Am I insane?

In Santa Pause (via Tyler Cowen), Kathy Lally writes of research by Ravi Dhar, co-director of the Center for Customer Insights at the Yale School of Management, and Joel Huber, a professor at Duke's business school:

Dhar says a shopper looking for something utilitarian, such as an umbrella, sets off quite rationally, considering price and value. But as soon as he decides to buy it, something happens. He shifts gears, lurching into buying mode.

"It's a change in mindset," Dhar says. "You go from carefully weighing pros and cons to buying. You don't stop to think. You get into a frenzied mindset. You start looking for things to buy."

That utilitarian purchase, he says, apparently gives you the justification to do something fun. "Essentials drive momentum," he says.

To quote the study: "Shopping momentum arises from this reasonable idea that shopping has an inertial quality, that there is a hurdle to shift from browsing to shopping, which, once crossed, makes further purchases more likely."

Huber describes the first stage as a period of evaluation.

"Suppose I'm in the mall and I'm looking around. I'm in Bed, Bath & Beyond, and I see a pillow that's perfect for my Aunt Polly.

"Until that moment, you're in 'browsing mode.' Someone comes up to you and asks, 'Can I help you?' You say, 'I'm just looking.' But as soon as you decide to make that purchase, things change.

"As long as you are in browsing mode, you have the brakes on. But once you make that first decision, the brakes come off and you are in 'buy mode.' That's when you purchase too much. Next thing you know, you have a whole basket of pillows, and you're wondering why you bought them."

Fortunately, Dhar and Huber have found a most pleasant way to head off the momentum. Make your first purchase a guilty pleasure, and something akin to remorse takes hold. Your subsequent purchases are restrained, and you emerge from your shopping trip within budget and bounds.

"This is one of the more surprising things," Huber says. "If your first purchase is a guilty pleasure, you don't go into that next mode. Maybe it's an ice cream cone. . . . It's something you want but you don't want to want."

Somehow, initial indulgence leads to prudence...

"If you start by buying something you really need, something for the house, perhaps, that makes the momentum larger," Dhar says. "There's a feeling you can reward yourself in some sense. If you start with something that is guilt-inducing, you are more likely to stop. It acts as a deterrent."

Another trick, he says, is to shop in stores with multiple checkout counters. If you take all your purchases to one counter, you tend to buy more.

"We speculate that multiple checkout counters disrupt the momentum," Dhar says. "If you have to open your wallet and pay again, that can make you stop."

Huber says the study shows that people tend to be in either purchase mode or evaluation mode. "The trick is, once you decide to purchase something, go back into evaluation mode," he says. "Don't let yourself say, 'I solved it,' and then fill up the shopping cart."

Once you leave evaluation mode, Huber says, you not only tend to buy more than you might want, but you stop caring as much about the price. "You're simply saying, 'It's time to buy.'"

I only buy what I need; I don't think I ever go into what they call "buying mode". At most I've bought a couple of books that I don't need at the time, but I do ultimately read them. The only time I'm tempted to let myself go is when the things for sale seem ridiculousy cheap. So if most everyone else can't control themselves, I guess I'm the crazy one.