Thursday, November 29, 2012

Sometimes Ease beats Money

When stepping in the door for a home visit, after being away at school, my mom loves to treat me to a shopping trip. Obviously, without complaint, I take the gesture and run with it. However, shopping trips around Thanksgiving time are usually different. Everything is on sale, sales start late at night and go early in the morning, and oh, let's not forget, the crowds are enormous. This causes my mom to think about her plan of attack, which is not a normal one. My mom is so turned off by crowds, and dealing with people that she shops before the sales hit, to steer clear from the chaos. Her decision making steps go as follow:

1. The problem is crowds that I don't want to deal with, however I also could save money.
2. I could either go early and not save money, or just deal with the mess of the crowd.
3. Paying full price is okay; shoving, pushing and yelling my way through a crowd is unbearable to think about doing.
4. I'm paying full price, no doubt about it.
5. That was so worth it, after watching the videos that made the news and Internet.

My mom is probably very different than most, however when she feels at ease about shopping, she makes better decisions and is happier about her post decision evaluation. The reduced distractions and time pressure allows my mom to have a higher ability of motivation to consume the products she wants.  
The consumer behavior prospect theory states that loss has more influence than gain, and that consumers have a stronger reaction to price increases than decreases, but it is the opposite for my mom. She feels that although she is at a loss for the amount of money she is spending that she could be saving, she is saving her sanity in the long run, and that to her is a gain that not even money can stop her from keeping. Which concludes my story in proving, that sometimes ease beats money.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with your mom on this one. I’m not a big crowd person as well, and last year was my first year of getting the whole experience of Black Friday. Let’s just say I won’t do that ever again. Even though I do have to pay more than what I would have on Black Friday, I’m happier with my overall purchase. I can take my time and decide if it’s really the item that I want rather than almost having to impulse buy because I don’t want anyone else to have the product. By shopping this way I don’t lose sanity and am a very satisfied consumer.

    ReplyDelete