Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What (Lee Eisenberg)

Those of us who consider shopping cardio don’t need an entire book to tell us why we’ll “keep on buying no matter what”. An iPhone app or an automatically updated GPS leading us to the best sales at all of our favorite shops and someone to carry our bags to the car seems more useful. But since Lee Eisenberg took the time to write a book about one of my most beloved topics, I thought it was only fair to take the time to read it. I’m glad I did.

First of all, Eisenberg lives only steps away from the Magnificent Mile so when he identified this shopping Mecca as the locale for his initial research, he had me at hello. More important than geography, perhaps, was his explication of the psychology of shopping (really the focus of this book) and why we buy what we buy when we buy it. Who knew that shopping was such a science?

About halfway through this book, I reminisced about my more memorable March purchases:

• Sketchers Shape-Ups flip flops (functional and fashionable)
• Asics 2140 running shoes (even though I don’t run)
• Calvin Klein capri yoga pants (yes, I do yoga)
• Adrienne Vittadini spring outfit (professional, trendy and cute!)
• Tahari t-shirt (even trendier and cuter!)
• Burgundy Dior eyeglass frames that are adorned with giant silver “Ds” on each side (for Dior, I imagine, but conveniently also for Diana!)

And then I wondered what motivated me to buy these things. Eisenberg says it could be because:

1. Retailers have industrial-strength tools to monitor and adjust the zillion variables that influence my decision making (maybe)
2. I am impulsive and compulsive when it comes to shopping (not really)
3. I am a prisoner of desire (definitely not)
4. I am seeking instant membership in a community consisting of people who impress me as hip, rich and/or sophisticated (I am already hip and sophisticated…working on rich!)
5. I want to express myself (probably)
6. I find shopping fun and diverting—an escape from reality (definitely)

Analyzing my shopping habits proved more exhausting than the shopping itself. Throughout the process, I questioned my own motivation for buying what I buy and whether the “sell side” of retail had really infiltrated my psyche and manipulated me into my March (and years of previous) purchases. After several hundred pages of doing so only one question remains: Is Macy’s having a sale this weekend?