Shopping: Retailing and Teenage Girls

“The Signs of Shopping” by Anne Norton mainly talks about the hidden semiotic meanings behind the concept of shopping. She mentioned how women shopped to obtain a sense of self-identities by spending money to possess property(88). The reading also implies that

- Internet and catalog shopping offers services for consumers out of the comfort of their own homes

Black Friday shopping is a controversial issue in the United States; while many believe the day after Thanksgiving is a part of holiday festivities, others view it as destructive. Throughout “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” Andrew Leonard argues that the chaos of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in which crowds of Americans shop all night for extremely low prices, lessens the sophistication of Americans and the true meaning of the holidays. People become so consumed in the idea of endless sale prices that they forget to embrace what they already have, such as family, food, and shelter. He believes that Black Friday shopping has become out of control and describes the negative effects of excessive consumerism. he explains how most consumers act completely insane while Black Friday shopping and how society encourages this behavior by creating commercials and advertisements. Furthermore, Leonard states that it hurts the economy and damages one’s mental health. While Leonard is probably wrong when he claims that Black Friday shopping is completely troublesome to America’s well-being, he is right that consumerism overpowers the true significance of Thanksgiving.

It is believed that about 6% of Americans have a shopping addiction; of the 6% 90% are women. To a shopping addict trips to the mall become the main way to cope with stress, even when it is having a negative impact on the rest of their life. The addiction will affect their relationships and finances. (Omniomania: Shopping Addiction, 2010) It is a never ending merry-go-round; the stress from relationships and finances just reinforces the urge to shop more in order to feel better.

Shopping has become a daily activity which happens a billion times in America and around the world. We cannot imagine how our lives would be affected if shopping was suddenly stopped. Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Norton both write articles about two sides of modern day shopping: how consumers have impacted the retail industry and how the industry influences consumers. In the article " The Science of Shopping," Malcolm Gladwell, a well-known writer and journalist, analyzes the shopping behaviors of customers and how retailers can lure customers; while Anne Norton, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, in

Shopping can be defined as a compulsive buying behavior. Individuals become addicted to shopping because they see it as a stress relief, which triggers them to do it again. Women are more prone to experience compulsive buying behaviors than men.

In Bookmarks, Possessed by Our Possessions, Diane Cole states, “But never has hoarding been so visible as it is today in westernized societies. Perhaps the abundance of inexpensive and easily accessible objects makes it the disorder of the decade” (Cole 3). This quotes is very relevant to my views on how and why America seemed to be consumed by consumption. This isn’t just a coincidence but, an action that has turned into an emotion. Buying items used to be dependent on necessity but now it is based on the feeling. To buy items people enjoy themselves and it turns into a leisurely activity. Because of the emotion shopping creates, individuals who suffer from depression use this as an outlet and tend to buy at

Many people can recall having to work for everything they wanted as a child. The spoiled-ness has to be at an all-time high because the many kids that have every release and every designer shoe or clothing. Material items have created havoc in the past with the many shootings and the stealing that can occur at the releases. The store release of items has changed everything due to the limit of items they have and give out because the next person that does not purchase it becomes angry. Black Friday, the holiday that many people love because of the sales presented at each store. Parents are starting to spoil their children because they do not want their child to feel as they are under privileged. So, referring back to the releases and sales, parents try their hardest to give their kids the money to purchase the items. Children become ungrateful and become angry at the world, when they do not get what they want because they were raised to always do... A spoiled attitude tends to create the failures in the world because of their dependency on their supplier. Many people can agree that it feels great buying things on their own with their own money, but some still rather spend the next persons to save

Shopping is the art of purchasing goods from stores, it's one of my favorite hobbies. The feeling of attaining a new piece of clothing or multiple pieces of clothing gives me a high that no chemical can compare to. However I have come to the realization that it is just not my own on motivation driving me to want to shop but the stores have a way of manipulating their customers to buy more. One of my favorite store growing up would be Hollister Co. my friends and I were patrons of this store. Looking back I think Hollister is the perfect example of how retail stores use special tactics to manipulate their customers. As soon as you walk in into Hollister all your senses are overtaken by their carefully planned tactics to make their customers

Most cities have huge shopping malls, which tempt city residents to go shopping any chance they can get. For a city dweller, shopping is a stress-reliever. For country dwellers, on the other hand, shopping can cause stress. People who live in the country

The reasons men shop is another element that sets them apart from women. When men go shopping they shop out of convince. When going into a store men like to find a sale associate that will help them find a particular item quickly. Men do not shop to browse, they shop for what they came for and that's normally it. These actions are similar to a hunters because hunters go and harvest what they came for and leave with the prey. Women shop for comfort, and to raise their self esteems. When a women goes in the store they want to be pampered by the sales associate, and they

Through observing the fast pace shoppers inside the stores, I have noticed some details about the shopping ritual that sparked my interest. The bigger the store was, the more individuals went in the store. For example, Dillards which has a variety of different style of clothes, cosmetics, shoes, and items for both men and women of any age. Because these types of stores have more of a variety, individuals are more drown to this aspect to receive more options. Also, I noticed that individuals automatically go to the sale rack or section. For example, H&M and American Eagle both had large red signs in there stores to indicate a sale. This section was more crowded than any

I will open up a few tabs with some of my favorite stores and merely browse around. After hours upon hours of browsing, I will sometimes purchase something small and cheap to assure myself that I did not just waste my time. Lappe says that “buying thing seems to be a common human strategy to ease feelings of insecurity and fear” (Lappe 47). In many movies and TV shoes, you hear about those rich women who shop all day. Although these women do have the resources to do so, it can also be said that they need to shop to make themselves feel better. The typical rich, trophy wife type of woman is typically insecure with their personal relationships with others. The most common is that their husband is not around, therefore, they believe that if they can purchase things, it will fix all their problems in their relationships. In this case, their consumerism directly effects their personal relationships. As well as effecting their direct relationships, the shopping sprees also make these women feel empowered and effect how the other shoppers are perceiving them. I know the feeling of walking around a crowded mall with multiple bags on your shoulders. You feel like you are on a whole different level than those with one or two. As humans, “we focus more on money, image, and status” (Lapee 47). When these trophy wives walk through the malls, on the surface they feel proud and more superior than others when in fact, they are

When comparing two different ways of shopping most people do not even think about the difference, they do both and not even realize it. In today's society people shop while at work, after work and on the weekends, whenever time permits. Stop and think how can I get more time in the day for family or just myself? The best way to figure that out with all the recourses we have is to go into a store and spend time looking through racks and waiting in endless lines to just purchase something. I compared going into a store verses online shopping; to see which one will save you time and money.

There are more categories of products on the internet. And there are a lot of choices that people can choose, so they can buy what they want. The choice of a store is very much influenced by location and store types (Sinha, p.14). But brick and mortar stores have fewer kinds of products than online, and online shopping does not be influenced by location. Also, people do not need to be afraid to go buy some private things, if they want to buy in public store, such as, sanitary towel, underwear and so on. Because they can buy it on the internet and even it has more choices. Moreover, if customers want to buy a lot of things, and those things are not in the same place, then they need to run around here and there to buy all kinds of products they want. However, online shopping does not have this problem. People do not need to go out on a sunny or rainy day, just stay at home and pay it on the phone or computer. But the mall can provide some services for customers that are not available online, such as urgent care medical centers and roller coasters (Resnick, pp.1127-1128). Even then, online shopping is still better than traditional shopping. Furthermore, people can compare merchandise from different shops, so they can choose the cheapest and the best. Customers can try on new forms of apparel in stores, but it is too risky to purchase it based on pictures and text description in the internet (Resnick,