Impulse Buying

Question: What is the most dangerous place that my mother and I should never go to? Answer: Anywhere that can cause us to buy out the whole store (e.g., Nordstroms, Target, Staples, and etc.). Every time my mother and I needed something from a well-known store, we end up buying more stuff that aren’t really necessary. I remember when I needed a memory card for my Pantech Duo (the newest cell phone from AT&T in 2008). I wanted to be able to store more memory in my phone and be able to transfer pictures to any computer. As usual, my mother tries to make sure she looks decent before going out anywhere, even in her “off-day clothes”. My mother would fix her hair like it just had been done in a beauty salon; make sure her makeup is on correctly; and checks if she color-coordinates her wardrobe. I am the person she goes to ensure that she looks good. I always wonder what she is going to do without my expertise. My mother drove in her purple Honda Civic to Best Buy, which is only less than a half a mile away. Once she parked in a spot closest to the store, we looked around to try to find the memory card that I needed. My mother asked the guy who worked there by the section where there were cameras, and he directed us to all various types of memory cards that stored up to 2 gigabytes (GB). I grabbed the memory disk that fitted my Pantech, but then my mother strolled into a section where there were printers. I followed behind her. Once I caught up with her, she stared at the printer that seemed to blow her mind. It was a HP printer that can print photos, send and receive fax, scan pictures and/or documents, and much more. I stared at it too, as if my mother used her telekinesis to lure me to this valuable product. We both stared for about a few minutes, examining the printer inside and out with our X-ray vision. After I took my eyes off of that printer, my mother was already standing with another guy who can describe to her about this particular printer. I just stood there impatiently just ready to leave; my eyes rolled to the back of my head waiting desperately to reach the cash register. “I just can’t wait until I drive,” I thought grumblingly. After a few long minutes, she decided to buy it, and along with the printer she picks up an extra pack of ink cartridges just to make sure we don’t run out of ink. It was a pain but at least she didn’t buy anything else. I hate it when we stay in a store for hours; it seems so endless that we might as well stay overnight to indulge in the items she wants to buy. I can tell from my mother’s eyes that she really wanted something else in Best Buy that she liked. I did too. Going out to places is one of the things that we do to create our mother and daughter relationship. I thought my mother is bad at buying out almost the entire store, but I think I might be the next worst case when I am a little older.