If one had the skills, (and the insane desire or care?) one could lately follow a trail of my online meanderings by looking at the shopping carts I keep leaving full of stuff. Since real shopping is just out of the question, I keep finding myself online, loading this and that into my “cart” and then leaving the cart full and taking off. I don’t know why. I know I can’t actually buy those oh-so-cute shoes, or that new slipcover, or all the make-up at Sephora. And yet I keep looking, and popping things in my basket…
Old Navy, Overstock, Zappos, Sephora, Urban Decay, Anthropologie… and that’s just today, while David and Jeffrey are out on a father-son Man Date. Oooh oh oh.
Dandelion Mama 
I do that too. Land’s End and Hanna Andersson being my favorite make-believe shopping spots. It’s a pathetic, yet fun hobby.
I’ve done that. I actually today left my real cart and walked out of a store…wasn’t going to wait in that line! Also in real life (as if it is ever fake) I use to have the habit of going to try on a bunch of clothes and then leaving them all in the dressing rooms because I never intended to get anything anyhow, but I just wanted to pretend I was going to get them. I know…rude, I could have atleast put them on the go back rack.
I’ve started getting my kids to say “artichokey” instead of cheese because now when they say cheese, what I get is this awful, painful grimace that looks like they must have shackles on just outside the border of the snapshot. Oy.
Leaving full carts is fun, but what’s even more fun is what my sister used to to when she was in high school: get packs of condoms and drop them in random people’s carts when they weren’t paying attention. You should have seen some of the looks old ladies would give their old man spouses as they unloaded their cart onto the conveyor!
Not that easy to do in the virtual world, though.
I do the same thing all the time. No ones ships to Egypt, so it’s always just a fantasy.
I call it “virtual shopping.” I find it rather therapeutic actually. I don’t really want to bring much more stuff into my house anyways. It’s actually kinda empowering to be able to practice that self-control. Well, at least those are all the things I keep telling myself.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one!
I expect it’s a pretty common practice, especially nowadays. At least you know nobody has to put your stuff back after you leave.
I find myself doing that, too. Usually at places I can never afford. Like Hanna Andersson or Banana Republic or places like that. And like Em wrote, at least no one has to put all the stuff in your cart back.
I have never heard of that. It appears to be fairly common, though. Carry on!
Great post! I used to do something like that, but it was in brick/mortar stores with stuff I actually wanted and planned on buying. I would force myself to wait/shop about 30 minutes with my cart before checking out and would sometimes find that my urge to buy whatever it was had left. Once I put the stuff in my cart, I felt like I owned it…and the thrill would wear off after a little while. Rather than have buyer’s remorse hit me on the way home, I had it hit me in the store…
I dont think there’s anything wrong with it. Gives more work for the stockboys…
I do that too, though I usually end up with only one or two things in my cart that I really really want at that moment. Then I sit around and look at other things until I manage to talk myself out of actually buying them, because we never have enough money for it.