Why I Shop the Way I Do

I like to think my shopping patterns are smart. I break the cycle of the usual buyer, I don't particularly start my browsing from the left, I make a beeline to the back of the store where the sale and clearance items are. I always look there first. Although not perfected, I overcome the temptation of full priced items at the front of the stores. I like to prioritize outlet stores first before heading to bayshore and paying full price for an item. I like to think my greatest accomplishment was buying a leather Fossil wallet for less than $25!!! I like to wait for season wide sales rather than shop during regular seasons a well as look online to find better prices before entering a store.

According to the textbook Consumer Behaviour by Solomon, White and Dahl there are 4 types of needs that motivate and trigger the consumer behaviour. Based on my current shopping patters I would say the need that best resembles me is the Utilitarian need. 

Practical and useful are the 2 main words used to describe utilitarian shopping values. In essence the"Utilitarian buying motives include convenience-seeking, variety seeking, searching for quality of merchandise, and reasonable price rate." (Sarkar, Impact of Utilitarian and Hedonic Shopping Values on Individual’sPerceived Benefits and Risks in Online Shopping) Based on this definition I can conclude that I am a consumer that values convenience, variety, and reasonable prices for any product I purchase. The intensity of emotional need to shop within the utilitarian value depends on the ability to invest spending emotional resources. With my drive to get the best deal possible at the best price with the best quality motivates me to spend a lot of my resources into any purchasing decision.

But this wasn't always the case!

For most of my pre-teen, early teen years I was one of those young high school girls that only shopped brand names. Remember back in the day when all the kids wore t-shirts with HOLLISTER and ABERCROMBIE were written in obnoxiously large and sowed in letters? Yep, I lived for those shirts. I would purposely make my parents go to Syracuse, NY to be able to buy the authentic shirt. No matter the price, I would splurge and buy too many shirts just so I didn't have to wear the same one and have others know I only had 1 or 2. I was so desperate to portray the fashion fad and align my clothing tastes to everyone else that I shaggily bought the fake knockoffs at GT Boutique! Needless to say I was nothing like my utilitarian buying motive, I was a true consumer with a high psychogenic need. I had a large need for popularity, status, and affiliation with all the cool, well-off kids. With the insecurities of a young kid my need for affiliation drove me to practice unrealistic purchasing behaviour just to be able to have that relevant object to feel cool and accepted. 

YES THIS IS ME WITH MY ABERCROMBIE SHIRT

I heavily practiced compulsive buying behaviour. I would buy and buy and buy. I would refuse to buy anything that was not brand name, no matter how pretty and reasonably priced it was, if it wasn't brand name then it wasn't for me. I was a true consumer, I didn't buy shoes, and clothes, and makeup for what they did but rather what they meant. This of course meant wealthiness, uniqueness, and popularity.

It is important as shoppers to understand differenced between the needs and motives that drive how we spend. We need to make sure that we are SMART shoppers and not compulsive buyers who set standards such as affiliation and luxury items as the sole criteria for their shopping patterns.