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Confessions of an online shopaholic

I drift often.

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Anonymous

I drift often. I just did 15 minutes back. When I resolved I wouldn’t, half an hour earlier. And then, through one of Google’s remarketing system, the wrap dress that I once wished for and clicked on, shows up on the homepage of the website that guarantees weight-losing tricks. The combination is lethal; I take it as a sign from above. And I click. And I check dimensions. And I see more options in different colours. And I click. Again. And again to lose another 15 minutes of my day to online shopping. Or browsing, something akin to window shopping.

A confession: I am an online shopaholic. When I became one, I don’t remember. But, what haven’t I bought online! Clothes, accessories, gifts, furniture, upholstery, crockery, cosmetics... You name it, and I have a credit card statement as a testimony to my binge shopping. Cash-on-delivery made my pursuits more compulsive.

I no longer care about what leads to what — festivals to shopping or is it vice-versa? The shopping season conveniently finds space on my calendar besides the staple four. It sandwiches itself between the balmy autumn and freezing winter. Anxious about the sudden drop in temperatures in a month’s time, followed by a blistering high by April, I go for the bi-annual wardrobe overhaul.

Don’t judge me by my bills. They stay modest. I earn modest. It’s all thanks to 70 to 80 per cent discount promises that the online stores fulfil. For expensive buys, I have a ready budget. Or a deficit ready. I somehow tide over it. Like women do. Yes, like men do too. Let’s pluck out gender from this whole debate. Statistics show that men have generously contributed towards the bumper sales of major online shopping destinations. What do they shop? Almost what women do — from clothes to shoes to accessories to cosmetics. They might buy electrical appliances or furniture or upholstery, but they use the stuff as much. I spot those sealed packets on men’s desks often in my office. Desperate to know more of my clique — it helps me bear the guilt of shopping indulgence — I have often enquired about the constituents, which range from an upmarket brand of shades to a hair gel. Their enthusiasm is a balm for my bruised bank balance and their shopping an assurance that vanity isn’t the crime of women alone.

There are times when I introspect about my years of experience, and almost a century of shopped products. Have I mastered the art of online buying? Not really. Otherwise I wouldn’t while away hours to settle on a shade of lipstick; or revisit the website to check if the pink I splurged on is hot enough. I doubt my ability to shop wisely. As for agility, I thought that is doable. Like in case of the 20k smartphone I recently bought. Raging to prove that online shopping is not just convenient, it’s quicker too — you don’t waste time in commuting and visiting multiple shops for a standard product — I made the payment on an impulse. Rear camera was perfect, selfie camera even better, RAM respectable... only battery life was a bit of a compromise. So, I would click and Instagram, in the particular order several times a day, but that would be it. To make a call, I realised I needed another smart cheap phone.

If only the smart quotient of smartphones had a rub on effect! I, like others around me, both men and women, would have learnt that sales and discounts are meant to create a sense of urgency.  That, at any other time of the year, there wouldn’t be much price difference between what my favourite dress costs now and what it did six months back. Yes, some stuff goes cheap, but did you check the quality or relevance in the present times. Did the products ever have an original price or these were always discounted to attract people like you and me?  To myself, I am sounding like an attendee of shopaholic anonymous, someone who had a session with Rebecca Bloomwood of Confessions of a Shopaholic.

But that’s how I am, a wise shopper.... Till I drift. Till I break my oath and click on that bait of an ad. Till I.... 

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