Go Shoppa!

Greetings and welcome to post #48. My average has slipped the last couple of weeks, I know. Up until early June, I'd been blogging here twice a week. And then, bam!, all of a sudden, only one post a week. What happened?

NZTV. Well, Wellington happened mainly. I was invited to go back to New Zealand to appear on another TV show. So, I was lounging around the green room and wandering around the Cuba district of the city instead of sitting in front of my PC, fingers poised, waiting for inspiration. You can head on over to the website to check out the segments if you like (they're at the bottom of the page) - just remember to come back here, ok? Then last week was the big ole halfway point so I wanted to savour that moment for a moment. Now that's over, I'll get back to posting a couple of times a week.

Seriously shoppa. The photo here was taken on the road in Auckland when we were there in May. We were leaving the Auckland Museum when this car appeared in front of us. Holy cow, would ya look at that number plate! we exclaimed to each other. Avoiding the obvious errors in spelling, this appeared to be one person seriously interested in shopping, right? This got me thinking about shopping statistics and here's what I've discovered after an extensive 4.5 minute search on Google:

How much time? The average woman spends up to 8 years of her life shopping. This is according to a OnePoll.com survey. They study all the interesting stuff. Now, they didn't tell us if that was over the average lifespan of say an 80 year old woman, or if that still applies if one is cut down in the prime of life at say 35. So, we don't know if that's one-tenth of a woman's life is spent in the pursuit of purchasing, or say one-quarter. Actually, we have no idea if this statistic is even true. But here's what we do know. In recent months, this statistic has been quoted all over the online world and on one website, comments about it were allowed, and a woman from Cambridge in the UK quipped "only eight?" So that's an interesting response, right? I guess if you're a shopper, then you're doing something that you love and you spend more time at it. The British TV show Shopping is my Life showcases women who spend up to 12 hours a week (and that's every week not some aberrent demented shopping bender) shopping for clothes, shoes and accessories. Some of these women are corporate high flyers who one might imagine have bottom line responsibilities, budgets to manage and team meetings to attend. And yet they still find 12 hours a week to shop. That's dedication. Or something.

How many items? Another study estimates that women buy at least 14 items of clothing a year that they never wear. These items hang or sit in the wardrobe, tags still attached, unworn, unloved, unrecoverable in terms of initial cost outlay. Churchills, who did the study, go on to say that many of these "orphans" are purchased during SALE times. See, I knew that sale really was a four-letter word! That's a lot of wasted shopping time. And a lot of wasted money. Since you're here, reading this, I'll give you a free bonus tip. Ready? If you wouldn't pay full price for it, don't even consider buying it on sale. Why would you? If its cheapness is the major reason you're buying it, something is off with the purchase. Even quality or designer stuff is not worth buying if the only reason you're doing so is because its cheap.

Actually, you know what? The same goes for buying designer stuff just because it's expensive or "label". That kind of gear usually has a high show-off factor and doesn't do much to express the real you. Now if the real you is a show-off, well, that's another story. Go ahead and buy it! (I've been known to occasionally show off.... ok, I heard your sharp intake of breath there as you gasped in surprise. It's true. So I'm not saying buying show-off-y clothes is bad or wrong. Clearly it's a personal choice).

Rounding up. So, how's that round up of interesting lies, I mean statistics, about shopping? I found it fascinating. Next time I might do a review of my experience of being on NZTV's Good Morning, as it was a bit different to my Breakfast experience. Different city for a start. Brunette presenter. Different questions. I mean, the differences are endless. Well, they'd fill a blog posting anyway.

5.12 weeks. And in the meantime, I'll be congratulating myself at the 1.2 months of my life I have back, now that I'm not spending one-tenth of this year shopping. Sheesh, when you look at it that way, that's a lot of time that you could be spending in so many other ways. Right?