Swallow your reading 19

You know that feeling as soon as you walk through the doors of your favorite store? You hear that little voice in your head all-out screaming, “I NEED ALL OF THIS!” Even though you definitely know that no, you do not need any of these tempting little tchotchkes catching your eye, you also know that you’re bound to walk out with a few. Soon enough, the buyer’s remorse sets in. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

An Urge to Splurge 

Western consumers sure do love to consume. Even though we have ample possessions, it’s just so tempting to buy all the other cool new stuff so attractively displayed in store windows or in  banner ads that follow you around the internet. Because of all the urges, many of us end up spending way more money than we’d like to — and that really adds up. According to a 2018 survey from Slickdeals, Americans spend an average of $450 every month on impulse buys. Do a little math, and that adds up to $5,400 annually or $324,000 over the course of a lifetime. That’s a lot of chocolate bars thrown onto the grocery store conveyor belt last-minute.

Resisting temptation is hard, but far from impossible. Thanks to Rice University researchers, there’s a simple little mind game you can use to prevent unnecessary overspending on impulse buys. Their May 2018 study gives purchase-hungry consumers one sound piece of advice: Think  of all the stuff you already have.

The Price Is Wrong 

In the Rice University study, just thinking about the possessions that the study participants already own reduced their willingness to purchase new items by about 14 percent, compared to a control group. Lead author Utpal Dholakia, a professor of marketing at Rice, likened this exercise to “mentally shopping the closet.” For this effect to work, it’s best to think about recently used functional possessions, like blow dryers, food processors, clothes steamers, etc. “You think of  what you already have, and it kind of calms you down. It calms that impulsive shopping urge,” Dholakia tells Moneyish. “After people reflect on functional possessions, they are less tempted. They are less interested in pulling the trigger on buying something new.”

Swallow your reading 19

Participants in the study were shown a pretty nice spread of five items: a sweater, a stainless-steel watch, a chair, a box of Godiva chocolates, and a coffee maker. The researchers then asked the participants to estimate the product’s actual price and say how willing they were to pay for it. When the participants took a moment to reflect on their recently used possessions, they were less likely to pay for the basket of items than the participants in the control group. Before you get wooed by that super cool and slightly random thing you probably don’t need, just take two seconds to think about the junk filling your home. The urge to splurge will die down soon enough.

Swallow your reading 19

:Glossary

Tchotchkes: a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional; a trinket

To be bound to: to be very likely to do or feel a particular thing

Remorse: a strong feeling of being sorry that you have done something very bad ➔ regret

Splurge: to spend more money than you can usually afford synonym splash out

Ample: more than enough synonym sufficient; opposite insufficient

Impulse buying: when you buy things that you had not planned to buy

Temptation: a strong desire to have or do something even though you know you should not

Estimate: to try to judge the value, size, speed, cost etc of something, without calculating it exactly

reflect: To think about sth

:Comprehension Questions

?What is an impulse buy

?What is the first technique to control our impulse shopping

?What is the second technique to control our impulse shopping

?Have the techniques been successful in the studies