The opposite of shopping

I have been a very generous donator of clothes over the years.  I have given away brand new tops and jumpers. There have been jeans that still have the labels attached that have gone to friends, the cleaning lady and charity donation boxes. I like to think it is because I am generous but it’s a little more involved than that.

I hate returning clothes. Just hate it. And like many others, I have been known to buy things that don’t exactly look as good on me at home as they did in the change room with the “special” mirror and the “right” lights. I have also been known to buy “surprise” clothes for my husband and son. Not so clever

My reluctance to return clothes is complex.

I once had a friend who suffered from a horrible form of kleptomania (actually maybe she was just a thief).  She used to walk into department stores and take clothes off the rack and then return them. Without actually buying them first.  Needless to say when I found out about this practice the friendship ended very rapidly. But the effects of that discovery linger.

Every time I want to return something that I have legitimately purchased I am filled with dread that the sales person will think I am a thief. I know, I know, it is totally unfounded and ridiculous but I have been scarred.

It’s not just the fear of being considered a thief though. There is also a fair amount of laziness involved.

I’m not averse to a bit of shopping.  Walking through the shops, trying on outfits and pretending that I am going to look perfect in all of them is one of the ways I relax.  In fact the term “retail therapy” may have been coined just for me – it works (unless I have PMT which just makes me loathe myself when trying on clothes).

And while shopping is therapy, returning said purchases is a chore. It’s like the opposite of shopping – which I guess it is.

My final aversion to the returns counter is the imagined pressure that the sales assistant is going to put on me. I start to rehearse the reasons that I am returning something as if the assistant is going to audit my responses. This puts a bit of performance pressure on me so that by the time I arrive at the counter, I just stand there and demand my money back. It’s not great. I’m not proud.

So I should be a better shopper. I should make sure that I am not buying anything that I don’t really love, want and need. I definitely should not shop for my husband and son when they are not with me. But sometimes I fail.

Are you a returner? Do you dread the process or is it part of the shopping experience?