Buy Buy Happiness

The troubling layers of compulsive shopping

- Sumitra Nair

Add to cart, proceed to checkout, complete order. This was, and is to an extent, 39-year-old brand consultant Divya Singh's routine each time she got her paycheque. "My shopping addiction began when Flipkart was the major player way before Amazon came along," she says. "It initially started with ordering books. It then became about finding deals online.

When you are earning and have money at your disposal, you are tempted to buy things. It began with an original Calvin Klein watch I bought when I got a new job. I spent ₹12,000 on it. When you get great brands for a great deal, it is so tempting. It kind of gives one self-confidence. Moreover, it is convenient you can pay by card or avail of cash on delivery."

Just like Singh, the convenience of online shopping tempted a lot of us to buy things; things we may not even have needed. Singh says she once spent ₹80,000 in three months. "I bought books, shoes and many other things," she says. "It was a craze, it was also greed." Singh confesses that her tendency to shop was more when she had a bad day. "When something went wrong, my go-to comfort would be shopping," she says. "I amassed over 1,000 things. A lot of them are locked in a room."

Singh says she definitely overspent-maxing out her debit and credit cards. "Paying bills became difficult," she says. "I still find it difficult to control the urge to shop as the offers keep coming."