You are in line at your local grocery store and all the snacks, candy, and cheap gadgets are beckoning to be picked up and added to your shopping bag.  You are shopping on-line and you only need to spend $8 more to get free shipping.  How do you avoid falling prey to impulse buying?  How are marketers reducing friction to get you to buy more stuff?  As a consumer, factoring in additional transaction costs will help you avoid making impulse purchases.

The following article provides way to help you avoid adding impulse purchases, such as:

1. Carrying cash.
2. Making it a struggle to get out your credit card.
3. No more one-click purchasing.
4. No more e-tailer memberships.
5. Having an accountability buddy.

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to

• Stress the importance of carefully watching your spending.
• Have the students record all purchases for one week and see how much money is spent by the class in total on impulse purchases.
• Stress the importance of having a budget and sticking to it.

Discussion Questions

1.  Ask students to recall a time when they were able to resist the urge to make impulse purchases. What were some techniques that they used?
2. Poll students about e-tailer memberships, such as Amazon. Why did they choose to acquire the membership?  Free shipping? On-demand viewing options.