Psychology of Buying!
BUYOLOGICAL
The simple psychology of buying,
1. We like it - we buy
2. There is a discount / deal - we buy
3. It is the latest fashion / trend - we buy
4. We can afford it - we buy
5. We are sad, we shop - we buy
But we do not buy for the basic reason – do we need it?
We buy far more than what we actually need, than what our houses need, than what our children need and needs can’t justify this buying behaviour, so we find other reasons to buy and then justify. Stop buying for wrong reasons! Else we will not only keep wasting the resources but also have to find ways to then store it, clean or maintain it and waste more resources for things we did not even need to begin with. It is not about the cost but it is more about wasting resources including time and effort.
A new product will replace the shelf or display area of a retail store while the first one is just clogging our homes. Just think how many things are clogging your homes! There will be hundreds of things. Before we start decluttering those, don’t buy more, stop buying apart from essentials.
Even if we do not buy any clothing this summer or winter or even one year most of us would easily manage with the existing clothes so why do we queue up the fashion stores or start surfing e-commerce sites before every change of the season? The simple reason is we have been conditioned that ‘there is new stock, new arrivals, more fashionable items, may be season discount so we have to shop. But the pertinent question is what is wrong with the stuff which I bought last year on the same premise that it is latest, fashionable etc. Can we really keep up with the fashion trends and who define those, big brands, big shows where the whole purpose is to sell us more stuff. But why do we fall into the same trap season after season, year after year? It is their marketing strategy but why do we fall prey to it? Which strategy are we following, or is it just a thoughtless mad race? Let us pause and think and decide.
Many years back someone told me with lot of pride that ‘My wife has 300+ pairs of shoes’; and my spontaneous reaction was ‘where does she keep them?’ And other questions which crossed my mind which I fell short of asking, ‘when does she wear them’, ‘how many pairs she has not worn since years’ and ‘does she still buy new shoes? He was making a new wardrobe just for ‘wives’ shoes’ or more shoes. No doubt a loving and caring husband, but 300 pairs!
So how many pairs of shoes are enough? We need to define ‘what is our enough’. Even if people can afford they should ‘leave their sense of entitlement’. But somehow it has become synonymous with wealthy lifestyle – which most of the people are chasing these days.
A colleague told me that her relative questioned her that 'You have 18 new dresses in your wardrobe for your 7-year-old daughter'. And she was upset that who gave them the right to question her - her daughter, her money, her choice. Surely her choice and no one should question that. But then a 7-year-old would outgrow those dresses within months, and she may not be able to wear those ‘18 new dresses’, some of which not even once. What kind of sanity is this? And such people are drawing their children also into this insanity of theirs and quite likely their kids would not even realize that there is anything wrong with this. You may gift it or donate it later on or find some good ways to dispose of, but the bigger question is ‘Why to buy it in first place?’ And when you know you do not need as many.
Why do people share such stories? They do so, to boast, to show off their wealth, to show off their lifestyle, but in reality, it shows their selfishness, recklessness, entitlement. I don’t know what else to call it. It is just that people are knowingly or unknowingly caught in this trap of 'buying'.
Thankfully, I have never been a shopaholic, rather I feel shopping is a task. But lately I have started thinking that I have enough, do I really need more things. And further, storing and maintaining those additional things and the added time, money and energy need to be spent on it, I became all the more rational.
So, consider buying any product as,
sum of (buying + storing + maintaining)
This may act as a deterrent for unnecessary, impulsive buying.
Please do not go to the market for window shopping or just to see. Don’t go, else you would buy something which you don’t need. It happens with all of us, all the time. We accompany our friends or relatives to markets when THEY have to buy something, but do we come back empty handed from the market? Do we – ask yourself? Because if there was a genuine need you would have already been to the market yourself or shopped online for it.
In the end I want to ask you, are we using products OR the companies are using us when we are buying the unnecessary stuff? Ask yourself?
Let us try to shop only need based! This is doable, very much in your own hands - just change your mindset!