NORTHERN PLANNER

It's years since I read Daniel Miller's 'A Theory of Shopping'. Something or other at work made me look at it again and it's still interesting.

Basic premise, most acts or shopping, especially in the supermarket are fundamentally social and mostly an act of love.

Think about the main shopper, rushing around the aisles. The list has been carefully put together mostly thinking about others. Not just what the kids like, increasingly tough love, what is good for them. There's the pressure to deliver much loved familiarity but also variation, surprise and delight.

It can be argued that  budget pressured families are MORE materialistic than luxury laden well off folks, it's they who fret over stuff like children's birthday parties – the right birthday outfit and gift matter more when you can barely afford them. Just as brand cereal can be seen as much bigger sign of loving your children than 'compromising' on own label. It's why people with the least earning power tend to display the biggest logos…and tend to be the most snobby.

It's there in clothes shopping. Even those who claim to buy to please themselves are picturing a series of social situations and what the clothes might convey. Few men get that women dress for other women, and this points to the fact that many women are closer to their friends than their male partners – are at least share very different things.

Would be interesting to do a study on online shopping, but I suspect the same sort of principles apply. Might bring up even more importance to integrating social media with shopping.

Anyway.