Compulsive Shopping

In my experience, normal shoppers and compulsive shoppers behave quite differently. First, the normal shoppers know what is their budget constraint and they will try to seek goods with cheaper price and better quality. But compulsive shoppers don't have a budget in mind, and they will buy anything they like no matter what the price or the quality is. When normal shopper look for something to buy, the first step is to look at the pricee tag. If the price is too expensive to be afforded, they will look for another substitute. But compulsive shoppers may not take a look at the price tag. All they care about is the "feeling" for this stuff. In the second, normal shoppers only buy what they really need, but compulsive shoppers might buy something they don't really need. Sometimes, compulsive shoppers might buy something just according to the advertisement or persuaded by the salesman. In the contrast, normal shoppers might have a shopping list or some idea in mind before they go shopping.

I have a friend who is addicted to the eBay. Sometimes he will buy somthing he don't really need. He buy things in eBay just because he like the feeling to be a "winner." In the eBay, he like to review some items and can't help to bid something which he don't need but he think it is really a bargain. Each time he buy something he don't need, he will persuade himself that "someone around me might need this stuff." I think the main cause is that he really like to be the winner when he participate in the auction competition. To be the winner is exactly what he want, not the stuff. By this example, I think sometimes compulsive shoppers want to pursuit some specific status (like auction winners) to satisfy his longing. It is just like an endless circle that they can't jump out and stop shopping. The only way to stop them is to shut down eBay I think.

I think Culture affect our shop behavior quite a lot. When people live in a big city, most of them think buying some luxury goods for themselves is appropriate. But people who live in a little town, most of them will think that is a evil thing. The difference between their attitude toward the shopping behavior is due to the different culture between their environment. Culture will affect people to do things like the others living in the same place. Take my father as an example. In his age, people think borrowing money is a shame and should save all the money they earned. So they only buy useful and necessary stuffs for their living. In my age, we use credit card and installment payment frequently. We might buy something which we can not afford, but we think we will earn enough money to pay the bill in the future. The different culture lead to different attitudes toward shopping between the two generation.

In the recent years, advertisement is almost everywhere. They can approach you via internet, email, TV, billboard, etc... These advertisements will brainwash us and persuade us into buy something we don't really need, especially the luxury goods, like expensive clothes, precious diamonds, new cars, electronic products, kind of. They will create lots of fancy slogan and enchanting image to lure you to agree with them and buy their new stuff and become their loyalty customers. That is why so many girls like buy new clothes of GUCCI, COACH, ChANEL etc... Even they already have lots of dressing in their wardrobe. Just like the slogan said "girls always lack something in their wardrobe." But the good thing is, we can get more information from these advertisements. Right now, the advertisement not only give us a brainwash to buy their new stuff, it also give us some information about the product we really want, like price comparison, where to buy, etc... We can buy something really cheaper and higher quality from these information.

I think a compulsive shopper might have some characteristics below. First, they don't have a clear financial plan. They don't consider what if they can afford the thing or not before they buy it. That is why they always feel shock when they get the credit card bill. Second, they can't help buy things which they don't really want. In contrast to the normal shoppers, impulsive shooper don't have a idea about what is necessary or not. Third, they are easily affected by the advertisement and persuaded by the salesman. They might don't know how to avoid giving into the temptation. Fourth, They spend much of their time on shopping and neglect other important things like their family, job, kind of.

The author can cite the sources of these argument to convince the readers. In this article, the author made lots of arguments but there is no specific citation to indicate the sources of these arguments. If the author can cite some other experts to support the arguments. It will make the essay more powerful and solid. Besides, there is no data to support these arguments. In the second paragrapgh, the author said " unfortunately, when shopping becomes an addiction, it can destory lives. It has therefore come under increased scrutiny by scientists in terested in..." If the author can provide some statistic about these scrutiny to support his argument. It will make the essay more stronger and more convincing.