A few weeks ago, I went out shopping for the day with my mom and my son. While I enjoyed spending the time with both of them, throughout the day I kept thinking about all of the things that I would rather be doing with them other than shopping. Things like spending time out in the yard, going for a walk, or even playing indoors. Anything but shopping.
How could this be? When did I come to dislike shopping so much? I am not sure that there was any one defining event; it was more like a gradual shift of consciousness. In high school, my best friend and I were at the malls almost all weekend, every weekend. Sure, we were there for the social scene, but we were shopping too. We also frequented the malls both together and separately during college. I might add that during college, I was offered and unwisely accepted, credit cards and began amassing credit card debt that I assumed that I would be able to pay off once I graduated and got a job.
After college, I went to law school, and even though I moved from Massachusetts where the malls are plentiful to Vermont where malls are few and far between, I still shopped quite a bit. Somewhere between law school graduation and the present time, my love affair with shopping faded into the background. Perhaps it was my decision a few years ago to stop using credit and pay for everything with cash only? That sure cut down on the amount of shopping that I could do because almost all my money has gone and still does go to covering the absolute necessities. Perhaps I would like shopping more if I actually had money to shop with. Maybe not, though. When I went on this most recent thought-provoking shopping trip, I had money that I had been saving up to buy the items that I needed as well as some extra money with which I could buy whatever I wanted. I thought I would be elated to have some money to spend freely, but for some reason I just was not all that excited.
I recently read an article online that stated that America’s love affair with shopping has come to an end. Perhaps I am not the only person that feels this way, then. What do you think?
Photo by clarita on morguefile.com.