I Finally Have a Term for My Snowball Shopping Habit
By: Jessica Lynn
Tags: Life Lessons, Shopping, This Happened To Me, Mindfulness, Self-awareness

A few weeks into the pandemic, I started having a few friends over for Saturday movie night outside in my backyard, taking advantage of the open air.

It’s my good friend’s “one night out.” He lives alone, has a pre-existing condition, asthma, and takes the necessary precautions to stay healthy. To stymie the adverse mental side effects of never seeing anyone other than on Zoom, he makes Saturday nights at my house the one exception to staying in all the time.

Pre-pandemic, he and I went to see nearly every critical hit in the movie theater (no blockbusters), mostly indie films and art-house features. So, when I decided to recreate movie night in my backyard, I went on Amazon and picked out a projector and a screen. We’ve had movie night outside for many months now and will probably continue this tradition when/if Covid ends some day.

The purchase of a projector and screen led to several more purchases immediately following, putting a huge dent in my credit card: more comfortable seating, hanging lights for outside to create the right atmosphere, blankets, outdoor pillows, to name a few.

Dinner outside preceded the movie.

When another friend gave me a picnic table, it generated another round of purchases: new table linens, a new table cloth, a beautiful pewter pitcher to hold water for the table, and I started thinking about buying more durable plates and cups for outdoor use to enhance the whole dinner/movie viewing experience. A decanter was bought for wine. A decanter! As were elegant candle holders to hold citronella candles to keep the mosquitos away. I even contemplated buying a small outdoor minibar for drinks, so people wouldn’t have to go into the house.

I found every excuse to log onto one of my favorite online catalog that specializes in outdoor living. I was trying to make my outdoor living space resemble a picture from Sunset magazine (living in the West, living outdoors all year round, is part of the experience. And mine needed an upgrade).

There is a name for buying several other purchases that start with buying one item, the Diderot Effect.

After I purchased the projector and screen and the many purchases that followed, I stumbled upon the Diderot Effect in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. The Diderot Effect characterizes the landslide of purchases made after one new possession, like my projector and screen.

We’ve all had this experience.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

James Clear explains it, “The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.”

The effect was named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot, who lived his entire life in poverty until Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, heard of his financial troubles and offered to buy Diderot’s personal library (she loved books) for £1,000 (about $150,000 in today’s dollars).

With some of the money, he purchased a beautiful scarlet robe. It was so beautiful that he soon noticed how out of place it seemed surrounded by his more common possessions.

“Diderot soon felt the urge to upgrade his possessions. He replaced his rug with one from Damascus. He decorated his home with expensive sculptures. He bought a mirror to place above the mantel and a better kitchen table. He tossed aside his old straw chair for a leather one. Like falling dominoes, one purchase led to the next.” — James Clear

For example, we buy a new sound system and think we need to update our more than adequate speakers.

Or we buy crisp new white sheets for our beds, then, we want to update our comforter, duvet cover and hey, maybe it’s time for a new mattress, after all, aren’t you supposed to replace them every seven to ten years?

Something I’m debating right now.

The purchase of a new rug makes our sofa look dingy and sad next to the crisp, clean carpet. Suddenly, the sofa that was fine yesterday looks worn out and old on top of a new clean rug, emphasizing how not clean the sofa is next to it.

Shopping has never been easier thanks to the internet, there is no friction to spending money. You don’t have to take the whole afternoon to go from store to store to find a dining table and chairs you like. You can spend 30 minutes comparison shopping from the comfort of your living room.

You only have to start thinking of something you want or shout it to the wind, and you’ll see an ad on Facebook for the item with a discount.

Your favorite catalog sends you a coupon.

Anthropologie is great at this, taking marketing to a whole new level.

I wanted a certain bookshelf. I had it in my “save for later” items. They sent me an email saying, “Oh no! Low inventory for this item, better hurry before it sells out.” I purchased it within the ten minutes, not wanting to miss out on a bookshelf I had my eye on for over a month. The bookshelf is now in my living room (it is gorgeous by the way) but the item is still not sold out.

Anthropologie recently tried this with a dresser I want, but I won’t fall for their trickery again. If I lose the dresser, oh well. I doubt I will.