Shopping

Shopping is usually thought of as the act of purchasing, but die-hard shoppers will assure you that shopping is the act of thinking of how it would be to purchase. Shoppers are not necessarily buyers, shoppers are lookers and touchers and feelers. Shoppers live in an imaginary world where for a few minutes they can pretend that they are a different person; they can be not the person who looks back at them from the fitting room mirror, but the person they would like to be in the new garment. A shopper sees ideal, the buyer sees reality. That is why so many garments never make it out of the dressing room. The shopper carries the garments into the room. The buyer leaves the garments behind as she leaves, disappointed once again.

Window shopping is just a part of true shopping. When a shopper looks at the item in the store display window, she is becoming part of the imaginary world depicted. A shopper gazing at a beach scene is always young, with flawless makeup, perfect hair, and a lithe figure. She always wears just the right jewelry and shoes to coordinate with the bikini and cover-up. The window shopper looks at the evening clothes display and becomes the lovely belle of the ball, with a handsome Prince Charming in a perfectly appointed tuxedo.

Shopping is recreation, buying is work. Shopping is free, buying is expensive. Shopping is exciting, buying is boring.

Some people have made a career of being a professional shopper. While this may sound like an ideal job, the term ''shopper” is misleading. The title should be purchasing agent, or buyer.

As an art form, shopping is beautiful to behold. It can be done as a solitary activity, or with a group. Probably most enjoyable to watch is two adult women shopping. There is discussion of matching textures, styles and characteristics of common acquaintances. There is agreement about everything or nothing. With a single woman shopping, there are times of almost trancelike consideration of textures, colors, and styles, occasionally interspersed with trips to the dressing room or to the floor mirror. Teen age girls are practicing the art of shopping, but it usually is interrupted with fits of giggles and shrill talking.

A few men shop, but it is rare to see. Men are much too busy buying to be able to absorb the experience of shopping.