Every year the pre-New Year season of hunting for customers starts earlier and earlier: the first lures appear as early as late October - snowflakes in shop windows, Christmas tree decorations. Gradually, the mechanism revs up to full power - advertising clips mixed with the melody of 'Jingle Bells' play: 'Haven't you bought a gift for your beloved grandmother yet? A blender with a depilator function is the best option! And a lawnmower as a bonus!' The pressure from retailers is simple to explain: it is on New Year sales that retail chains make up to half of their annual profit.
For example, Russians, according to research by the auditing company Deloitte, are willing to spend more on gifts than anyone else in the world - up to 13% of their annual family income. For comparison, a citizen of Ireland, for example, does not go beyond 4%. And this despite the fact that our people are poorer than the Irish and such spending on gifts is a serious test for the family budget. Yet we are only at the threshold of the global consumer society, where an epidemic of oniomania is raging. Our European neighbors became acquainted with it long ago and have mostly developed immunity to shopping pressure. We, on the other hand, are experiencing a stage of primary exacerbation of oniomania: even people with stable psyches during the Christmas rush may find themselves at the checkout with four lilac blouses and a manicure set for a cat, not to mention shopaholics. How, where, and with what to treat this fashionable disease?
Need to be treated
Shopomania is an attribute of a prosperous society and a fairly developed economy, when people have money not only for food and stores have goods for every taste. However, a certain psychosocial problem arises here: people become addicted to the shopping process as if it were a soft drug. Indeed, shopping relieves tension, brings a charge of joy and satisfaction with life. 'We need to distinguish between shopping therapy and shopomania,' says psychologist Irina Yatskovich. 'After all, people often rush to shops in two extreme emotional states: when everything is good in life and when everything is bad. And if in both cases it happens according to the formula: went, bought, rejoiced - then everything is fine, the therapeutic effect is achieved. However, unlike shopping therapy, shopomania does not give such positive results.' Clients suffering from shopomania, as a rule, do not even remember their purchases: they often lie unpacked, and after some time the shopaholic may find in her closet ten boxes of brand new shoes. She acquired them in an altered state of mind, not realizing what she was doing. Incidentally, the advertisement about a mother of the family - 'If you meet her, tell her she is awaited at home' - is a vivid example of a typical shopaholic. The most annoying thing is that the money is spent, but the pleasure lasted only a brief moment and is already forgotten. The so-called inconsolable consumption begins: the shopaholic goes for another batch of purchases in the hope of joy, but it quickly dissipates again. As psychologists claim, shopomania is a disease akin to alcoholism and drug addiction.
A classic example of shopaholism became the story of a 40-year-old American woman. In July of this year, the authorities of Pennsylvania sentenced to 27 months in prison a woman suffering from an uncontrollable passion for shopping. This lady stole $1.5 million from a credit union and immediately used that money to purchase more than one and a half thousand items. The shopping list included hundreds of pairs of shoes, dozens of handbags, and much more. In her testimony, the American woman admitted that she could not control herself and was unable to resist buying. Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova is also famous for her 'shop tours': after a lost match, she can easily go to a store and buy 20 pairs of shoes. However, Maria seems to manage to stay within the bounds of shopping therapy. Incidentally, not only she but also some other famous tennis players, such as the Williams sisters, use this relief.
The basis of shopping addiction lies in a lack of communication, emotions, misunderstanding on the part of loved ones, or excessive overwork. By buying a thing they like, a person comforts themselves: they are a welcome guest in the store, they are fussed over, they give themselves a gift. At that moment, an offended child awakens in them, who says: I want it and I will have it, and a new toy is the best medicine! Most of all, according to psychologists, women are susceptible to shopomania as more emotional beings. Especially wealthy and unemployed women. In men, shopomania is rare and occurs less vividly - they relieve their stress by other means: alcohol, bachelor parties, casinos, and other pleasures.
What Russian doesn't like...
In the countries of the former Soviet Union, shopaholism has its own national prerequisites. 'Our country used to be closed, and citizens did not know such an abundance of goods. Moreover, the country has experienced and is still experiencing difficult times. People's well-being is growing, but at the same time the tension associated with earning money and dependence on it is increasing. And tension needs to be relieved,' notes the president of the Association of Personal Shopping Specialists, Natalia Naidenskaya. 'Also playing a role is the fact that our people are by nature more generous. If in Europe it is customary to give gifts only to close people at Christmas, then we give gifts to relatives, friends, and colleagues.'
Incidentally, now this addiction has affected not only rich people but also the middle class. After all, if you don't have cash, consumer loans are quite accessible. Speaking about the origins of shopomania in our country, Irina Yatskovich also notes that often this passion is expressed in the need to buy not only clothes but also household appliances and other household items: 'It is a strong need to build a nest. Many grew up in communal apartments or simply cramped living conditions. And now many have the opportunity to realize their dream of their own furnished apartment.'
Where is the line beyond which ordinary shopping excitement becomes abnormal? Natalia Naydenskaya answers this question as follows: 'As soon as you start buying things 'for growth', 'I'll lose weight', 'I'll hem', 'I'll repaint' - this is a clear sign that a professional needs to intervene in the process.'
There is such a profession - shop assistant. He begins his work with express testing. Then he conducts a wardrobe audit: what is there, what is in poor condition, what is no longer relevant. The next stage is forming a wardrobe base, compiling a list of necessary items, and determining a budget. The last stage is shopping. At the same time, the specialist can buy and bring the items himself, or he can set them aside until the client arrives, or simply accompany him in the store.' It would seem that this is a good solution for impulsive buyers, but as a rule, a shopaholic never uses the services of a professional shopper. He generally does not consider himself sick, and most often his husbands and relatives, driven crazy by excessive spending, bring him to a psychologist. True, experts note, shopaholism is quickly treatable.
As for preventive measures, they are generally simple: if you realize that you cannot resist unnecessary and meaningless purchases, then firstly, create a financial limiter - take exactly as much money as you plan to spend, and leave your credit card at home. By the way, keep in mind that non-cash money is spent more easily and imperceptibly than cash. There are studies according to which a buyer paying with a credit card spends almost 10-20% more. Well, and secondly, it would be good to master other ways of getting positive emotions: sports, dancing, communication with pleasant people...
Sellers of the invisible front
In fairness, it should be said that the spread of shopaholism is also the result of competent marketing policies and psychological moves by retail companies. They work under conditions of fierce competition, so every possible little detail is calculated. 'You take a large cart, hear pleasant music - everything is done to make you as comfortable as possible making purchases in large volumes. Everything works for this - the height of the shelves, the fact that you move around the sales floor counterclockwise, and many other details,' says Dmitry Yanin, Chairman of the Board of the Confederation of Consumer Societies. 'Theories have been developed on this matter that have proven their effectiveness.'
The science that awakens the buyer in us is called merchandising. Its task is to engage the maximum number of human receptors and emotions that activate one's ability to buy something. According to research by the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute, only 30% of purchases were planned by store visitors in advance. Another 8-10% of purchases are alternative. And all the rest - that is, more than 60% - are made spontaneously, the decision is made right in the store. That is, a buyer who was wondering whether to buy candy at all, imperceptibly for himself reformulates it as: buy a kilogram of 'Belochka' or 'Mishka v lesu'?..
Here are just a few professional tricks that are given on the Aroma-Market website. Why are bread and milk always at different ends of the store? Because the longer you have to walk from one to the other, the more time you spend in the store and the more products you see and buy. Researchers have calculated that every extra minute in the supermarket costs you $1.89. Carts are weapons. Strategists in supermarkets know that when you turn the cart in one direction, you look in the opposite direction. Therefore, items on sale are placed at the ends of aisles (they sell five times better there than anywhere else).
Strategists also know that the speed at which you push the cart can be influenced by the background music. If the rhythm of a musical piece is, say, 108 beats per minute (for example, Mozart's 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik'), you move quickly. Music at 60 beats per minute (like Vivaldi's adagio) slows down movement and delays you in the store. Properly chosen background music can increase sales by 38.2%. It turns out that professionals have learned to use even how we blink. On average, a person blinks 32 times per minute. Special lighting in supermarkets puts us in a trance-like state and makes us blink less often - 14 times per minute. Everything around us only enhances this effect: the walls of the supermarket are painted in green, beige, light blue tones to calm the buyer and lull their vigilance. By the way, the lighting at the cash register will make you blink in a normal rhythm - because you need to wake up and (most importantly!) pay.
«It is believed that if a person spends more than 40 minutes in a mall, they will definitely buy something. Therefore, the principle of a mall is to detain the customer, invite them to spend the whole day there. And during this time, work is done with all channels of information perception,» explains Naidenskaya. Moreover, with the development of merchandising, the attack is becoming more massive. For example, smell. The path by which the human brain receives information about smell is much shorter than the auditory and visual pathways. So this function should be influenced first. It has already been established that for grocery stores, the most effective smell is watermelon and cucumber. Furniture sellers use pine wood aromas. Boutiques add notes of leather and expensive tobacco to the air. Lingerie and wedding dress stores use refined, sexual aromas - to stimulate high feelings, causing customers to become euphoric. Notably, all these are subtle, unconscious smells. However, working with such delicate matters, mistakes can be made. For example, in one lingerie store they started using a sweet floral scent. And sales went down. According to experts, this happened because the main customers of this store were not women (who love floral scents), but men who were attracted by the store's sexually provocative collections and who bought gifts there for their ladies. Sweet smells, apparently, did not stimulate men to buy. When experts expressed their opinion to the store's management, they decided to try the scent of lavender. It worked well on men choosing gifts for their mothers. But again, it repelled customers looking for something for their sexual partners.
Store sellers are also taught various techniques of proper communication with the customer: «Recognize the type of buyer, establish contact correctly, present information about the product. Methods vary, for example, 'mirroring': a customer with a child, the seller immediately chimes in: 'And my child is the same age,' a personal conversation starts, and the customer already feels uncomfortable not buying. Or 'sucking up': the seller works with you so attentively that you feel awkward leaving without a purchase,» Naidenskaya says. In short, on this invisible front line, so many professionals armed with the latest scientific research come out that the average customer finds it hard to resist.
Anti-shopping
However, according to experts, the mere realization of what kind of influence is being exerted on you has a sobering effect. In addition, the domestic specifics are such that many marketing tactics are morally obsolete. For example, one of the main lures for customers is discounts. «Very often, seasonal sales are just a facade. Shortly before, prices are raised by 30-50%, then crossed out, and a supposedly new price appears next to it. This is, of course, a violation of antitrust laws and unfair competition,» says Dmitry Yanin. «We do not have detailed regulations on sales, unlike, for example, in Europe. There, a situation would be impossible where a store announces a total liquidation sale and then continues working as if nothing happened.»
That is, you need to be more critical of what the store declares. In this sense, the most vulnerable part of visitors is young people. Most advertising is aimed at them, because they are most susceptible to it, and besides, they are carriers of information for parents: «Mom, I saw such and such there.» However, domestic legislation protects underage buyers from excessive spending. According to Dmitry Yanin, if a child under the age of 18 spent too large an amount in a store, parents can challenge the transaction.
While we are only learning all the joys and horrors of shopaholism, the West has already learned to resist it. For example, the British government agency for advertising standards, the Advertising Standards Authority, started receiving hundreds of complaints from citizens in early November, outraged that «Christmas advertising started too early» and it is «socially irresponsible» because it forces viewers to spend prematurely on Christmas gifts.
Perhaps we too will soon become hardened enough that, as in the rest of the world, we will enter supermarkets with a strict list of needed purchases and only when a sale tag is hung on the item we like. Meanwhile, blinking exactly 32 times a minute, we will leave the store without buying anything extra.