Did you manage to get through Black Friday and Cyber Monday without buying something you otherwise wouldn’t have purchased? This is the first year in a very, very long time that I did. I had been procrastinating ordering my dogs’ medicine, so I used Ebates’ 6% cash back on Pet Care Rx as motivation to purchase their refills. And that was it. True story!
I was immensely tempted by Torrid’s 50% off sale since it’s the best discount they offer and it only happens a few times each year. But I didn’t actually need or even strongly want anything on their site, so I added items to my cart and just let them sit there, occasionally looking at them throughout the day and to see if I wanted them more or less as time passed. It helped to show them to my husband for a second opinion. Was I seeing these items through sale-colored glasses?
I’m not sure if there’s a phrase for products & services seeming more desirable when they’re discounted. The sparkle of the sale! I’m thinking of calling it the Deal Dazzle.
Obligatory educational morsel: A lesser known attribute of hoarding is excessive acquisition. Some (not all) hoarders compulsively acquire possessions. Some may not be able to pass up free items. Others may be drawn into the sticky web of “the good deal.” And still others feel compelled to buy something as soon as it catches their attention because now they need it. These groups can overlap. While I might struggle to pass up free items, it’s the ones on sale that make my chest tight at the thought of never being able to buy this item for such a low price ever again in my life. And if it’s something cute that I know is only available for a limited time? It’s a sweet release of tension when I click that Buy button. Things are good again. Well, for about thirty seconds until the financial guilt kicks in.