No Impulse Shopping Monday

Businesses have ways to separate you from your money - Mind Control!

Definition

Impulse shopping is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service, made just before the purchase. 

If you have ever been waiting at the check out till of a store, and spontaneously bought some of the magazines, candy, or batteries on display, you have fallen victim to "mind control tools" that drive you to spend money you did not intend to spend.

Businesses know that the impulse purchase is a critical tool for driving retail profits, but the customer seems to 'benefit' too - impulse shopping can put us in a better mood if we are feeling stressed or angry. 

We will feel better, even if our impulse purchase is only a pack of gum - for a little while, anyway. At least until we realize we have been had, and that tricks have been employed to encourage us to make unplanned, and often unnecessary, purchases.

Impulse Shopping Facts

• 88% of all impulse purchases are made because an item is on sale.
• Impulse buying goes down by 13% during a planned shopping trip.
• Shoppers who go to the store by car instead of on foot are 44% more likely to make unplanned purchases.
• Rather than purchasing useful or necessary items, impulse shoppers buy primarily because the item puts them in a better mood.
• When people shop with the purpose of buying immediate needs, the rate of impulsive buying falls by 53%.
• Impulse shoppers usually buy because they are angry, stressed, guilty, or bored.
• Grocery shoppers with full stomachs make fewer impulse purchases than those that shop hungry.
• Younger, single shoppers make 45% more unplanned purchases than older married shoppers.
• Conditions for your shopping experience are heavily manipulated so that sights, sounds, and smells in the store encourage you to make unplanned purchases.
• Knowing you are being manipulated helps you avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous marketers and businesses.
• Focusing on your long term goals helps you overcome the urge to make impulsive purchases. Think about the money you will save, and how you might better spend it on planned purchases.