The Victoria Napolitano Bookstore Mademoiselle 2019 VIctoria Napolitano | Page 45
Impulsive Christmas Shopping
Impulsive Christmas shopping is a problem
which plagues many during the holiday sea-
son and it can have a variety of complications.
Some of the problems which often stem from
impulsive Christmas shopping are going over
budget, buying frivolous items and even forget-
ting about items that were already purchased.
All of these problems can pose their own set of
dilemmas and this article will discuss the ramifi-
cations of impulsive Christmas shopping. How-
ever, it is important to remember that although
there are many problems associated with im-
pulsive Christmas shopping there is also some
merit to this shopping tactic.
Going over budget is one of the major concerns
of impulsive Christmas shopping. A common
scenario is to pick up a few small items each
time you go out Christmas shopping. These
gifts may seem small and seemingly harmless
to your budget but they can add up over time.
For example you may only be purchasing items
which cost less than $10 but if you buy enough
of these items, you could find yourself hun-
dreds of dollars over budget without even real-
izing it. One way to combat this problem is to
write down each item and the price of every gift
you buy. This will help you to be aware of how
these small gifts can add up and may prevent
you from shopping on impulse in the future.
Purchasing frivolous gifts is another problem
associated with impulsive Christmas shopping.
You may see a few small items which you think
will make cute gifts at the time but after you
purchase these items you might realize they are
actually quite silly. When this occurs you have
two choices you can either return the item or re-
place it for a more meaningful gift or you could
keep the item and give it to your friend or rel-
ative anyway. If you opt to return the item you
may find yourself pressed for time to find a re-
placement gift depending on when you started
shopping. If it is close to Christmas already, you
may have difficulty finding some thing at the
last minute and may have no choice but to give
your friend or relative the gift you purchased on
an impulse.
Another problem often associated with impul-
sive Christmas shopping is forgetting about
items you have already purchased. If you pur-
chase a number of small items on impulse you
may put these gifts in a safe location and then
completely forget about them. When this hap-
pens you may end up buying additional gifts for
those on your guest list who were supposed to
receive the impulse gifts you already purchased.
This can cause you to go over budget and also
create unnecessary stress.
While there are many problems which are often
associated with impulsive Christmas shopping,
it is important to remember that sometimes
impulsive Christmas shopping is a good idea.
When you see an item that you just know will
make the perfect Christmas gift for a friend or
relative and purchase the item without giving it
any thought that is the exact definition of im-
pulsive shopping. However, it is also not nec-
essarily a bad thing. Buying a gift on impulse is
not a problem when the gift you purchase is a
great gift for the intended recipient but impulse
Christmas shopping becomes problematic
when it causes the shopper to go over budget or
purchase silly items they wouldn’t normally buy.