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Retail therapy – picking up a venti mocha frappuccino to make you feel better and ward off bad feelings – is one of the ways of buying I talk about a lot about in my book, Everything but the Coffee.

In yesterday’s edition of the Daily Pennsylvanian, Arielle Kane, discusses this impulse as well.  Talking about a trip to Anthropologic, she writes, “I love how it makes me feel — as my mom likes to point out to me, ‘you’re always in a better mood when you’ve bought something.’”  (See this article, http://thedp.com/article/arielle-kane-living-material-world)

To better understand her emotions about shopping, Kane went to chat with Wharton Marketing professor, Deborah Small

“People,” Small explained to her, “seek out shopping or consumption as a way to regulate their mood. Evidence shows that when people are depressed or sad they go shopping.”

Okay that makes sense, but Kane added: “People tend to believe they get more happiness from material goods than they actually do.” She continued. “Research shows that people who spend more money on experiences than material goods are happier.”

What Small meant my experiences, is, she said, people get more happiness going out to restaurants, baseball games or museums WITH OTHER PEOPLE. 

Even in our buying, in our retail therapy, we are, it seems looking for a connection not just things.  We want real people in real time.  We want to talk, hear the voices of others, and feel a little of that human touch.