Comments on: Citizen vs. consumer

By: Filipino Librarian

Filipino Librarian — Mon, 07 May 2007 03:26:44 +0000

i’m one librarian who approaches libraries and bookstores with some trepidation. i’ve learned to set my phone’s alarm when going into libraries, and enter bookstores only when i’m killing time. why? because i know i won’t be able to get in and out in a few minutes, even if i know exactly what i’m looking for. i will, inevitably, start looking at other books, and before i know it, the five minutes i can spare has ballooned into an hour that i really shouldn’t have “wasted.”

in contrast, when i go “shopping,” it’s very rare that i find anything beyond what i really need to buy that will keep me in a store longer than i expected. if i do go “shopping” when i’m bored, it’s usually because i’m just waiting for someone. more often than not, i will look for a bookstore on those occasions because i know i have time to spare, and that when the person i’m waiting for arrives, it will be so easy for me to leave. and if i find anything interesting, i usually just save the title on my phone… and borrow it at the library =)

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 05 May 2007 15:08:27 +0000

I like to shop and sometimes I have bought stuff out of boredom. The world is a cool place and there’s always new ideas and designs to be found (or stolen) out there that you can incorporate into you’re own life or work. There’s certainly a lot of junk too but I often say the same about books. Shopping is just seperating the wheat from the chaff and people do it as much at the library as they do the mall.

By: John Mark Ockerbloom

John Mark Ockerbloom — Sat, 05 May 2007 09:05:18 +0000

Mary and I sometimes say semi-seriously that one of the big couple compatibility issues that doesn’t usually get brought up in the guides is shopping compatibility. Happily, we’re both about equally shopping-averse. Our one notable exception to this is bookstores. (We visit libraries too, but in our local area the bookstores have better hours, and often more interesting– or at least *different* in interesting ways– selection.)

For the best of both worlds, we like to check out library Friends booksales. The main Philly Free Library Friends bookstore has lots of interesting stuff, some of it weeded from collections, others donated by people who like libraries– and for the most part, it’s very cheap. So if we’re in a hunter-gathering mood, and don’t want to spend a lot, it’s often a place we like to go.

And if we end up with too many books for the house, it’s also the place we can go to donate the excess. Get you coming and going, they do.

By: bowerbird

bowerbird — Fri, 04 May 2007 08:42:50 +0000

hallelujah…

-bowerbird

By: walt

walt — Fri, 04 May 2007 01:25:10 +0000

Brightly colored stores looking at meaningless trinkets: Reminds me of the first time I encountered a dollar store on a speaking trip (there were none around here at the time). Mucho multilingual strangeness and all for a buck.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 04 May 2007 01:14:47 +0000

Love to “shop” as a way to observe pop culture, hate to shop when I actually need something. Rather shop on ebay! As a librarian I am interested in how Barnes and Noble et al draws people to read books, often without actually buying anything, yet the library experience is so negative by comparison.
On several nurses blogs there are comments about “retail therapy”, as a way to de-compress after getting off work in the middle of the night, after an especially gruesome shift involving lots of blood and death. Wandering through brightly colored stores looking at meaningless trinkets seemed to serve as a way to abolish the horrors of their work.
Seems like someone could do an article or Phd on that one.

By: Moyra

Moyra — Fri, 04 May 2007 00:33:11 +0000

You might be interested in the recent column http://www.smh.com.au/news/style-notes/what-comes-around-goes-around/2007/04/26/1177459849026.html in an Australian newspaper by one of their fashion writers, who took the decision not to go shopping for a year. This was a particularly difficult decision as she was a addicted to shopping for clothes. She found she had so much extra time that she decided to take up quilting! (a very time consuming hobby).
Personally, I get bored with shopping – I don’t shop because I’m bored, that’s for sure! There are so many things in the world to do, why waste the time?

By: Ruth Ellen

Ruth Ellen — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:14:48 +0000

I, too, am not a shopper. I do actually enjoy the process of grocery shopping when I’m at the store, but I buy way too many vegetables at one time so that I don’t have to go too often. And shopping for clothes – eeeeeuuuuggggghhhhh. I have plenty of other things I’d rather be doing – gardening, playing music, taking the dogs to the park.
However, one of the productive things I do for entertainment is knitting. And, unfortunately, knitting leads to shopping. For yarn. Lots of yarn. It’s not the shopping – it’s the falling in love and having to HAVE that yarn. Show me a knitter without a way-too-big stash. Dare you.

By: walt

walt — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:43:12 +0000

My overall response: I’m glad I finally wrote that post, rough as it may be. The conversation that’s taking place here is great–I do love good comments!

Steven: I responded in a comment on your blog.

And in case it’s not clear: I have nothing against shopping, either of the browsing or searching variety. We just don’t do it much. When I was at UC Berkeley and we had a great local record store, I spent more time there (and more money) than I could justify–and, of course, got to know the owner and mixed good conversation with good shopping.

Back when staying-over-Saturday made a huge difference in air fares, I would sometimes stay an extra day after speaking at a conference in order to reduce the conference’s costs. Some of those days, I’d spend an hour or three at a local mall in walking distance (including the Mall of America). That was “boredom shopping” and exercise–but it was also a special case.

By: jennimi

jennimi — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:13:15 +0000

@ Anne Knight: yes yes YES! The Hidden Life of Dogs comment. I loved that book and hadn’t thought of it in forever. Thank you for that reminder.