“My Fifty Pairs of Shoes Are All Different!”: Exploring and Explaining Exorbitant Buying

Heretofore consumer researchers have studied impulsive, compulsive and excessive buying, collecting, status buying and fixated buying behavior, all of which have negative psychological consequences and connections. Unexplored is the commonly observed phenomenon of “exorbitant buying” that refers to buying extensively to augment one’s inventory of a category of goods for which rational justification, defensible in the mind of the buyer, exists. This study uses in-depth interviews to identify the emergent themes and develop a concept map. Results show that individuals tend to thin-slice their needs, differentiate products based on minute differences and acquire an ever-expanding list of products based on specific purchasing criteria.

Citation:

Mousumi Bose, Alvin C. Burns, and Judith Anne Garretson Folse (2009) ,"“My Fifty Pairs of Shoes Are All Different!”: Exploring and Explaining Exorbitant Buying", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 835-836.