October 7th, 2010 by Rachel | Tags: Anthropology, Book, Material Culture, Money, Shopping | No Comments »
My friends will attest how much I love shopping for sales because I always tell them stories about sales I have gotten. A couple of months ago, I posted a photo of me wearing a ‘special’ dress on Facebook that I wore to my graduation along with a note stating:
“There’s a story behind this dress…I saw this dress in January Anthropologie catalog. I was in LOVE with this dress but it was tooooo expensive for me to buy. Every time I went in the store, I touched the dress and admired the beautiful stitches. I asked the sales people in the store when the dress would go on sale. They shrugged. I went on Anthropologie’s site every few hours every SINGLE day and watched for a sale on this dress. One early morning, I saw that the dress went on sale for 50% off, and I brought it instantly. Now, here’s me wearing the special dress!”
Daniel Miller, the author of A Theory of Shopping, couldn’t be anymore right about his statement in the first chapter about how the conversation about shopping is not about how much we spent, but how we got the best deals:
“…it is possible for shoppers to regard virtually the whole of the shopping expedition and the purchase of almost any specific item within that saving. On many occasions I have returned to the home with a shopper to reflect on the shopping done. The conversation would not be of the form, ‘I spent three pounds on beef’ and ‘I spent ten pounds on a bra’ but of the form, ‘look I saved fifty pence on ice cream’ and ‘I saved six pounds on my daughter’s shoes.'”
When an event is not ordinary such as purchasing a price that is different from what we normally pay on regular basis, we are drawn to telling the story. Hearing stories about great deals we made is certainly far more interesting because it gives us a dramatic reaction to respond, which would be excitement or surprising.
