From Jean Chatzky in Money, May 2006:
The Rev. Billy Talen looks and sounds a lot like the evangelists on Sunday morning television. He's loud. He's passionate. He's backed by a gospel choir. [His] "reverend" credentials are debatable. Reverend Billy, you see, is founder of the
America has a shopping problem. For the first time since the Great Depression, the savings rate has fallen into negative territory. Indebtedness to credit card companies has reached $9,300 per household, and rising interest rates will only make the problem worse.
"People are walking around in a daze," says Talen. "They're feeling a kind of knowing emptiness and they don't know why. So they keep buying more and more, trying to fill the hole in the soul. We say: Stop shopping and start living."
[B]etween two and eight percent of Americans suffer from compulsive buying, a psychiatric disorder. [M]any more than that – an additional five to 13 percent – are prone to excessive buying. These people don't have a chronic disorder. They just shop too much.
April Benson, founder of Stopping Overshopping, offers three practical shopping commandments:
I. Thou shalt not shop alone. Bring a friend who can talk you out of making rash decisions.
II. Thou shalt take a break. Each time you approach a checkout counter, pause a while.
III. Thou shalt be efficient. Limit the number of trips per week by planning ahead.
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