People Who Shop Till They Drop Learn to Stop

Does the thought of a department store sale make you dizzy with joy? Does the mention of a name like Lord & Taylor give you goose bumps? Do you buy so much merchandise that you never get to use it all?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, a University of Illinois advertising and business administration professor says you may be a compulsive consumer. And the thrills for those who get high from this habit are anything but cheap.

“Compulsive consumers are people who are impulsively driven to consume, whose buying is often inappropriate, typically excessive and clearly disruptive to their lives,” Thomas C. O’Guinn said.

The psychological symptoms are similar to more widely recognized compulsives--such as compulsive eaters, dieters, gamblers, drinkers and drug users, O’Guinn said.

“Compulsive consumers should also be offered psychological counseling and support groups: the techniques used to help individuals dealing with other kinds of compulsive behaviors,” he said.

‘Aren’t Social Taboos’

“People who would look askance at drinking or gambling to excess wouldn’t think twice about going out and spending far more than they could afford. There just aren’t the social taboos against shopping.”

O’Guinn, on sabbatical at the University of Utah, is involved with an ongoing, two-year study with Ronald J. Faber, co-director of the research division at the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

The team has learned that compulsive consumers are more envious and materialistic, and less generous, than ordinary shoppers.

Faber said as much as 6% of the population could be in danger of shopping compulsively. He also said compulsive shoppers suffer from low self-esteem and have a nearly constant need for arousal.

“We found compulsive buyers need to find things that are stimulating and arousing,” he said. “For some people, buying satisfies both the need for arousal and helps support their sagging self-esteem.”

‘Serves Emotional Need’

The study, however, showed that compulsive buyers are not always more possessive than other people. O’Guinn said this may indicate that the motivation behind compulsive consumption is not the desire to own the items purchased.

“Nor were they as likely to report having a desire to buy, without caring what they bought,” he added. “Compulsive consumers overspend because buying serves some other emotional need.”

O’Guinn said some of those participating in the study were so afraid that someone, usually their spouse, would find out about their compulsion that they hid their purchases in car trunks or closets. Some reported buying so much merchandise that they simply stuffed the items in their closets without removing price tags.

Ordinary consumers interviewed in the study never “went on a buying binge and were unable to stop, or felt anxious or nervous on days they didn’t go shopping,” O’Guinn said.

The majority of those participating in the study were females. But Faber said that does not necessarily mean that compulsive shoppers are predominantly women. He said women tend to seek help and participate in studies more often than men.