Roads to Compulsive Shopping

Further to my previous post on this blog, there’s additional evidence that UAE indeed encourages binge shopping.

An in-depth report in Gulf News today, quotes AC Nielsen that:

1. UAE boasts the 2^nd highest number of per-capita recreational shoppers in the world: 30% of the consumers in UAE go shopping “at least once a week” (compared to 36% in Hong Kong)
2. 49% of UAE consumers regard clothes shopping as a necessity chore – the highest in the world! - 13% find it therapeutic to shop for clothes
3. An average UAE shopper takes 4 shopping trips every week, making a purchase on 7 out of 10 visits to the mall
4. An average UAE consumer spends 127 hours per year in supermarkets alone!

As mentioned earlier, there's an increasing trend towards recreational shopping in UAE. Within the recreational shoppers, chances are great that there are many for whom shopping is an obsession / compulsion.

Currently, per capita shopping area in Dubai is 4 times that of USA! With the new malls in place, when the overall retail space in UAE quadruples by 2010, there will be even more chances that more and more people in UAE would be induced to shopping as a recreation than a necessity – hence again contributing stimulus for “Compulsive Shopping”.

Apart from some ideas proposed before, what else can we do to avoid the disorder taking over?

Technorati :UAE. Psychology. Behaviour. Business. Compulsive shopping