Shopaholicism: Are you a victim?

passion, shopping is a habit but shopping can be a headache too.
There are world-acclaimed shopaholics, known for trudging the length and breadth of the world, flaunting and frolicking the shops with a selective eye, for the best products.
With the introduction of multi currencies in the country’s economy three years ago, impulse buying has been on the rise creating a new twist to the shopping experience.
Shopaholics seem to have taken over shopping malls where they buy things they do not intend to use.
With the cheap version of everything available in all colours, gone are the days when one’s riches determined shopping habits.
While the super rich, local and international will spend small fortunes on just one item of apparel, the less rich will buy the pseudo label for much less and get just as much joy out of it.
Why should the excessive shopping culture be exclusively for the rich?
Anyone with a little disposable income seems inclined to spend every cent on everything whatever they can lay hands on?
Have you ever gone into some of the shops in town and looked at some hideous garment and wonder how anyone thinks they can sell such a horror?
Then you walk out and before you have even moved 20 metres you bump into six people wearing the item and obviously feeling totally posh?
Most shop assistants interviewed in the in the city centre said that there is no longer a clear line between the rich and the poor when it comes to the good prospective customers.
“When a person walks in, you treat them like a millionaire because sometimes it is the ones that you think are poor who will spend more than US$50 in one purchase while the rich-looking ones go for tops that cost three dollars,” said one assistant in a shop that sells practically everything from crockery to bed linen.
But others think that the tills belong to the rich.
For them shopping is typically what one experiences in the major capital cities of the world like Paris, New York, London, Dubai which are also the favourite holiday destinations of the mega rich of the world.
In these spots prices are high as the owners aim at maximising profits with the intentions of capitalising on the rich nature of these markets.
“Money is what determines shopping trends and the poor cannot compete in the shopping markets with the mega rich,” observed Memory Tembo from Helensvale in Harare.
“Society is divided into classes, the rich and poor and it is illogical to suppose that people can have the same buying power when they do not have the same income pulling power,”she added.
But if that is the case how come some people with more disposable incomes appear to have more level heads than those who are presumed to be at the bottom of the economic ladder?
One woman said she can manage to go shopping thrice a week since her husband can afford to pamper her with money.
“My husband is a top business executive and he allows me all the luxury I want – I shop thrice each week and I spent more than US$300 on various goods and groceries,” she claimed.
Other women are so much concerned about how they look so expensive hair styles, jewelry and clothing are their priorities.
Twenty-five-year-old Tiara from Greencroft admitted to being a shopaholic and knew she had a problem when her shopping bills were pushing the US$500 mark a month and she had nothing to show for it.
“Most of my money went of wasteful and excessive gifts. “Imagine, I bought my friend a Louis Vuitton bag with scarf worth US$150 from a local shop and spent another US$350 on my sister’s children clothes and cosmetics,’ she said.
Tiara who idolises Victoria Beckham says she would go shopping everyday even if she had no money.
“I would shop everyday either in Chinese or Nigeria shops just buying anything that fascinated me and even if not buying I would be thinking what to buy next,” explained Tiara.
Indeed Tiara is one of a growing number of women suffering from compulsive shopping although she didn’t know.
According to the Internet, it is been estimated that one in 20 Americans struggle with compulsive shopping, while 70 percent of Americans visits the mall once a week.
Fuelling this not only abroad but locally too there are many stores and boutiques’ increasingly with hire purchase and credit terms, combined with the ever relentless push to buy, driven by the advertising and retail world.
However, it is not an exclusively female problem either although it seems women are more vulnerable to the condition than men or maybe the guys just hide it better.
“A typical serial shopper is someone prone to a lot of ambivalence. He or she has a hard time making decisions and is very compulsive and can’t let go of one of the choices.
“The person tries to compensate for self esteem by shopping and is very suggestive to the opinion and approval of others, a storekeeper, a friend or a sales representative,” stated a salesman at a department store in Harare.
Nicholas Marume who works at a local shop at a Sam Levy at Borrowdale said serial shopping and chronic returning is on the rise.
“Some do it because they have seen something on a celebrity and want it and then realise that they can’t afford it.
“Others do it for professional reasons because they want to wear an expensive suit for an interview.
“Somehow the Chinese shops and Nigerians are right as they don’t offer such services. You buy this today and if it can’t fit or you don’t like it then you return it tomorrow,” he said.
Dr April Lane Benson, author of the book, I Shop Therefore I Am, is of the opinion that this typical behaviour of buying the items is not really about shopping.
“Some people have to be in motion all time and then endless shopping and returning gives them something to do.
The serial ‘returner’ is driven by chemical chain reaction that compensates for an inner void or dissatisfaction with their life.
“We look at something we want to buy, we get excited in the brain and when get home and realise we don’t want it and we can’t pay for it either we might have bought it under credit.
“It can also mask perfectionism. There is a type of person who can never be satisfied,” she said.
However, according to a Saturday Lifestyle survey, the biggest warning sign of shopaholicism is when we are spending most our leisure time thinking about shopping.
Other signs of shopping bulimic include keeping receipts, hiding shopping bags, a wardrobe full of clothes with labels still attached.
Every-day we are bombarded with glossy advertisements, focusing more on shopping to feel good and special.
Shopaholicism is like a fire and going to the stores is like adding petrol to the fire. It is best to have a diary managing your money and buy what is important at that time.
Above all behind every credit card lies the pain and agonising struggle of addiction. (people.net)
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