Buying what we don't need in sales

JAKARTA (JP): Sales, sales, sales! Signs, each bigger than the other, smile at me whenever I go shopping. It is difficult to resist the seduction, but usually I try to be strong.

"Buy things only when you need them," I say to myself. After a few days, I regret that I held out and I start to waver. But when I finally have made the decision to buy, the sales are over or the items have been snapped up by other people.

What is it that makes people buy so much during sales? My psychological insight says it is the discounted prices that attract. The sight of the old price with a bold cross through it, usually done with a flourish of red ink, and the new price positioned much lower is the draw for the prospective buyers.

Discounts compel us to buy things we don't really need. Notices about the alluring slashed prices -- 10 percent, 40 percent or sometimes even more -- are posted everywhere. As sales are now held regularly, people think it is better to wait for them before buying goods, especially luxury items, provided they have not been grabbed by other shoppers.

The biggest rush for discounts at the end of last year was probably at a closing-down sale for a branch of an American department store. It is not a luxurious store like Saks Fifth Avenue or Neimann Marcus, but that did not really matter as most Indonesians like to buy the goods in this kind of store and then brag they bought it in the U.S.

Over here, its merchandise was considered too expensive and the store went out of business. The first sales were not very popular, so more were held with bigger reductions, with the final sales held in December, just when the rupiah had reached a historic low against the U.S. dollar.

It was then that I went to one of the store's biggest outlets to look at the sales for myself.

There was my favorite underwear for 40 percent of the usual price, so I bought three. But my friend Tanya thought I should have taken home at least a dozen. She herself bought six nightgowns -- enough for a lifetime -- all in different styles and colors.

"Pure silk, you'll never get it again, at least not for this price," Tanya assured me. "And you must convert everything into dollars, then you'll find out how lucky you are.

"Come, you should buy some too."

While I trotted dutifully behind her to find the nightgowns, I noticed that she had bought a lot during the short time I had contemplated purchasing the underwear. She opened one of the bags and showed me ... dozens of socks!

"Pure cotton, 3,000 rupiah per pair, just 60 cents," she said proudly. "You can find them only in America. Over here everything is mixed with polyester.

"They were my husband's favorite socks when he was studying there, and he still prefers this brand. He always asks friends who are going to America to buy them for him."

When we finally finished our shopping and were waiting for our car, we spied a boisterous couple pushing their cart, or rather carts, for there were three of them.

They were packed high with disposable diapers.

I looked away in embarrassment because I had just received an invitation to their wedding reception. Brought up in a more wholesome straitlaced era, I thought they should have at least shopped in the evening when there were fewer people around.

They saw me and, as they were having a lot of fun, they asked: "Don't you think that our baby will be the most wanted child?"

"Well I should think so. When is it due?" was my answer, which prompted them to burst out laughing.

"No, there is no sign of a baby yet, but these diapers were going so cheap that we couldn't let them go," they said.

"Isn't it our duty to save and to buy things when they are on sale? Now we have enough diapers to welcome the baby when he or she comes -- we bought sizes from newborn to two years old!"

-- Myra Sidharta