What kind of store is the most likely scene of your impulse purchases, big or small? I’m talking about vendors who can consistently get money out of your pocket for something you had zero intention of buying – probably because you had no idea that the object existed before – ooh look, shiny! – you saw it as you were browsing.
For reasons that I can not now reconstruct, I was thinking about Michael’s – the arts and crafts chain – and mentally called it “the land of the impulse purchase.” But there’s also Ikea, which is run by evil geniuses of marketing. Target has similarly cool stuff, and I’ve certainly done my share of impulse purchases there, but I’m also in there regularly enough that if I go in for cat food and moisturizer, I can walk out with cat food and moisturizer.
Which are the danger zones for you? Where do you wander around like a slack-jawed rube with his first paycheck and no thought of tomorrow?
Maybe we can do a poll later, but I know I’d totally blow any uninformed efforts to provide a list.
For instance, I don’t think bookstores count – I know I’m going to walk out with books. Probably more books and different books than I went in for, but books. I want to know the places where you see truly random shit and decide you must have it.
I never thought I’d say that, but one recently opened in my town, and I simply can’t go in there without walking out with way too much kitchen and home stuff. They seem to ALWAYS have some nifty kitchen item that I really don’t need, but it’s such a good deal that I have to buy it. As a result, I now have no fewer than 3 enamel-covered cast iron dutch ovens. That’s on top of the 2 aluminum ones I have. WTH? Who needs FIVE dutch ovens? Not me. The last one I bought I haven’t even used yet.
And that’s why I won’t go in there anymore. I know that yet another dutch oven lurks in the depths, and it will use its powers of persuasion to convince me to adopt it.
After hurricane Sandy I worked temporarily in an office near a Gap Outlet. That place had some crazy voodoo over me. Normally I don’t even like to shop, but I’d go in for a $12 hoodie and somehow come out with dress socks, moisturizer, a sun dress, and rubber rain boots as well.
Thankfully, I got moved back to my regular office after a couple of months.
TJ Maxx always gets me with discounted Jelly Bellys at point of purchase. I can’t not buy those, damn them.
Well, twickster we seem to have similar shopping habits. I started my list mentally before I finished reading your post. A lot of overlap.
Any art supply shops (including the big chains). Typically I’m in there for a specific thing. Where they get me is the stuff that’s always around the register.
Whatever office supply chain I’ve stopped in to buy printer ink at. I have thousands of pens. Several people in my family have said to me “Promise you will NOT buy any more pens!” I have promotional pens for my business. I really don’t need to buy pens again ever. But this one has green ink…or a squishy barrel…or…
Yarn stores. I just need yarn for one specific pair of socks. That’s all I have time and money for right now. Yeah…right.
Target. I came in for cat litter. How’d that peacock coffee mug get in my cart? If I need my Target trip to be no nonsense I run in on my way to work. That way there’s no time to look at the clearance candles.
IKEA I didn’t get anything that was more than $1.99. How is my total $67? Speaking of candles.
I stay out of bookstores because that’s one area where I can get my fix another way. I’m blessed to live near an absolutely wonderful public library. In very lean times I have scratched the acquisition itch with library trips, filling up my bag with more than I could possibly ever read in three weeks.
I typically suck at every store which is why I don’t shop much anymore. I mean, I don’t have a problem, not anything near a shopping addiction, but when I started really watching my pennies I realized that it’s so easy to grab more than you really need at any store.
Everything is so pretty at Target, and everything is so there at Wal Mart, and everything fits at Lane Bryant and everything is on sale at Walgreens…
I actually ***do ***have an impulse-control problem when it comes to shopping, so I have learned to go ahead and get it out of my system first, and THEN to go shop after I’ve splurged.
Depending on my level of brokeness at the time, I’m going to be buying some random shit at one of the following before any major shopping trip (so, about once a week).
Oddly enough, it doesn’t really seem to matter WHAT it is that I end up getting, or how much money I spent on it - just that I buy something that’s unplanned that I can feel like is a special treat. Brains is weird.
ETA - thought of an important exception - FOOD doesn’t seem to count as shopping for me, so eating out or buying a snack or actual treat doesn’t meet the same need.
Anywhere there is cheap jewelry. $5 necklace and earring set at the flea market? Sold! SteinMart clearance rack with a coupon for an extra 30% off? I’m bound to leave with something. For that matter, the sight of just about any clearance jewelry rack is like a siren’s call to me.
