Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sales are finally over!

Sales give us an opportunity to buy all the things we didn't buy before because they were too expensive and because we didn't need them. The second reason is usually more relevant. When things are finally half the original price, you have a chance to buy twice the amount of useless things. Well, this would be the ideal case. What happens more often is that you buy MORE than twice the amount of useless things and spend a lot more money than you had intended.

But these are just a few aspects of a very complicated psychology of sales.

1. Hunt
Simone de Beauvoir wrote that through shopping, women compensated for their mundane domestic lives. She thought that marketplace was a woman's battleground where the winner was whoever bought the best article for the lowest price.

This winter, I hunted for a winter coat. I didn't buy any because I didn't like any. It seems to me that companies such as Zara, Mango, even Benetton, etc. do not invest much creative effort into designing coats. The one below was one of the most interesting coats I've tried on.

2. Pressure
Times have changed and when you have to make a decision these days, you can't expect that a little angel and a little devil will appear around your head chatting. No. Instead, you can expect a skilled saleperson and a cheap-looking rich investor debating the pros and cons of buying... whatever you're buying.

The overall below cost less than 5€ which was cheap enough to be worn just once in a life-time. But on the other hand, it would be worn exactly once in a life-time. Or maybe not... If I allowed the two homunkuluses (homunkuli?) having their debate, I would still be in the shop.


3. To wait or not to wait?
The first time I saw the dress was in the summer 2009 and I liked it but I thought I didn't need it and it seemed too expensive. This winter, it was half the price but I'm glad it was also twice my size, so I didn't even feel tempted to buy it. Also, after all those months, it seemed kind of boring.


4. Thinking about the future?
Sometimes, I feel that buying a summer dress in the winter is thinking about the future. In fact, it's more like living in the past. The dress below must have survived two sales and still, noone wants it.


5. This doesn't fit
Many things we've bought on sales or at secondhands just don't fit, right? Let's not buy them then.


6. What is this?
This shirt was interesting, but it required me to think too much about its possible uses, advantages and disadvantages. Instead of solving my problems, this shirt would have made my mind busy for weeks and would probably end up as a one-night stand anyway.


However, despite of what some anti-consumerists think, even anti-consumerists should look stunning so once in a while, they should buy something nice. I thought I found that something.


But then I realized that this particular blazer wasn't on sale. So I didn't buy it.

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