Shopping is an activity which involves both mental and physical energy, sometimes only mental. Shopping is an age old tradition starting from the Mesopotamian civilization to European countries. The barter system may also be considered as an indirect way of shopping.
Ancient Rome had small market places set up for its people to shop, the oldest and very first market places set up by the romans are the forum Romanum and Trajan’sforum in 100-110 CE. Shopping for pleasure started in the European cities in the 17-18 centuries. Before this pleasure shopping tradition the Europeans had established smalls shops for its people to shop from in the 13th century.
Evolution:
With time the concept of window-shopping surfacing in the 18th century, again in Europe. Later in the 19th century emerged the concept of departmental stores. The departmental stores just like the 21st century had the things necessary for survival as well as pleasure. With the emergence of technology and growing science, the different ways of shopping is available for the people to use.
The different types of shopping are:
- Offline or walk in store shopping
- Online shopping
- Window shopping
- Thrift shopping
- Auction shopping
With the current situation and demand of the world, online shopping is the most popular way of shopping. It saves a lot of time energy as well as expense. Offline or walk in store shopping is also popular but not as online shopping. Window shopping is mostly common among the student class group. Walking by and admiring the beautiful collection, which is also very pricey, if branded. In such cases window shopping may act as a guilty pleasure, as like walking in trying the overpriced stuff and then returning it back on the rack. Thrift shopping is new age money saver shopping style, mostly available on social media platforms. If one is lucky enough then he/she may get a very over expensive material in slashed price. Auction is class apart; here people sell off their valuable possession on really high price. In some cases humans are also made to sell off.
Advantages:
Shopping may also be beneficial for health in some cases; here are some benefits of shopping:
- Liftsmood: Shopping instantly lightens the mood, for some people shopping acts like a guilty pleasure.
- Burn stress: Shopping burns low mood and stress.
- Exercise: Walk in store shopping regulates the body function and also promotes mental activity.
- Live longer: The act of shopping may reduce the risk of death in the elderly group, by 27 percent as reported by the journal of epidemiology and community health,
With all the idea and research done, shopping has its own pros and cons. The pros are considerably notable as compared to cons. But in all cases be it online or offline shopping do lifts the mood.