A comment on Retail Therapy

Of course, in my quest to bring a little sun into my life during these dreary winter days I went and tried retail therapy:

Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer's mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as "comfort buys."

Retail therapy was first used as a term in the 1980s with the first reference being this sentence in the Chicago Tribune of Christmas Eve 1986. "We've become a nation measuring out our lives in shopping bags and nursing our psychic ills through retail therapy."

In 2001, the European Union conducted a study finding that 33 per cent of shoppers surveyed had "high level of addiction to rash or unnecessary consumption'." This was causing debt problems for many with the problem being particularly bad in Scottish young people. (wikipedia)

Retail therapy doesn't really work for me. Why? because I'm 2 metres tall and therefore nothing fits me properly, since it seems that clothing manufacturers tend to forget that there are poeple taller than 1m80 in this world. Secondly, my shopping experience was ruined by the shopping attendants/helpers in the stores continuously talking about (male and female attendants alike):

• Their boyfriend.
  
• Their friend's boyfriend and how they can't believe they're still together because they saw them kissing such and such in this, that, or the other place.
• Their pants and whether they look good in them.
• What happened on X-factor the other night, and how the candidates looked horrible in their dresses (again men and women candidates alike).
• Whether they should get their hair dyed another colour for the upcoming spring season.
• The beauty of bubblegum ("look how big my bubble is...")
• Their friend's friend's boyfriend.

Finally, my retail therapy experience never really made me happier because once I looked in my wallet I kept finding out that I don't have any money to shop with. I'm really glad we can buy stuff over the internet...apart from anything else, it enhances my shopping experience.