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Impulse purchases may be compensation for psychological needs
By Betty Lin-Fisher
Published on Sunday, Sep 02, 2007
I'm pretty good when it comes to impulse buys.
Sure, probably like you, I'll often leave a store with a few more little things than I intended when I walked in. It's usually something small or something I had forgotten to put on my list.
But when it comes to large purchases, I'm a researcher. I'll comparison shop (sometimes to my husband's annoyance because he doesn't want to be dragged along to multiple places). I've started to reduce those trips by calling ahead or researching prices online or going by myself and bringing my husband after I've narrowed down the choices.
So I knew I was going against my grain one evening this summer.
It was late in the evening. I was tired and just mindlessly flipping through the TV channels. My husband was on a trip and my kids were visiting their grandparents.
I briefly paused on a shopping-network channel. I usually don't watch those channels because I know they can tempt you to buy things you hadn't planned. (I know plenty of people who shop from the channels and are very happy with their purchases; it's just not the way I prefer to shop.)
Before I knew it, the snazzy craft printer that was on the TV screen was calling me. It cut out intricate letters and shapes. It did things I didn't know printers could do. I reasoned that it might be a nice tool to have for my small scrapbooking business.
But it wasn't cheap. It was at least $150, or three easy payments, according to the ladies hawking it on TV. But wait! There was only a limited supply and it was the channel's anniversary, so that $150 was drastically lower than normal.
Even though part of my brain was coming up with all of the reasons I should buy it, the other part was screaming to stop. What was I doing? Why was this something I suddenly had to have? Would it be something that I'd regret buying? Shouldn't I do research as I normally do?
In the end, I turned off the TV. I knew if I didn't have the friendly lady telling me all of the great features, I might not be tempted. About 20 minutes
later, I was still thinking about the printer. Instead of turning the TV back on, I went online and entered the name into a search engine and found other prices and reviews of the product.
It turns out the TV price was decent, but not as great a deal as it seemed at the time. And the reviews were mixed, but mostly people were disappointed in the product.
Boy, was I glad I didn't succumb to that impulse. And honestly, I haven't thought of buying the product since. If I do want it sometime, I'll do my usual research.
But it got me thinking about impulse buys. What was that experience I went through? Is it common?
David Stewart, a consumer behaviorist and psychologist, said we all go through times when we get these impulse urges. He calls them ''situational vulnerability.''
''We just have periods where even those who are well educated and otherwise good shoppers nonetheless are in the mood where they feel the need for novelty. They need to satisfy their curiosity. Or maybe they're feeling down and depressed so this may be a way to pick them up,'' said Stewart, who is also dean of the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside.
That made sense to me. As I said, the night I flipped onto that channel, I was tired and lonely because the house was empty. Once, I took a call from a reader who told me that to compensate for the recent deaths of her parents, she had bought thousands of dollars in gemstone jewelry from a shopping channel and later regretted it.
But what usually happens is the impulse buy doesn't satisfy the need or you're disappointed with the product, Stewart said.
I asked Stewart if there was a difference between an impulse to buy an expensive product and a candy bar while you're standing in the checkout line.
The candy bar is probably a true impulse buy, but it's pretty nominal in price. Sometimes the costlier items that beckon you to make that impulse buy are feeding on something in the back of your mind that maybe it's something you could use, he said.
''You hadn't planned to buy it, but you kind of knew you needed something, and you see it's on sale and you buy it. A lot of infomercials do a really good job of explaining to you a particular need you may have,'' he said. ''You turn on the TV and somebody is showing you a jar opener and you say, 'I have problems opening jars; that's a real problem of mine. I'll go ahead and buy that.' It's an impulse but prompted by a need of some kind.''
Also, the ''gotta have it now'' sense of urgency from the people selling the product triggers emotions in you.
''They're creating a sense of scarcity,'' he said. ''It does have a motivating effect on people. It causes you to drop your inhibitions a bit. You're not quite sure you want one, but if I change your mind and they're all gone, I may regret it,'' he said.
The best advice when you sense one of these urges coming on?
Take a breather. Calmer minds can prevail or if after you've considered it, it's something you still want, then at least you've thought it out.
Stewart also suggests planning purchases. Take a list to the store and only buy items on it. And don't respond to spur-of-the-moment offers.
''The more you can do to control your own behavior and put yourself more in a thoughtful mode of purchasing, the more likely you will come to reconsider things that you may later regret you bought,'' he said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@ thebeaconjournal.com.
I'm pretty good when it comes to impulse buys.
Get the full article here.
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