Women's buying habit

This place covers ACRES. It's huge. And you can negotiate.

I'm SO there! (I forgot that aspect of my perfect shopping day, it'd have to be that the cotton dress was marked at 50% off and I negotiated it down to 90%... :-D)

Unless you turn in your man card immediatly chuck norris will pay you a visit and remove it with a round house kick to the head!


You are male TSA

The first time I was there, I was with some Aussies friends. One of my female friends did some shopping on my behalf for my sister-in-law. A summer top, a white cotton dress, a silk skirt, a leather change purse and a leather mobile phone holder. $33 Australian.

On shopping, I'm a combo of Sozobe and Tin_Sword_Arthur. I do like to shop. I like it in a very basic way - I like looking at things, stuff, objects. I like the design of all this stuff, and the arrangement of these designed things together, or apart, as the case may be... in some sort of display. Past that I even like found art, that is, things just a-lying there on the road... I get a lot of pleasure out of the visual world of things, as well as the visual world of land, sea, and sky.

I find many malls fairly boring, though if I haven't been to one for a while I still enjoy the place. Ah, that brings up that I like watching people move around in space too.. even watch how the space is arranged as a building as interesting. More than malls, I tend to like individual shops along a street in an older town. Central Avenue in Albuquerque is interesting. It was the old route 66. There are some amusing stores along there.

But I even like Home Depot, g'help me, though I much prefer old fashioned stacked high floor to ceiling hardware stores. In any case, I like considering various uses for some of the building materials, widgets, that they might not have been specifically designed for. I do a kind of a walkabout making sculpture in my mind, even if I happen to be looking for a certain item in, say, Electrical.

Shopping for an outfit to wear? I hardly ever do that specifially any more. I have enough clothes to wrap an army, almost but not quite all of them from thrift stores. Got two dresses at an antique mall the other day (hmmm, that was on Central Avenue too), but didn't go to that place to buy clothes. Diane was with me that day - a fun day. I was luckily too late to make the mistake of buying an old comfortable sofa covered in some kind of rose colored brocade. We have to go back there, as both of us skipped the large and interesting looking old book section...

Yeh, and stopping for a snack if part of the fun too. Drove past a drug store called something like Model Pharmacy, and they appeared to have a lunch counter... will have to check it out. There is a pharmacy down on Central called Duran's. It has quite a range. There is a curandera there.
There is a large selection of colognes and perfumes and fine soaps. There is a small area with typical and good new mexican breakfasts and lunches. I'm rambling, as usual, but my point is that I love "shopping" that involves exploring...

Yeah, yeah. This whole "how men are supposed to act" thing has been kicking my ass since I discovered I had to turn in my penis since I didn't like to hunt, as proven on a thread from a little while ago (can't remember which). Of course, if I gave a rat's ass how men are "supposed" to act, that might be a different story, but that's just not who I am.
Trust me, I know what gender I am. And Chuck Norris is a putz.

Go Arthur, go Arthur, go Arthur!

"Shopping that involves exploring", I like that, Osso.

when I shop with my wife I find myself examining/analysing layouts and assesing the marketing techniques applicable to that type of layout.

Most needed/in demand stuff at the back of the store,
high mark up at eye level,
promo/premium spots at the ends of the isles
impulse buys at the register,
complimenting and/or relating merchandise together.
Lighting and colour use.
$12.99 bargains bonus round down to $12.95 (why not put 12.95 on it in the first place)


keeps me amused.

Yeah, I like that stuff too. All part of the game.

Also stuff like, you can often find better bargains in high-end stores than in cheaper ones, because the people who usually shop there aren't as interested in sales (they go there to get the very latest fashions and they're willing to pay a premium), whereas people who go to the cheaper stores are more cost-conscious.

I've noticed that too, Sozobe.

And I look at those things too, dadpad, re store layout..

I just composed a long post about my semi shopping addiction when I was in my twenties and had a new and well paying job after not having any money at all for years.... and how I shop now, with the "reward" level set much much lower, sometimes being nothing but the looking around experience - and then lost it. (I think I have a short in the computer, or something..)

So, yeah, that is true. I started on the road to shopping addiction recovery (I'm partly kidding here, but not entirely) the day I noticed that the highpoint of the pleasure was the walk towards the cash register, and that the energy blip from the shopping dissapated from there.

Serious question

If you shop often and get so many bargains, don't you get to the point where you have enough "stuff" and you don't have to shop anymore?




Wow, I think this thread is really great!

You can see the different types the original poster was talking about....The shopping is something that has to be done, I do it and I'm finished.....to the Shopping is fun and a thrill when a bargain is found and used for fun and entertainment.


Another serious question, since I'm not a shopper, I really don't understand a few things, and have often wondered about some stuff.

The "looking" thing....I've been with people I know in a store, and they will pick up something, or stop and just "look" at it, I mean "LOOK" turning it over, holding it up, putting it down, picking it up, looking at one spot, looking, looking, looking.....

ok - What the heck are you "looking at" for so long? It's a glass, it's a shirt, it's a handle holder. Especially if you're not going to buy it, what are you looking at it for so long?

I'm not talking about the "I want to know what all the features are" or "I'm wondering if this will fit in with what I have already".....it's just this, LOOKING.

What makes that fun?

This'll probably bring up other questions, if you don't mind. I've never had the chance to really ask in a place like this where a thoughtful answer may come.

I used to buy alot of clothes(when i say alot I mean a couple of bargain tops and thats alot for me)I have God knows how many pairs of shoes Ive never worn!!

I have got to the point were I wont buy any clothes unless I need them.
Bought a bra the other day, reasons-it was old and manky and I need a bigger one(hoorah for gaining weight)
Bought some long t shirts-reason, its summer, they are practical and they are long so they cover my tummy(which has been horribly exposed since these tummy bareing tops have been around)

Get rid of the old, get some new.

TSA you like to shop, you dont like to hunt, next thing you will tell me is you have very little interest in cars and motor bikes or (gasp) beer

I'd check again just to be sure.






seriously I couldnt give a rats what you do or dont like I'm just being silly.

Actually, I have plenty of interest in classic cars. Don't like motorcycles. And as a recovering alcoholic, I don't drink.


I know. I'm sorry for sounding like I was going off on you. I didn't mean it to come out that way. I'm just good and tired of hearing about what makes a man a man on TV and in magazines. I'm a man, and I'll decide for myself what to do, thank you.
Again, I'm sorry about that.

I have a couple of theories on why most women enjoy shopping, and why most men don't. ("Theory" is probably too significant a word, but I can't think of one for "idle thoughts rolling around my brain with nowhere to go".)

1. For millenia, humans lived in hunter/gatherer societies in which survival tasks followed fairly strict gender lines. Men hunted, women gathered. Our modern way of life is very recent and we still react along those ancient ways. Therefore, men treat shopping as a commando raid -- they identify the objective, do some reccy, get in and get out as fast as possible. Women treat shopping as "gathering" -- you have your objective, but for the welfare of the tribe you must always be aware of alternatives and other (unrelated) possibilities.

2. As I hit my 40s *gasp*, I have discovered that the middle-age woman is almost invisible in society. For example, in the crush at a cinema concession stand, almost everyone else will get served before me unless I become vocal or somehow get pushy. Ten years ago, I would be served more or less fairly. I notice that grandmotherly-types get noticed before me as well. Security people wave me through as they concentrate on all the others. (If I were inclined to a life of crime, this cloak of invisibility would be very useful. ) My idle thought is that "retail therapy" is one way that mid-life women in particular can be sure of attention.

I don't do that holding up thing much in regular stores. I kinda know what a yellow tee shirt looks like already. Might hold it up to me to check the size.

In an "antique shop" - well, the other day, in the one on Central, I dragged a jewelry box out from the bottom of a pile of stuff. It was velvet-lined, had three levels of drawers and also side compartments that opened up. Was in good condition, was good looking to start with, sort of a dark copper color... I would guess that such a thing in a regular store would be $49.95 or more. This was $12. I could use a jewelry box. Checked the drawers, they opened pretty jaggedly. I decided I didn't need it, someone else would enjoy it. (Much as I enjoy looking, I don't have actual scads of jewelry. What I have is in some miscellaneous boxes in a drawer.) Went over to the hat section in that little store. Stared. Didn't try any on. Looked at the clothes racks. Whoever's shop that was (the mall had dozens of "shops", or booths, and only a few attendents for the whole place) had a good eye for clothes. Spied a dress that looked interesting and might fit. Pulled it out of the rack, held it up. A dress made in India with turtles all over it. Not antique, of course, but amusing. Damn, that's for me. Six dollars. Got it home, it fits.

More later.

Misremembered, that dress was $4.00.

I liked Tico's musings on all this.. though gender lines seem to cross a lot now.

I wonder if lineal thinkers shop differently than some of us non-lineal thinkers..

But Why, if the stuff you already have is good?




Tico - Yes, I have found my cloak of invisibilty invaluable in my life of crime....actually, I know what you're talking about. I'm pretty much invisible to society now too.

But, instead of being upset by it (I was for a while) I've decided to embrace it.....being invisible definately has it's advantages.



Osso - I didn't mean like a yellow tea shirt (although I have seen people looking at something as simple as that for a long time).......It's more like....."It's a damned VASE for crying out loud! It's blue, it holds flowers, that's ALL. Do we really need to stand here 5 minutes looking at it?" or actually a better example are shoes (women).....you know, I can size up what a pair of shoes looks like in about 10 seconds, if that, most I can't let my eyes pass right over. I decide, don't like that one, move on....when I find a pair I like, that takes the 10 seconds, maybe an extra 10 to ask myself, you're sure you like this? Then move on from there as to whether it fits.

So, OK, what are you looking at exactly for minutes at a time about a shoe, or a vase?

Junk shops, music shops, street (flea) markets..a la Soz....I'll be there all day, if I'm in the mood and the lawn doesn't need mowing.

Portobello Road is good at the end of the day, when everything left unsold can be haggled down nicely. In addition to Portobello Road, I love Petticoat Lane (Middlesex Street) and Camden Lock, where there is always a ton of unusual Deco or Victorian bits and pieces on display.

I'm not too keen on the "mall" thing, though. They're all the same.