I want.
The only time I absolutely HATE shopping is when I’m accompanied by my partner. Don’t ask.
I hate shopping with other people for the most part. Either they make me feel like I’m dragging them along or that I’m being dragged along. I don’t mind wandering around shops by myself at a leisurely pace.
It depends. Sometimes I really hate the idea of shopping and will do everything to avoid it. Other times I just really get into it. Like this past weekend, we went to a BW3 (their wings aren’t as hot as I remembered them) and through a mall to get back to the car. I was just in a shopping mood and browsed 10 different stores and picked up a few things. It was really fun!
I hate shopping for clothes and shoes but LOVE going to the bookstore or the toy store (with or without The Boy) I like going to Target with a list, especially if I’ve got a little extra cushion for things that are interesting/promising. I like shopping for stationery and Christmas presents too (my list is short, and I start keeping my eye out early in the year)
Entering a bookstore is bad because it takes me five minutes to come out with a brace of books.
Shopping for anything else is boring as all get-go. Shopping for clothes, ugh! I pretty much always need re-fitting anyway… I’ve got such a bad case of duckbutt that if the seamstress hasn’t encountered me before, I need to return the re-fitted clothes to be re-re-fitted (they assume that the pins haven’t been placed right). So buying a pair of jeans from a store where they don’t know me takes:
a long time for the saleswoman to understand I want “boot cut” (it’s the only cut that doesn’t make me feel like a short-legged beached whale, I don’t care if it isn’t fashionable),
followed by several tries until the proper size is found (we’ve done that rant before),
followed by pins,
followed by wiggling out of the jeans without either dislodging the pins or sticking myself,
followed by up to four weeks while the seamstress works and reworks the bottoms and waist.
And my mother still wonders why I go to Clemos periodically, when “it’s not a fashionable store really”. The owner knows my size, knows which brands and models may actually fit without touching up the waist, and his seamstress knows my name.
Buying jeans in the US is even worse than doing it in Europe. American designers apparently believe that if you have a 42" hip you must have a 40-44" belly.
I am a woman yet I shop like a man. I think of what i might want, even down to the color. I think of the best place it may be, go there, look for it. I buy it, or if they don’t have something like it, I leave.
I once took my girlfriend and she took 3 hours “looking”. I said, What the heck are you doing, what is looking, either buy something or not!
I suppose I enjoy making sound purchases so the flip side of it is that I hate shopping if I don’t know what to look for. I tend to seek out knowledgable people for a primer on what to look for.
It depends on what I’m shopping for. When I’m food shopping I’ll spend all day finding the best deals and doing the math on whats cheapest per oz/lb/unit. Drives my girlfriend crazy. “Just buy the damn peanut butter!” “But I also need to know what kind of sugar they add to it!” I can wander in Fry’s Electronics for hours and hours and hours. I spent days shopping online for computer parts for my last PC build.
Shopping for anything else is a hideous chore and I loathe it.
Heh. My husband hates to grocery shop with me, for this exact reason. I need to see what’s on sale. Then I need to figure out if it’s cheaper to buy the one that’s on sale, the one I have a coupon for (while figuring out if it’s a coupon they’ll double), or the generic. Then if the generic is cheaper, I have to figure out if it’s acceptable (certain things are fine in generic, others not so much). Then I have to check the nutrition information, blah, blah, blah. And if it’s an entree-style item, I have to figure out right there and then what sides I’ll serve with it so I can get that stuff while I’m there. . .
For me, it’s almost like a sport or a hobby or something. For him, it’s a half-step above being waterboarded.