Think retail therapy my new addictions…
Ariana Grande’s 7 rings is all about self-love, confidence, and femininity rather than just consumerism. But let’s be honest, retail therapy works wonderfully for beating Friday fatigue.
I’m done with math and Econ! Well… at least for tonight.
The beauty of retail therapy is its irrationality. Today, I threw away my “maximize utility” mindset and spent the last two hours casually buying crazy clothes that I’ll probably never wear again after the first time. The best shopping memories are impulse driven. As “7 rings” says, “I want it, I got it.” Overthinking just kills the fun.
TRUE!
Many economic studies explore irrational behaviors, but I doubt any economists would dare to use real, enthusiastic shoppers as subjects, even for field experiments analyzing sales data. Having worked in the fashion industry and studied revenue management, I understand the phenomenon from both sides. On one side, all discounts and those so-called great deals are all carefully designed to tap into shopper’s subtle psychology, to manipulate our emotions and buying momentum to make us spend more. From another side, it’s very hard to resist the lure, cause regardless of all the education and knowledge earned against consumerism, I consistently buy more than I need, all the time.
But the aftermath of today’s talk is strong (it’s a behavioral paper about queueing). I couldn’t help but analyze the queueing equilibrium for the two fitting rooms in the store while frantically picking out pink dresses to try on, though I’ve already have more than 10 of them in my closet.
And I almost never wear them btw.