What is shopping addiction and how can it be treated?

... What is shopping addiction and how can it be treated? Over the last few decades, the attitude with which individuals make consumer choices has changed. Factors such as higher disposable income and easily available credit facilities mean that more than ever shopping is not solely for material necessity. As Benson put it "to regard the shopping process as nothing more than material consumption is like thinking of food as solely nutritional or sex as wholly for procreation" (Benson 2000, p68). Through an examination of buying behaviour and buying motivations it has been shown how choices about consumer products are influenced by factors other than the functional aspects of the goods. Factors include symbolic meanings, which allow individuals to express and construct a sense of self and ones identity. Dittmar and Beattie define impulse buying (or oniomania) as the purchasing of consumer goods without careful deliberation, perhaps with insufficient information or without

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