Go shopping thousands of miles from home? Some will consider it defiant, others will call recklessness. But overseas shopping, in addition to the pleasure of owning beautiful things, can also give other vivid sensations.
Hunters for the original things of their favorite brands go to Milan for the weekend to walk through fashion boutiques with a personal shopper, others go to Barcelona for designer decor items, circle London in search of vintage jeans, explore outlets in the suburbs of Munich, Rimini or New York , walk through the bazaars of Cairo and Bangkok, rush to the shopping festival in Dubai (in January) or Istanbul (in June), where they are waiting for thousands of special discounts, shopping centers open around the clock, all kinds of concerts and fashion shows in places visited by tourists … All this is stress but it’s worth it.
Exciting hunt. A shopping tour is somewhat like a risky and exciting game in a casino. After all, every tourist is familiar with the fear of miscalculating, being deceived in quality, or finding, upon returning home, in a nearby store the same thing that he bought abroad, for less money. Therefore, even experienced travelers experience excitement and adrenaline rush in boutiques. On the other hand, by showing the ability to bargain and acquire exclusive items at a bargain price, shoppers raise their self-esteem. The more a person buys, the more omnipotent he feels … but we must not forget that things are only false equivalents of emotions that we lack so much: love, warmth, self-respect.
(Un)sinful pleasure. “Shopping abroad is a permitted pleasure that we indulge in infrequently,” says psychoanalyst Svetlana Fedorova. – At home, we earn money, and we make purchases as needed. On the road, we enjoy spending without remorse.” But upon returning home, this consumer impulse can cause a feeling of guilt: some show purchases only to relatives; others, embarrassed, say that everything was bought at sales, or describe their cultural program in detail.
Invigorating acquaintance. Alien lands always attract us … and cause anxiety. By doing the usual thing (shopping) in the unusual environment of a foreign store, we tame the unknown, and this helps to feel more confident. “We have preserved the idea from Soviet times: everything is better and better abroad, and the people there are somehow special, happier, more fashionable, advanced,” adds Svetlana Fedorova. “Standing at the cash desk among the locals, we seem to become one of them – the same, as it seems, successful and free, we change the boundaries of our identity.”
Learn more
To find a friend
You can order a personal stylist or a shopping assistant on the Internet, for example, at the Style Hunters agency (stylehunters.ru).
Learn addresses and routes
- Directory “Shopping in London. A guide with a mini-phrasebook” by Yana Pavlidis (Ajax-press, 2012).
- New guidebooks of the Orange Guide series (Eksmo, 2012).
- Portal “Subtleties of tourism” (tonkosti.ru).
See also: Holiday clothing: analysis according to Jung