Why get seduced if you can't afford it?
Reggie J, The New Paper 28 Dec 08;
WE all remember those heady days when we went to the shops and shopped till we dropped with not a care in the world.
If Singapore's huge credit card debt is anything like what we read it is, it still barely raises a blip on our radar.
It's (still) like there's no tomorrow - flashing credit cards from morning to night.
Advertising, in our excessive and compulsive consumerist society, creates new needs and dreams that are usually fulfilled by buying XYZ.
But has it gone completely berserk?
The growth of discount vouchers has seen the rise of 'voucheristas' - people who choose their supermarket, shops and petrol based on whether there's a bonus point or freebie offered.
What can we make of these freebies - free sweepstakes, free samples, free coupons, free vouchers, loyalty points and other free chocolate-flavoured or beauty-based bonuses - to seduce and woo us to buy for some reason or other?
I just don't get the whole shopping experience thing. If you need a service or product, you should be able to just buy it without feeling the need for the experience to be enriching.
Is there so little poetry in our lives that we feel creativity only comes from marketing?
I wonder if the parallel rise in Internet shopping is a reaction to this constant enticement to shop stronger, harder, longer!
Are online shoppers better off because they're not staying in a retailer for longer and buying unnecessary things or, even worse, because even a rude sales assistant is some sort of social interaction?
Is trawling through a mall a form of exercise or is it all foiled by the promise of an overwhelming choice of fast foods available at every corner?
At a time when we're seeing a rise in depression, where a growing number of people are suffering the effects of debt, job loss and where families have borrowed too much or over-capitalising on their homes and lives, where debt of all kinds is normal, do we really need to be seduced to our detriment?
The fact is that we have become a nation measuring out our lives in shopping bags and nursing our psychic ills through retail therapy.
Shopping has the ability to raise our spirits - as well as our overdraft - whatever the time.
It's the ultimate pick-me-up.
Cheers! Pour another Merlot and let's go shopping.
The writer is a former Singaporean marketing professional.
