In general - I shop when I feel better about myself. Shopping when I feel blue isn't a good strategy for me. I am simply not in the mood to shop when I'm not feeling great about 'me' - hard to explain, but I *avoid* shopping at all costs when I'm unhappy. Shopping when I feel blue actually makes me feel worse. Strange, but true!
That said, I do notice a tendency to shop when stressed/pressured - like the typical rushing around to find the perfect cocktail dress or what have you, on the eve of such event. Agghhh...hate that!
I also tend to shop right before a big trip - suddenly, I don't have what I need for these "events" somehow. I just did this very recently - rushed over to Park City outlets (first time there) because I had two trips coming up and didn't have what I felt were the 'right' things.
It would be nice if I could avoid these last-minute, stress-induced shopping trips. In the past, I've made a lot of mistakes this way. This last time - I didn't do so badly, and that's because I've made a vow to myself to stop shopping the discount stores and shop at stores that have things that I actually like, instead of "deals, deals, deals." Now granted, I went to an outlet mall, and got stuff on sale (over Labour Day weekend), but ...I made the effort to shop at stores that had things I like, and tried to be a bit more picky about things. I still have a few things to return, but it's getting much better.
To keep 'on topic' - I find that shopping when I'm feeling blue makes me feel bad - and if I'm already feeling bad, and in some kind of funk - this will translate right into/onto my shopping experience - there are clouds over my head and nothing looks right or feels right when I'm in a mood like that. I am much better off buying some fresh flowers, some really good coffee, and some seriously good dark chocolate instead of trying to buy clothes or accessories.
Retailers: take note! I'm willing to bet that if a retail store handed out a square of dark chocolate to customers entering the store - the overall mood would improve dramatically.
