Fashion Junkie

Shrink Wrap: the latest in Retail Therapy

Did any of you happen to come across this week’s WWD article entitled “Shoppers Calling for a Little In-Store Psychology”? In case you missed it, I thought I’d re-hash some of the article’s more eyebrow-raising points.

In a nutshell, the premise of this insightful article is that specialty boutique sales staff (in NYC and L.A.) have become stand-in shrinks for their regular customers. A number of sales staff provided hysterical anecdotes about certain high-maintenance shoppers, some of whom think it’s normal behavior to prance around a boutique in nothing but their skivvies. However, in my humble opinion, the most amusing part of the article is its classification of shoppers into five humorous categories including:

• Miss Lonely Hearts: pours her heart out to a salesperson rather than seek treatment with a trained therapist.

• The Addict: shops compulsively, but hasn’t bothered to get to the root of the problem.

• The Psycho Shopper: throws temper tantrums and often exudes bizarre behavior (i.e,. asks a salesperson to snap naked shots of her in the dressing room).

• The Performer-Exhibitionist: flirts with sales staff, flashes her breasts and practices downward dog yoga moves.

• Little Ms. Indecisive: tortures herself by putting an expensive designer item on hold, eventually buys it and then returns the item due to shoppers remorse.

Truth be told, I fall under not just one, but four of these categories. Yup… I’m guilty of buying and returning (a.k.a. shopping bulimia), sometimes hide how much I spend from my hubbie, split clothing payments on multiple credit cards, occasionally thrown a temper tantrum if Pedro Garcia’s must-have platform pump is unavailable in my size and shop compulsively despite my dwindling savings account. But there is hope around the corner!. I’m actually considering attending Shopoholics Anonymous, a division of the Shulman Center for Compulsive and Theft Spending.

I’m curious… which of the five shopper categories do you fall under? Share your thoughts with the rest of the Fashion Junkie community!