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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Confessions of a Fake Shopper

I fake shop. I'm not proud of it, but what is a girl to do? Living on a budget with high end taste is hard. I'm not hurting anyone and it scratches an itch, sort of.



What is fake shopping? By definition, it is the practice of searching your favorite online retailers, filling up your virtual shopping cart with goodies and then...sadly...abandoning it to avoid buying. How bad is my habit? Well, when I fake clothes shop, I actually take the time to fill in my size! Pathetic, I know.


As a rule, fake shopping should be limited to online only. If you tried to do this in person, I imagine one of two things would occur: 1) You would fail miserably and purchase something (which if you haven't yet figured out, is not the goal) OR 2) Efforts to physically abandon your cart would peg you as that crazy woman who ran out of a store leaving a basket full of merchandise in her wake. Suffice it to say, the online world decreases the chances of those things happening.


I actually take great comfort in knowing that I am not alone. Like many women, I confessed this little tidbit of information to my stylist/therapist, who gasped and told me that she did the same thing. It was a bonding moment for us. Now we start most of our conversations with "so when I was fake shopping the other day..."


I am not saying that I don't buy things anymore. I do and I try to limit it to something that we absolutely need, or have convinced myself we need. 


In all seriousness, what fake shopping has given me, besides a false sense of satisfaction, is a slew of ideas! I think about how to change an old cardigan with new buttons or what a forgotten mirror would look like painted red.


So, if you are like me, full of ideas and low on funds, fake shopping just might be the best-bad habit to have.





2 comments:

  1. I totally agree! All the ideas, none of the buyer's guilt.

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  2. I like your definition of a Fake Shopper better than what Barb does...though, it's possible that every Dayton location of Talbot's would classify her as a "Fake Shopper". What else would you call a person who buys in one location and returns in another...consistently? And she thinks every sales person in a Talbot's within 25 miles of here doesn't know who she is when she walks in the door. I bet you money that as soon as she purchases something, the sales clerk pushes a button to alert all other locations with an APB of sorts to keep a look out for her. Silly woman :-)

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