Leaving with Nothing
I find it hard to leave a store with nothing. In fact, I even find it hard to leave a yard sale with nothing. Although in that case I have successfully overcome the guilt I feel at walking away without buying any of someone’s junk. But leaving a store with nothing is still a huge struggle for me. if I walk into a store and they don’t have what I am looking for or at the price that I want to pay, I find it really hard to not substitute with something else or buy something else I don’t need or don’t truly want.
Which is why my Halloween clearance shopping is such a success story, even though I didn’t find what I was looking for. My son loves to dress up in costumes, so I went to K-Mart (my preferred costume seller) a few days after Halloween to see what they might have left on clearance and what I might pay for it. Well, they had two costumes left in my son’s size. One was nothing special, but one was a costume that I knew he would really enjoy. This was to be one of his Christmas gifts from us. But the kicker was, the costume was only 50% off. 50% might sound like a lot, but since the costumes were all 40% off the two weeks leading into Halloween (when I bought the costume he wore this year, in fact), 50% off is not really a good deal at all for a post-Halloween sale. And since I was only willing to pay half that for the costume at this point, I walked away and left the store.
It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was really hard for me to make myself do. I actually walked around for a few minutes with that dinosaur costume in my cart thinking about it.But, ultimately, I did manage to do it, and even looked the cashier straight in the eye as I was leaving instead of feeling embarrassed for not buying anything.
Because really - the store is there to meet my needs. If it doesn’t meet my needs, why should I feel obligated to give them some of my money? Such a simple concept that is so hard for me to truly internalize. I have a lot of consumer guilt in my brain apparently.
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November 15th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Good for you. Yeah, I at times feel like a cheap-o for walking out empty-handed. But I am getting better at that. Your attitude of the store being there to meet your needs is a GREAT point!
I also use to think that if I am buying one thing I might as well get some more stuff since I am here. Stupid!!
November 15th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Kyle - you have just encapsulated my relationship with target.
hey, I’m here to buy X… but look at Y and Z! I “need” those too. lol
November 15th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Great job! It can be hard, but you’re right that we don’t owe stores anything (unless we take something of course
).
November 15th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I only feel a little guilty when it is a really small store that I am obviously the only customer currently inside of.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Way to go, better to walk out empty handed than to have bought the costume and regretted how much it cost you later. No yellow/green grapes for you!
I find myself putting things in the cart and walking around the store trying to decide whether or not I need that item, often. It may seem silly but I think that by delaying that impluse to just BUY IT, that I end up saving myself a lot of money on things I didn’t really need. It appears that you do the same thing. I think it’s a good strategy.
Keep up the good work!! It’s not always easy to walk out of the store empty handed but sometimes that just happens to be the best decision.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I only feel guilty if I’m the only one there and they actually come up to talk to me, particularly if it’s a small store. That’s why I prefer stores where they leave you alone to browse at your leisure. -Raymond
November 15th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I have the same struggle - it’s hard to leave a store without buying. Yay for you!
I did go post-Halloween shopping, but waited until the 75% off sale - and only because I happened to be in the right place at the right time.