Excerpt
Introduction


When I was growing up, I had three pairs of shoes—my “Sunday” shoes, my school shoes and a pair of bright, white, canvas Keds. Today, as my husband will attest, things have changed. I now have a closet full of shoes in every color (several shades of the same color, in fact), and all manner of heels, toes and comfort.


With all of that, living in South Florida and working from a home office, I’m usually barefoot, which delights my pedicurist to no end. Ironically, none of that stops me from shopping for, or stopping to ogle, shoes. I am not alone. And no, thank you, I’m not interested in doing any spring-cleaning of my psyche to “resolve my issues.” I’m a happy shopper.


We all shop. For the essentials and the not-so-essential. Many of us shop with great satisfaction; others only when absolutely necessary and with great exasperation. For some, shopping seems as necessary as breathing, eating and sleeping. The process by which we acquire things that help us define our identity and establish, maintain (or defy) social norms didn’t actually have a name until the late 1700s, but shopping is surely encoded in our DNA. That we must find and possess things that make us feel secure and happy drives one of the largest industries in the world economy.


In ancient Greece and medieval Europe, people bartered for goods that they produced themselves in open-air markets. Then one day an entrepreneurial trader established a “shop.” Bakers, butchers and grocers soon followed, and modern man became a shopper. In those early days, the shopkeeper retrieved the goods a customer requested and often delivered the purchases to the customer’s home. In the next evolution in our shopping DNA, the industrial revolution produced a plethora of consumer goods, and the department store was born. Stores became larger and less specialized. Self-service was introduced, and we took our goods with us. When suburban sprawl began, the shopping mall was spawned. Then came shoppertainment centers, lifestyle centers, outlet mill malls and festival marketplaces. Contemporary shoppers can select the products they desire from the comfort of their home, dot.com shopkeepers retrieve them, and a man in a big brown (or white or yellow) truck delivers them.


But why do we shop? Are we driven by our desire to “have” or to “get”? Certainly, we shop because we need basic necessities like food, clothing and household items. But we also shop recreationally for fashion, furnishings, entertainment, hobby-related products and decorative items for our homes. We browse, explore and hunt for bargains. We build vacations around shopping. And we do it to the tune of about $4 trillion a year. That’s a lot of ca-ching! Shopping makes the economic world go round, and many people very happy.


Experts are hard at work to help us understand the complexity of our shopping impulses. Not surprisingly, men and women are motivated to shop for different reasons. Women are driven more to express love and nurturing by shopping for their homes and family. They reinforce or initiate change in their social relationships by shopping: Is that perfect gift meant to show how much they care or perhaps motivated by a need to be liked more by the recipient? Men approach shopping as an achievement, as proof of their ability to succeed—by getting the best deal on the latest tool, car or tech gadget.


We also shop to fulfill needs. In her new book, Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Shopping Experience, Pamela Danziger, founder of Unity Marketing, recently defined five types of shoppers. We have Ursula, the Uber Shopper, who is a highly involved shopper and gets the greatest enjoyment out of the shopping experience. While Ursula spends more, she is also an active bargain shopper. The Therapeutic Shopper, Theresa, shops as a form of therapy, as an escape, and enjoys browsing almost as much as buying. Theresa represents the second most active type of shopper. Next is Diana, the Bargain Huntress, who carefully researches her purchases, comparison shops and doesn’t let impulsive buying enter the equation. Diana rarely pays full price, knows where the discounts can be found and is always on the hunt for good buys. Denise, the Discerning Shopper, is older and at a life-stage where she is more likely to be down-sizing her life rather than acquiring more material goods. And last, but not least, there is Les, the Least Enthusiastic Shopper. Les requires a bit of coaxing to get him into a store, but once there, he enjoys the shopping experience as much as a woman. Les spends the least amount of money shopping for fun and shops less often than the other personalities.


We shop because we want to relate to our peers—to eat what they eat, to wear what they wear, to feel accepted. And we also shop to define ourselves. The buttoned-down business woman by day transforms herself into a free spirit by night through the clothes and accessories for which she very deliberately shops. We socialize, bond, chase away the blues, solve problems and relax by shopping.


Dissecting our shopping personalities and motivations is very interesting and helpful for the marketers trying to sell us products. As long as we are aware they are hard at work serving their business models, their efforts are welcome and ultimately benefit shoppers—we get what we want, sooner and more efficiently.


But when all the research models, sociological theses and economic impact studies are complete, any true shopper knows the object matters less than the experience. After all is said and done, we shop because it is fun.


So, allow us to entertain you with some of those experiences in Chicken Soup for the Shopper’s Soul. Our writers bring you stories of love, laughter and lessons learned from their living rooms, malls, flea markets, exclusive boutiques and markets around the world. And we’ve included some tips and interesting facts about shopping that will help you sharpen your skills and have more fun at the game. We invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy Chicken Soup for the Shopper’s Soul—and then, of course, go shopping!