Shopping studies, and what they miss

I went to The Dallas Flea this past weekend. I'm not adequately able to put into words how excited I was for this event, but if it helps, I woke up at seven a.m on a Saturday to go. Flea markets are my Mecca. I love browsing booths hawking overpriced vintage clothes, re-purposed artifacts extracted from someone's backyard, and little girl hair ribbons that resemble plumage from an exotic bird. I quite happily spend hours wandering from booth to booth. Miraculously, my feet never hurt. I am unperturbed by dust and musty smells. And I sort of collapse into some bizarre time continuum where the clock seems to stop. It's not unusual for me to be shocked that I've spent four hours browsing and have not bought a single thing.

A OnePoll survey of 2,000 women showed that 63-year-old woman will spend three years of her life shopping, the Daily Mail reports. Each year, women spend 100 hours and 48 minutes in fashion and beauty stores. And add that to the 94 hours and 55 minutes the average woman passes in the grocery store. Then there's the 49 hours' worth of window shopping, 40 hours trying on shoes (shouldn't this be lumped into fashion?), 36 hours picking out gifts, 31 hours browsing books, 29 hours checking out accessories, and 17 hours getting toiletries.

Studies on shopping behavior always fascinate me. The effort taken to quantify the shopping experience through polls on time spent in stores, behavior engaged in while shopping, and mood  shoppers were in while considering purchases seems a daunting, fruitless task. I know from comments in my own blog posts that women approach shopping in entirely different ways. Some relish the chance to hunt down specific items. Others would rather have have a root canal than enter a store. Shopping is a personal experience, influenced by our individual budgets, learned behavior, social norms and regional location.

My love of shopping is primarily born from early observations during trips with my mother.  She was a champion shopper who stalked store credit cards with a ferociousness usually reserved for mother lions guarding their cubs. She thought nothing of trailing shop employees into back rooms. An afternoon traipsing through the mall in search of a pair of navy blue velvet pumps (just one example of a particularly memorable excursion) got her blood pumping, much in a way a marathoner feels before the start of a race. We often had our most intimate conversations while shopping, which reinforced the bonding behavior such activity often entails.

The shopping gene is dominate through the maternal bloodline of my family. My mother's mother was a passionate shopper, as are my aunt and female cousins. When I needed a prom dress, wedding gown, first bra, maternity clothes, or shoes for my first day of school, they were there. It seems a distinctively feminine activity to bond while shopping, something exclusive to women alone. In the book Why We Buy, author Paco Underhill elaborates:

This much is certain: shopping was what got the housewife out of the house. It was (and, in many parts of the world, remains) women’s main realm of public life. Shopping gave women a good excuse to sally forth, sometimes even in blissful solitude, beyond the clutches of family. It was the first form of women’s liberation, affording an activity that lent itself to socializing with other adults, clerks and store owners and fellow shoppers.

The use of shopping as a social activity seems unchanged, however. Women still like to shop with friends, egging each other on and rescuing each other from ill-advised purchases. I don’t think we’ll ever see two men set off on a day of hunting for the perfect bathing suit… When two women shop together, they often spend more time and money than women alone. They certainly can outshop and outspend women saddled with male companions. Two women in a store can be a shopping machine and wise retailers do whatever they can to encourage this behavior — promotions such as being-a-friend-get-a-discount, or seating areas just outside dressing rooms, to allow for more relaxed try-ons… Stores with cafes on the premises allow women to shop, then take a break, without ever leaving sight of the selling floor.

What so many studies on shopping seem to discount or even ignore is the intimacy this activity creates. Whether we love it or hate it, almost all of us have some memory of shopping with friends, a family member, boyfriend or spouse. What happens during all that time spent in stores or while window-shopping is what I find so interesting. 

Do you have any associated memories about shopping? Are you an avid shopper, or do you avoid stores at all costs? Has shopping reinforced the relationships you have with friends or family? Do you see shopping as a social activity, or one that serves a utilitarian purpose? Do you prefer to shop alone, or with someone else?