Retail therapy is a short-lived habit. It is done with the primary purpose of lifting the mood of the buyer and making him feel good because of the purchase of an item. This is often seen in people who were depressed and who had something bad happen to them. The things that they go Tampa shopping for are considered comfort buys.
You can relate this to comfort food, wherein we buy ourselves something we crave to eat (but don’t normally because of the fear of gaining weight). Comfort food includes mac and cheese, ice cream, chocolates, chicken macaroni soup, milkshakes, etc. Comfort buys during retail therapy are bags, shoes, and clothes.
Rarely do we see people buy gadgets to comfort themselves. Comfort buys are normally less expensive items that work to make us feel good about ourselves—whether we want to look good wearing a new jacket or a new pair of boots.
Easing into transition
The act of shopping mentally prepares us for what lies ahead. That means that during the most intense moments and transitions in our lives such as getting married or expecting a baby, we shop. We shop for things that will fill that void, that yearning for security in our lives. We fill our houses with stuff that doesn’t really mean anything to us in the hopes that it will help us transition to a new phase and chapter of our lives. Shopping helps us feel more control and less anxious about the unknowns in the future.
Dressing for success
If you have a new job or a new date, chances are you want to impress your boss/date, right? Who among us hasn’t gone shopping because we got a new job or a new potential partner? We want to be taken seriously in our new job and we want to feel good about how we look, so we try to impress people with our clean and crisp suit. As for a date, don’t you want a second date? For girls and boys, it feels like dressing right would be the clincher to getting to a second date or to a “can-I-walk-you-to-your-door” moment.
Dressing right doesn’t only lead us to success. It makes us perform better, too. Studies have been made and results show that those who are dressed fashionably work better than those who are only in their street clothes. Besides, people (coworkers, bosses, and dates) actually judge us by the clothes and shoes we wear. Another study has found out that people can tell how much you are earning and what your lifestyle is based only on a photo of your shoes.