I'm not sure. I have a friend who is definitely more of a satisficer than I am when it comes to clothes shopping. And yet I feel life is too short to spend countless hours researching every possible option for every purchase. That being said, the bigger the purchase, the more time I will invest in research. So I guess I'm a satisficer when it comes to less expensive things and a maximizer when the item is more costly. Sometimes I'm happily surprised to receive maximal pleasure from a satisficer purchase!

I'm definitely a satisficer. Like you, if it works, I'll buy it (if I can afford it). The careful buyer does appeal to me, I'm just afraid I don't have the attention span to be a maximizer.

I'll do a little research, but not a whole lot. I let most things find me. I'll price stalk some things, but I don't usually go for the cheaper thing that reminds me of the thing I want.

Hmm...satisficers do research, according to the OP. They just stop and then buy when they find something that pushes all the right buttons, yes? That's pretty much me when I shop.

(And even though I think of "maximizing" as looking for the thing that pushes all instead of just some buttons, apparently that term here is used for someone who keeps looking for something that fits the list even "better" instead of stopping with the first thing that does?)

So satisficing isn't the same, I think, as settling for something that doesn't quite ring the bell, and it's not about not shopping at all (the way I've seen a lot of men do things, at least with clothes and household stuff), the way I read it, anyway.

I am a maximizer all the way. Even as a kid. I would drive my dad crazy. I would tell him I wanted 'x' and had saved the money to get it so he would take me to the store. But, once I got to the store and saw the item, analyzed the item, felt the item, I would need to go to another store to make sure there was not another 'better' 'x' out there. Then, if it did not meet my strict price requirements, I would not buy it and go home empty handed. The poor man would go bonkers, lol.

MaryK this is so timely for me. I was talking with a friend at work today about this topic. I am a satisficer. As much as I love fashion I don;t really enjoy shopping. I don't have the patience to be a maximizer.

Definitely a Satisficer. It's apparently so with my footwear wardrobe shift these days. In an ideal world, I would have comfortable yet polished/edgy/modern footwear but such a thing does not exist... So I settle for something that could seem edgy if styled a certain way, I'm not usually happy about this, but I have to take care of my feet and avoid surgery as much as possible.

Hm, I confess I haven't read the original definitions, but I'm finding this harder than it seems... my first instinct is to say that I am a maximizer, but I don't associate that with permanent indecision in the way that some of you have described. Rather, I find that thoroughness can make me more decisive in the long run.

I am a little of both... Sometimes as a busy homeschooling Mom, you just do things in the moment. Other times when budgets are tighter because of unexpected expenses it pays to really take your time.... I definitely have moments of both and can't say I really stick to one or the other.... But that's me , I don't run in one lane...

I'm definitely a satisficer. If I can find a cute anything and all the requirements checks out, I'll buy it. Although I also tend to go with the first thing I see, like when I bought the first (and only) car I test drove or picked the college that I went on my first visit to as the college of my dreams.

I am a buy with my gut, but my gut has been primed with a lot of information, type. So I look like a satisficer but actually all the maximizing work occurred off stage.

I'm a satisficer, but I research first to set my criteria. Also, I often find it almost impossible to find an option that actually satisfies all of my criteria, particularly the ethical/environmental ones. For instance, I'd love to knit a grey summer cardigan, and my mother gave me some 'yarn money' for my birthday last month. Summer means I need cooler materials but conventionally raised cotton has so many issues (pesticides, water use, forced child labour in Uzbekistan, etc.), I'd rather pay more for organic. However, I can't seem to find organic cotton yarn blends (ideally either cotton/silk or cotton/linen) in a thinner yarn weight like I want. For any price. I've found an organic linen option, but it's only available online, so I can't feel it to see if I'd enjoy knitting with it or see the colours first. So I've yet to start knitting my cardigan. Sigh.

ETA: oh I just saw this was for fashion vs general shopping! When I shop secondhand, I'm definitely a satisficer. It's when I'm shopping retail that my criteria limit my options so much.

Great question, and I love Gretchen, am anxiously awaiting her new "habits" book! This was very much on my mind this week: popped into TJ Maxx in need of a stopgap work clothes fix, and found a beautiful pair of kingfisher blue crepe slacks for $16! They go perfectly with my work capsule of blues and teals...But...they aren't too well made, and probably won't hold up to much wear, so NOW I am on the hunt for the same color in a quality pair! Satisficer with maximizer tendencies!

I think I can see both tendencies in myself. Like celia, I can drive myself nuts with the interior dialogue, though, when it comes to finding the absolute best, most perfect item. And the problem is, it probably doesn't even exist!

I am totally like Aziraphale's mom, except I do my research online instead of running from store to store. It's the same thing, though. :^)

It's funny because I'm actually debating right now over whether to keep or return two cardigans I got on sale from Anthro. And the debate is very much maximizer vs. satisficer. One cardi is 100% cotton, and the other is almost 100%—I drove myself nuts last winter trying to find sweaters without lots of synthetic material and found NOTHING, so the fabrication of these is a biggie! The fit on both of these cardigans is great, and I am terribly hard to fit on tops...so another biggie! And they were on sale (though still not cheap)...another biggie! However, they're a *bit* on the frilly side for me. They will go great with a casual outfit, like jeans, but not as well with something that has more "character," if you will, since the cardis are original-looking enough that they need no competition in an outfit. So I ask myself if I am willing to keep these, knowing that they do hit the superimportant buttons (fabrication, weight, fit), or whether I want to take a chance and return these and hope that I find something similar but less girly this coming fall. Hmm. It's a dead heat! I'll probably be locked up in the mental institution before I decide.

I'm both sometimes, but probably more of a maximizer. I was thinking I might be a more of a satisficer at first, because I'll definitely buy things that don't seem 100 percent ideal in every possible way just so I can have something. But the key is that, even when I do this, I'll still spend a lot of time contemplating whether it's really what I want to buy and looking around to see if there's anything better before I finally pull the trigger. I'm definitely that person who'll go to 10 different stores before finally going back and getting the thing I tried on the first place I went. Then look around online before I cut the tags just to make sure there aren't options I missed.

In general, if I'm looking for something in particular, I'll be in "scouting-out mode" for a while before I'm remotely ready to buy. Especially if it's something big-ticket or that's expected to be a major workhorse. Which mostly involves lots of looking at every option on a bunch of websites until a few things really stick out as possibilities, then looking at reviews, then maybe dropping by a store to see them in person if it's easy to do, then mulling over a top contender or two for a while until there's a sale or I get worried my size will sell out or I realize I really need/want whatever it is. Like Shevia, when I buy, it may sometimes look like a gut-driven impulse decision, but there's usually been something percolating for a while.

I do go more for satisficing when I'm buying something that doesn't interest me much. Bras, running gear, layering tops -- will buy the first reasonable thing. But I don't think I've ever in my life decided to immediately buy the first pair of shoes I found that would fill some need!

In the rest of my life, it's probably about the same pattern. The bigger a deal it is or the more it interests me, the more I'll maximize. (For example, I've spent way more time researching restaurants to choose where to go for a nice meal out that I'm going to actually spend eating it.) But I'll shamelessly satisfice if it's something that I can't motivate myself to care about.

I can relate to both but I think I am more towards the maximiser. When I read Rubin's book I immediately knew my DH was a satisficer. It certainly has a lot going for it - he is also a low research guy ( for purchasing) - and the combination saves him heaps of time and angst.

OTOH I am a researcher to the point of over research (good thing my day job includes research!). Unlike Marley, as a student I would enjoy the research and not really feel it was like work until the rubber hit the road and I had to actually write something (which usually mention that you had to decide on a position, which is the hard part for me).

Like Manidipa I have champagne tastes and a teetotal budget. And I am picky when it comes to fashion. Totally maximiser. And these combine badly with not likely shopping overly much and getting very easily tired out by it.

When it comes to handed down and gifted items I am much more of a satisficer. I keep quite a few of those, though I wouldn't have necessarily have purchsed them myself. Sometimes recently, when I have walked out of yet another shop empty handed, I have had the thought that if somebody gave me something from the shop, I would be quite happy wearing at least half of the options there!!

But if I only plan to buy, say, _one_ casual sweater for the winter, which is my usual plan - then I want it to tick all the boxes. And I often find myself walking out just not buying. (Because I am such an under buyer)

Conversely when we bought our house last year, we bought almost the first house we looked at and at put the offer in before I had even seen it! ( I told DH I trusted him, and had seen the online pics) The context is that we had been watching the market in our area for a few months, knew houses were getting snapped up very soon after they went for sale, and generally we knew about what we could get for what we could afford. And So the first house that was available and met our needs (and many in the price range didn't), we just bought!! Some people couldn't believe that we were that quick.

Afterwards I said to DH, what if something even better comes up and we'll regret buying now. He said, very wisely: just stop looking. And we are indeed content!

For me it depends on the item. For certain things I'm easily a satisfier and others I'm most definitely a maximizer. Most folks aren't uniformly one or the other (you should see how long I researched and stalked TVs before buying the one we have 8 years ago).

For those who are more interested in this topic I highly recommend reading the book Paradox of Choice. Essentially we've gone from a time when you went into a store and bought a pair of jeans (the only ones available, that were the right waist and length for you) to having so many options to choose from that it becomes overwhelming (low rise, distressed finish, skinny leg, wide leg, bootcut??) and research has shown that the more options that are available often times the less likely someone is to make a decision to purchase. It's an excellent and informative read for anyone else who geeks out over this kind of stuff.

Maximizer, maximizer, maximizer!! I'm this way with clothes, shoes and handbag shopping. I'm like this with buying cars and houses. I was not like this when I was "shopping" for my husband! Satisficer there!

I LOVE research. I even continuing researching after I've purchased something. Not for everything because often I've done enough researching before I bought the item. I've become more maximizer with clothes shopping since following YLF.

Brene Brown talks about how, at the other end of the spectrum, our "superpowers" can become our kryptonite. My maximizer tendencies and my love for research and analysis, I believe, is my superpower. But at the other end, maximizing can become paralysis in making a decision - my kryptonite. I'm learning to try and keep my maximizing in the "safe" zone - fun not agonizing!

I'm becoming more and more of a maximizer as I get older. Too many fast decisions that did not work out have made me more cautious with purchases.