FCUK, CK, TOPSHOP, FOREVER NEW, NEXT, MYER, TARGET, MICHAEL HILL, BOSSINI, GUCCI, PRADA, SUNGLASS HUT, CARPHONE WAREHOUSE, BIG W, COLES, TESCO, WOOLWOTRTHS, WALMAT, DEBENHAMS.....that is high street.
Have you wondered why they call it the HIGH STREET? clearly there is a reason. You seem to get high every time you come from the high street. My friend wanted me to buy a purse from CK and gift it to one of his other friends. I had to go to a shopping complex near the harbor in Portsmouth, UK and before I knew I was loosing some pounds; Not off my waist but off my purse.
Can you remember that feeling how you wanted to be locked down in your bed room reading a novel and listening to some mild music but you find yourself greedily looking at the shopping bags in fellow shopaholics' hands only to randomly enter in to some shop and in no time merrily type away your four digit EFTPOS/debit card pin? Ah, now you must be feeling like a king!! Welcome to the club, you need help go and enroll yourself in shopaholics anonymous before your mother tells you off to police for stealing money from her purse.
I know how you feel when your friend has bought something and she updates her FB status right from the mall 'My new shoes from Clarks' along with a picture of her holding each shoe next to her ears like a dangling. Your reaction? 'Aaaarrrgghhhhh!!!! that bitch!!!!' and before you know you are in Clarks too with your pink shoes and eventually your FB status is updated and you find yourself counting the number of likes you get against your friend's. It is a wonderful life isn't it?
Recently I got myself deliberately lost in a shopping paradise (some say I was drooling a thick one every time I walked by any shop). I had been in the shopping mall for less than one hour and had walked past 10 shops and before I entered my second hour in the complex I was a member of an elite shopping community that had 8 bags on their hands. I know the math did not add up. 10 shops still only 8 bags? Well there was a Starbucks where I certainly stopped to get a caffeine boost and the other one was the place that guarded Victoria's best kept secrets and I had nothing to buy there.
The beautiful attendant in the shop no longer attracts me, it is that GUCCI clad mannequin that pulls me in to the shop. The best part is when there is a SALE. Of course there is a sale for New Year, Sankranti, Deevali, Christmas, Ed February, Thursday ....awesome........ 2 Polos for $9. Really $9? that cheap? I know it is made in China, still $9? was it also used in China before it made its way to Aussie high street? but what the hell? it is $9 and I want 5 pairs of them...bam..... I have invested another $45 on some possible Chinese used, Chinese made polo.....Life of my.......
Shopaholics are the single reason why a lot of countries have managed to escape recession. Think about the high street shopper who swipes the card without any mercy just so a single mother in Bangladesh could feed her child or a child in Vietnam could go to school. Despite the fact I am helping the world economy to get back to its feet my mom and dad stop talking to me for minimum 5 days when I go on such socially un-unspeakable spending spree and my sis doesn't talk to me because I did not take her along nor did I buy her that pink and blue blossom to accessorize her plait.
But I do need to confess that every time I get out to get a kick of retail therapy what follows next is a phase of depression, I feel cheated, manipulated by giant retailers who ruthlessly cash in on naive shoppers. A mental depression, can the shopper sue the retailers for letting them buy a Rocha, John Rocha shirt for 10 pounds and only to loose their mental peace? You get so low that only way out is another session of retail therapy...phew and the cycle continues....
Thanks to god I don't have a girl friend and am able to save few dollars and am still able to manage to get a meal or two in a week.
Oniomania, that is what they call it. You, you, you and you; You all have it and I am no exception and I am having it too and definitely in the acute stage of it. It is possible that some day they might say 'did you hear about him? He died of shopping. Shocking story'.
Now if you allow me I have some things to buy. My hands are shaking and I need to get a hello kitty knitted cover for my iPhone 5.
PS:
The write up is meant to sound funny and not to take a dig on the retailers/brands and this article doesn't certainly reflect my spending patterns. Sensible spending is not difficult if you plan and organise your buying needs. Happy sensible shopping. See you in the mall.
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