Shopping

Shopping is the examining of goods or services from retailers with the intent to purchase at that time. Shopping is an activity of selection and/or purchase. In some contexts it is considered a leisure activity as well as an economic one. To many, shopping is considered a recreational and diversional activity in which one visits stores in search of a suitable product to purchase. "Window shopping" is an activity where the shopper browses the shops with no intent to purchase any item, this is possibly just to pass the time between other activities, to plan a later purchase or could be that they lack the money to buy a product.

To some, shopping is a task of inconvenience and irritation. Shoppers sometimes go to great lengths to purchase their item, waiting in long lines to buy popular products as typically observed with holiday shoppers. More recently neurotic shopping is seen to be an addiction. The shopping addiction is known as "shopaholism" or formally as oniomania, these shoppers have an impulsive uncontrollable urge to shop. The term "retail therapy" is used in a less serious context for less serious cases.

Shops are split up into multiple categories of stores which sell a selected set of goods or services. Shops sell their goods at their prices some shops can be cheap and some can be rather expensive. Some shops sell second-hand goods, these shops rely on the public for the donation of their unwanted goods. In antique shops, the public can find goods that are older and harder to find these goods tend to be quite expensive as many are rare and much sought after. Sometimes people are in need of more money and borrow money from a pawn shop using an item of value as a guarantee. Many shops are part of a shopping chain that carry the same trademark and logo using the same branding, and sell the same products but in different places. The shops are usually owned by the same company.

With present technology such as the television, telephone and the internet, home shopping through online retail stores is now possible and is becoming more popular. Electronic trade and business-to-buyer electronic trade systems in combination of home mail delivery systems make this possible, secure and easy. A consumer could make purchases through online shopping via the internet, shopping channels via the television, mail order via the telephone, etc. Online shopping has completely changed the way people shop; they have access to a lot of information about a particular product which can be looked at and evaluated and compared, at any given time. Online shopping allows the buyer to save the time which would have been spent travelling to the store or mall which in turn is a lot more economic.

Shopping seasons are periods of time where a surge of spending occurs, typically near the holidays, where Christmas shopping is the biggest shopping spending season. Some famous target dates are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shops also have designated hour and days where they are open for trade for example some shops are only open 9am until 5pm and are only open Monday to Saturday.