14 Simple Truths About Conscious Consumption

Posted by Jill Chivers in Simple Truths

Conscious Consumption

  1. Conscious shopping is about feeling good about the shopping you do before, during and after every shopping trip you take.
  2. Conscious shopping is about making purchasing choices that you feel good about, and that make complete sense on a number of levels:
    • Practical – I need and will use this, this purchase makes sense
    • Financial – I can afford this item, this is a comfortable financial decision
    • Emotional – I feel good about this purchasing decision, and not just now in the process of buying it, but also long after the ink has dried on the receipt
  1. When you are shopping consciously you are choosing consciously.  Conscious shopper choose when they go shopping, rather than feel compelled to do so.  They are tuned into the decision to place themselves in a shopping situation – they don’t just “find themselves” shopping and can’t quite recall how they got there.
  2. Conscious shopping happens when you have a plan, a strategy, an overarching r’aison d’etre for going shopping. There is no randomness to the shopping trip where you wander listlessly from rack to rack, with no clear thought about what it is you’re looking for.
  3. When you shop consciously, your mood isn’t significantly lifted by shopping.  This is a big one, as many compulsive and over-shoppers use shopping for that very purpose: to significantly lift or mask their mood.  This is not to say that if you enjoy a bit of shopping that you are unconscious or compulsive about it – not remotely! But it is equally true that conscious shoppers feel good about themselves and their lives on a regular basis, and don’t need or use shopping to give them a huge emotional or energetic boost or ‘buy high’.
  4. Conscious shoppers live their lives – they don’t spend them.  Their lives are full of interesting and varied activities and people.  Conscious shoppers enjoy experiences that give their life meaning and direction – outside of the mall.  Shopping is not their favourite or only hobby or their default ‘go to’ activity when they don’t know what to do or have a spare moment.
  5. If you are shopping consciously, shopping is in its rightful place in your life. People who have shopping in its rightful place in their lives don’t shop every day, or every week.  Compulsive and over-shoppers truly fit the description of ‘addict’ because they feel a need, a compulsion, to engage in shopping behaviour frequently.  Often it’s daily (or even multiple times per day) and if not daily, then it’s weekly.  If the thought of not shopping for a week makes your heart pound and your pulse race, that’s a good sign that your shopping habits need to be examined.  And changed.
  6. When you shop consciously, you know what you’re spending.  Conscious shoppers are aware of their outgoings, and they usually track them either on pen and paper as they shop, or via a budget prior to shopping. This budget isn’t always written down, but it is known and generally stuck to. Conscious shoppers are aware of their numbers, and they don’t fudge them.
  7. Preparation is key to conscious shopping. Creating a list, based on what you know you need, is one key preparation task you can do to make sure you only bring home the things you need and know you will use, and not bring home anything you don’t want, don’t need or won’t use.
  8. Conscious shopping is shopping where you don’t feel pressured to buy by effective and focused sales assistants, whose sole purpose in that situation is to encourage you to buy today.
  9. During your conscious shopping expedition, you keep a focused head about you. You know what you’re there to buy, and you keep that Front And Centre. When you are shopping consciously, you remain focused on what you’re there to purchase and aren’t distracted by alluring window and table displays.
  10. When you shop consciously, you are in a state of awareness. You have your brain switched to the ‘ON’ position, and you have your wits about you. Many of us who have unconsciously overshopped have done the opposite for too long – shopped with our brains in the OFF or NEUTRAL positions, and in a vague state of mind. Not recommended.
  11. Conscious shopping happens when you are feeling resourceful, alert and energetic. Unconscious shopping happens when you are too tired, too overwrought, too stressed, too hungry, too in need of a cure-all to a disturbed or distressed emotional state. Also not recommended.
  12. Conscious shopping happens when you don’t feel guilty, embarrassed, ashamed or greedy about the shopping you do. Each shopping trip feels ‘clean’ and clear, and you are happy to tell others about the shopping you have done and the items you have purchased.
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