if you truly mean just your girlfriend, the great thing about wondering things about your girlfriend is that you can ask her directly. strangers on the internet will probably not provide useful answers specific to your girlfriend
more generally, i think there are a few common reasons people go shopping/hang out in stores - most areas nowadays lack third spaces (article about this here), consumerism due to the internet/influencers and/or escapism (which i think āretail therapyā does fall under). the ways in which this might apply more to women are, i think, in how we are socialized to see shopping as a feminized and important/rewarding activity, from ads about clothes/makeup to toys that recreate grocery shopping. and then thereās the relationship of buying things and the idea of achieving specific beauty and body ideals; the pressure to conform to norms and look a certain way no matter the price. but just āhanging out in Targetā (compared to spending a lot of money there) is probably not that deep.
Feb 20, 2025
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ā ļø
nothing will make you a nihilst quicker or more efficently than working retail. (EXCEPT HOSPITALITY!! love to you all x)
i stg some of the people that came into the shop i was working at had been sent from the depths of hell just to test me. people who don't have anyone to bully at home will go out shopping and take it out on retail workers.
also i realised that so many people go out, buy shit, go home and then return it the next day like it's a sport of some kind???????? ma'am. therapy.
Mar 13, 2025
š
This is self-explanatory i think. I need to be on my computer or phone the second it gets dark out so that i dont think about how im going to die one day, so i usually do online shopping. But of course i cannot buy the things i want due to iād lose everything in terms of my money, and also i am obsessed with designer clothing so i really cannot be behaving in that way. But i suspend my belief and open 100+ tabs of clothing/shoes/accessories that i like from TheRealReal, cos, ebay, to name a few and then just as iām finally starting to get sleepy, i āapple Qā thousands of dollars away without ever adding anything to a cart so that i can start over the next day. It is like ā50 first datesā but with retail therapy. Does this make sense?
Feb 15, 2024
š
When I was in my hometown for the holidays, my sister and I were very bored and very broke. So, we started just walking into random stores and just looking around. Just lallygagging. It was actually way more fulfilling and relaxing than actually buying anything. Because we couldn't get anything, there was way less pressure and we could just enjoy looking at things. We started noticing things that normally we would pass by, driven by the purpose of a purchase.
One day, we spent like 20 minutes smelling every single candle in the candle aisle at HomeGoods. Another day, we looked at the weird silverware and cups at TJ Maxx. We also frequented Half Price Books and skimmed old Microsoft Excel books from 2009 and Child Development books.
Don't limit yourself to Target.
Store recs:
- TJ Maxx
- Ross
- Half Price Books
- HomeGoods
- Bed, Bath & Beyond
- Dollar Tree
- DSW
- Tuesday Morning
- Antique stores
- Semi-abandoned malls
Jan 26, 2024
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being traditionally cool is really quite boring and iterative, and itās actually very cool and sexy to geek out about something you like or share bits of knowledge on a topic youāre passionate about
Aug 17, 2024
ā°
i had it for a little over a year until i was like wow this is actually terrible! i genuinely think it has negatively impacted society by ruining peopleās attention spans, having a horrific algorithm, and most of all by the most mind-numbing or outright harmful trends -
fake words that people now use IRL (āunaliveā), trad wife tiktok, shein hauls, body-focused fitness vids that encourage fatphobia and unhealthy habits, shallow political/feminist theory and queer discourse, āalpha maleā podcaster tiktok, encouraging overconsumption in general, trends ruining local spots or niche thingsā¦ the list goes on
Aug 17, 2024
a million times cooler than the lackluster āsleekā tech color palette used today
Feb 22, 2025