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‘Why We Buy‘ by Paco Underhill is one of my all time favorite books on marketing, but, it was only when I reached chapter twelve — The Sensual Shopper — that I remembered why. Here’s Paco Underhill’s ode to shopping from pages 161-167 of ‘Why We Buy‘ –
What is shopping?
I don’t mean what is buying. I don’t mean what is entering a public place where goods are kept until they can be exchanged for money. I definitely do not mean what is retailing, or what is commerce, or what is trade.
I mean what is shopping? Who does it, and how? How does one go about this shopping activity?
For the purpose of this discussion, let’s stipulate that shopping is more than the simple, dutiful acquisition of whatever is absolutely necessary to one’s life. It’s more than what we call the “grab and go” — you need cornflakes, you grab the cornflakes, you pay for the cornflakes, and haveaniceday. The kind of activity I mean involves experiencing the portion of the world that has been deemed for sale, using our senses — sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing — as the basis for choosing this and rejecting that. It’s the sensory aspect of the decision making process that’s most intriguing because how else do we experience anything? But it’s especially critical in this context because virtually all unplanned purchase — and many planned ones, too — come as a result of the shopper seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting something that promises pleasure, if not total fulfillment.
A great deal of our firsthand experience of the world comes to us via shopping. Where else do we go with the specific intention of examining objects? Stores alone are abundant with chances for tactile and sensory exploration. Even if we didn’t need to buy things, we’d need to get out and touch and taste them once in a while.
The purest example of human shopping I know of can be seen by watching a child go through life touching absolutely everything. You’re watching the child shop for information, for understanding, for knowledge, for experience, for sensation. Especially for sensation, otherwise why would he have to touch or smell or taste or hear anything twice? Keep looking. Watch a dog. Watch a bird. Watch a bug. You might say that ant is searching for suitable food. I say he is shopping.
I have been a mall-rat for most of the last decade and I have a huge house overflowing with useless possessions to show for it — too many clothes and accessories I have never worn, too many gadgets I don’t use anymore, too many books I haven’t read and too many DVDs I haven’t watched.
I haven’t really “shopped” for more than a year now, but own so many useless things that, even a year of “not shopping” has hardly left a dent on my solid stock of useless stuff.
Of late, however, as a result of my spartan off-consumption lifestyle, I have been craving for the stimulus of shopping. I don’t really miss buying things, but I do miss touching and tasting things. Last week, I made my first tentative foray into a mall in almost three months and window-shopping did feel a little like licking shop windows.
So, dear Blue, yes, our desire for consumption comes from our desire for new stimuli, and my stimulus-starved mind is beginning to wonder if I can bend my ten commandments of being off-consumption a little, without actually breaking them.
