Why Do We SOOO Love to Shop on Vacation?

Why Do We SOOO Love to Shop on Vacation?

I can resist shopping at home.

Truly.

I can walk right past a cute boutique.

I can ignore a sale email.

I can even talk myself out of buying something online after placing it in my cart seventeen times.

But put me on vacation?

I become financially unsupervised.

Something happens the moment I arrive in a new city.

My brain immediately starts operating under a completely different set of rules.

At home:

“Do I really need another white shirt?”

On vacation:

“This handwoven linen tunic from a tiny shop down a cobblestone street is clearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

At home:

“$85 for a candle? Absolutely not.”

On vacation:

“This candle captures the essence of the Mediterranean breeze and reminds me of my spiritual journey. I’ll take two.”

Why are we like this?

I think part of it is that shopping on vacation feels less like shopping and more like collecting memories.

Or at least that’s the story we tell ourselves.

We’re not buying earrings.

We’re buying the magical feeling we had while drinking wine at that outdoor café.

We’re not buying a scarf.

We’re buying the memory of wandering around a charming town with nowhere to be.

We’re not buying a ridiculously overpriced beach bag.

Okay, actually we’re buying a ridiculously overpriced beach bag.

But it looked adorable.

And besides, it was on vacation.

Vacation shopping also comes with a sense of urgency.

At home, that sweater will probably still be there tomorrow.

On vacation?

The stakes are high.

If you don’t buy it now, you may never see it again.

Ever.

For the rest of your life.

You’ll spend the next twenty years wondering about the beautiful necklace you left behind in that little shop in Charleston.

Or Napa.

Or Paris.

Or Boca.

The item instantly becomes “the one that got away.”

Another reason?

Vacation You is much more confident than Regular You.

Vacation You is relaxed.

Tanned.

Happy.

Drinking cocktails before noon.

Vacation You believes she can absolutely pull off wide-leg linen pants, giant sunglasses, and a straw hat the size of a satellite dish.

Regular You gets home and wonders who exactly purchased these things.

And then there are the souvenirs.

At some point we decided that every trip requires proof.

Something tangible.

Something that says:

“See? I went somewhere.”

Never mind that we have 482 photos on our phones.

Apparently what we really need is a ceramic dish we have absolutely no place for.

My favorite vacation shopping trick is convincing myself that an item will completely change my life.

“This handbag is the beginning of a new chapter.”

No.

It’s a handbag.

A lovely handbag.

But still a handbag.

Yet somehow, every vacation purchase arrives home carrying impossible expectations.

And honestly?

I don’t hate it.

Because every now and then, I’ll pull on a pair of earrings or use a coffee mug or wear a scarf from a trip years ago, and for a moment I’m right back there.

The sunshine.

The laughter.

The freedom.

The feeling that life was a little lighter.

Maybe that’s what we’re really shopping for.

Not the stuff.

The feeling.

Although let’s be honest…

The stuff is pretty fun too.