Retail "therapy" - pleasure or pain?

I enjoy the pleasure of shopping on line - but don't like the pain of the credit card bill when it arrives!

I tried shopping in the town when I had my hair done this week and just hated the jostling, staff not knowing offers at the till [WHS I'm afraid], and queuing for 1 item. I would like to browse in a bookshop though if there was one. Waterstones near me is small and has hardly anything suitable for the GC - either too babyish or too teenagery and as for Pirates! Absolutely zilch when I tried last. And then there's the parking charges..........

Long live home shopping!

I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. But if I'm feeling miserable then its T.K MAX for me not the clothes but upstairs stuff. Kitchen gadgets, ornament, Xmas goods, and ooooh the cosmetics. Love it . I follow that up with a short drive to waitrose or m&s. just after my dad died this year my sister took me to the Q.V.C shop in Warrington. Oh It did take the edge off the sadness for a little while. I know it's just me because my sister hated it. However she has taken me back on my 2 last visits. How's that for sisterly love

Just been into the city for my grandson's school Christmas Fair. He goes to the Cathedral school so the stalls were set up in the Chantry and garden. Outside, on the Cathedral Green, there is a Christmas Market set up and it was all very jolly with lots of people milling about. But - I couldn't help thinking of all the money that will be spent on tat that people mostly neither want nor need at a time when there is a financial crisis in this country and disasters galore elsewhere. Happily my family know to buy me a goat (or similar), twin a toilet or send a donation to another worthwhile cause for my Christmas gift (they usually buy me gifts for birthdays.). I'm not being 'Bah, humbug', I love Christmas, but I really don't like the gross commercialisation. On the bus there must have been at least a dozen teenaged girls of 14 or so, all chatting about what they were going to buy. Lovely, all of them, but I did wonder if they spend time and energy thinking about the good they can do rather than the goods they can buy. (I hope so.)

annodomini, I always preferred to shop alone, and generally still do. The exception, to my surprise, is shopping with DD. Like me she is a yes/no shopper and understands and, generally, approves my taste, and I, hers.

Fortunately she doesn't particularly like malls, so when we go shopping it will usually be somewhere with independent shops and the smaller chains and not be undercover.

Oh did y ou go to House of Bruar suitable attired? Have just received my catalogue full of seductive tweeds and tartan from top to toe. I just would not be able to trust myself in there. I would aim to come out looking like Susan Hampshire in Monarch of the Glen!!! (Might look more like Gillie)

John Lewis would be a real treat for me as I live miles away from one and a visit would be a major expedition! I must admit to enjoying a good browse when I visit family who live in more civilized parts of the country. My sister and I have been known to spend hours in v.large M&S, but that did include a meal, does that excuse me?

Flickety, I'm glad I'm not the only one with shopping mall allergy. I go there as seldom as possible and only when dragged there by senior GD who is my fashion adviser. I cannot bear shopping with one of my sisters who is the most indecisive woman on the planet. In fact, I mostly prefer lone shopping, if I do have to shop!

Not so keen on supermarket shopping or going out to buy something when I know exactly what I want, that is better online. I do love going for a good browse and finding something different as a gift for family. I like finding a bargain for myself and mostly only buy things for me on impulse. At the moment I am looking for something specific and that is not so good because of course I can't find it.

It also depends who I am with. Happy on my own, happy with DH unless he is in one of his 'difficult' moods and certain friends are good to go with. I do have some friends who take so long to make up their minds what they are going to buy that I tend only to go with them when they are shopping and I am not!

I don't mind food shopping. I go to the same place and so long as they don't start shifting the goods to a different place, I am ok . I can shop in one shop i.e. John Lewes. I recently spent half a day at the House of Bruar which was lovely - had a break for lunch - and then back to business but the thought of walking up and down from one shop to another on an organised 'shopping trip' fills me with horror. After 2 hours I take to the hills like a crazy woman

Hate High Street shopping, hate crowds, find clothes shopping boring and depressing but cannot resist a second hand book shop, junk shop, lowest level of auction sale or market.

But most of all I LOATHE shopping malls, with their bright lights, hard floors and lack of any view on to the outside and their lack of weather. If I am ever inveigled into one, after 50 feet my feet are aching, I am overheated and just want to make my excuses and leave.

A pain for me usually. It depends how pressured I am.

I had an Email from DD about possible Christmas prezzies which roughly transcribes as.......

I would like (X) but hubby might be onto that.
I would like (Y) but I think MIL might be onto that.
I would like (Z) but I think MIL might be onto that.

A helpful soul my DD

There where quite a few jumpers with the longer back at one of the stores I looked in yesterday must be to help hide the rear end a wee bit is my theory some looked good in fact and some a bit tat and unstylish,I did find a nice sweater dress to wear with leggings in Matalan with a good mix of angora wool which made it very soft to the feel and only needed the addition of a big scarf to the neckline to dress it up,worthwhile looking at their website as they have a decent reduction on sweaters at the moment depending on what you like.

I hate shopping too and do the minimum. We always do the weekly food shop early - there by 7.30am and back home, unpacked and recovered before 9am. It's blissfully quiet then and no queuing for a till and I can almost enjoy a browse! I don't like the idea of the supermarket pickers choosing my food order which is why I don't order online but if ever I get too doddery I will certainly order online.

I've done all my Christmas shopping online though, as usual, and I enjoy the browsing involved in that. I don't like crowds.

Can anyone explain why shopping invariably makes me yawn continually which can be embarrassing?

sunseeker I think it's so your vest can hang out at the bottom of your jumper at he font but not the back.
I don't really rock that look either

I don't like shopping I can never find anything I like.

Yesterday I went looking for some jumpers and couldn't find any smart ones at all. Plenty with silly pictures on the front or very open weave that wouldn't keep you warm at all or that quite frankly look scruffy. While we are at it, what is it with the different level hems on jumpers (longer at the back than the front).

Yesterday I enjoyed an unplanned trip to Liverpool after finding in my e-mails an offer for 40% off Body Shop stuff from Martin Lewis's site and I really enjoyed going on my own to browse the shops not to have to clock watch as I do with DD who has to be back for school pick up,I wandered through Liverpool1 and listened to the music and visited the Continental markets stalls on Church Street very enjoyable indeed.

I'm with the hate it crowd try to do it online or early in the morning if I absolutely cannot avoid.

I agree with you Tiggy, I absolutely hate it, so make most of my necessary purchases on line. Throughout the year there are traffic queues into the town centre at the weekend, I have never joined one!

I love a mooch with DD. We're planning a day out next week. DH is on babysitting duty I'm luck as DH doesn't complain about a day shopping. He usually accompanies me on the weekly food shop too.

I hate shopping of any description and only do it when absolutely necessary. The best thing about shopping centes is that they keep lots of people there which leaves the countryside less crowded.

Going to have a good old mooch in John Lewis this morning - oh, wait a minute tho', have to inspect fridge/freezers for DS and DDiL and report which ones are "off-white"

Going food shopping makes my world feel on an even keel. I suspect it's having had so many people to feed for so long. But, I really love mooching too.

I am struggling with this year's buying. Hate shopping at the best of times and this year is far from the best. Have had my third attempt and failed miserably. The Christmas parcels could be empty this year

SNOW?!! I wonder if that was what fell as hail here? Brrr!