“Confessions of a Shopaholic” is a 2009 movie adaptation of the Shopaholics Series written by British author, Sophie Kinsella. The series was a major success worldwide that marked the start of chick-lit trend (light, everyday literature for women), which describes Becky Bloomwood as a young, attractive woman with a big heart, big dreams – and just one little weakness: her excessive lust in shopping
According to Wikipedia, shopaholism is a compulsive-impulsive spending behavior, also known as “compulsive spending/buying”. This definition that involves “buying” might be a little confusing if compared with literal definition of “shopping” in the word “shopaholism” itself, which is to seek for information related to goods and/or services either for buying purpose (purchasing) or non-buying purpose (examining, making recommendations, etc). To shop does not necessarily mean to buy: one may buy without shopping or, conversely, shop without buying. Furthermore, the suffix -holic is added to a subject to denote addiction to the preceding activity, thus, shopaholic means a person who is addicted to shopping. Hence the definition, most articles from various sources indicates shopaholism as the same thing as compulsive buying – basically says that being shopaholics means being addicted to buying, rather than to shopping. This little confusion about the terminology might be trivial to some, but significant to the others, including me. As a damsel in this particular shopper/buyer/consumer behavior subject, I feel the need of getting into definitions to straighten perception and ensure understanding. From the research I have conducted which result is as mentioned above, I have to say that aligning shopaholism and compulsiveness in spending/buying is incorrect by literal means.
Specific definition of the term compulsive buying was proposed by McElroy in 1994 as “a pertaining amusement, obsession, and