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reverse shopping
By heather | July 1, 2008
One of my favorite books of all time is Angels by Marian Keyes. Although all her books are amazing, engrossing comfort reads, I have read this one more times than I can count. This book’s main character, Maggie, reverse shops and it’s where I first heard the term.
You know how you’re in the dressing room, and you try something on and it looks ok and it’s probably on sale? And you aren’t SURE you should buy it but you do anyway? Then you have to take it back because you’ve had a guilt trip/second thought/attack of remorse? That’s reverse shopping.
Even when I was still in junior high, I remember going shopping with my mom and hearing her say, “If you’re not 100% sure, then don’t buy it because you’ll never wear it!” Back then, I didn’t reverse shop that much, because I wasn’t spending my own money. Mom was right though, and now that I am spending my own money I flashback to her words everytime I’m in the dressing room.
Does anyone else buy things and even as your credit card is being swiped, you know in the back of your mind you’re going to return it? Then you go and return it and while you’re there just decide to poke around and you see something that you just have to have, but it doesn’t feel like you’re spending money because you just got a refund! That’s what I call multiplicative linear shopping.
Because of my propensity for reverse and linear shopping, I despise stores that track returns. Does anyone remember the outrage several years ago when the Limited stores annouced they would start tracking returns, and reserved the right to deny a return if you’d brought back too much stuff? Or maybe it was just me that was outraged.
It’s not the tracking per se, but that you never know when they could decide to refuse you a return. Give me a dollar limit or number of items in a certain time period and I have no problem with it. It’s the unknown that makes me wobbly.
I also hate places that only give store credit – I’m talking to you Motherhood - and just on principle I refuse to buy anything there. Even if I LOVE something and as Mom would say am 100% totally sure, I won’t buy it if I can’t return it. It’s a leap of faith I cannot make.
The other day I had shopper’s remorse over a shirt that I bought for Alex. But then I figured out that the cost of the gas to get me back to the store to return it cost more than the shirt.
This is a new and unintended consequence of counting on reverse shopping to ease my guilt. This is why I now find myself standing in stores trying to do numbers in my head until my brain hurts. Then when I can’t figure out how much I’m saving vs. how much I really want something vs. how much it will cost if I change my mind, I stumble out of the store to find my Zoloft and forget to spend any money.
I think I’ve found the silver lining of driving a gas guzzler that requires premium gas and costs me $70 to fill up.
Topics: shopping capers, this is why | 4 Comments »
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July 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
Ok, I am loving reading you daily. Please do this more often. And keep making up terms!
I have had that exact experience of handing over the card *knowing* I’d be back in there soon. Sometimes though the clothes just sit in the bag, in my room, waiting to be returned. Then I do the bills and shred all of that month’s receipts and so blow the chance of ever returning those items.
Vicki’s last blog post..In Transition
July 1st, 2008 at 10:49 am
I was crushed when Toys-R-Us stopped accepting the random pile of leftover birthday/Christmas presents without a receipt!
cody’s last blog post..Third World Man
July 1st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I dont really do this. Because i hate returning stuff. I have two pairs of shorts from Anchor Blue in my car that have been sitting there for two weeks because I just dont want to go in there and return them…
Miss’s last blog post..I’d rather live my life on the Z-list, than be a bitch
July 1st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I rarely return things unless I really hate them. But then again it takes a lot for me to actually buy something. Once I commit, I’m usually in it for the long run.
skiplovey’s last blog post..Unspectacularly yours