Scrolling, adding to cart, checking out–-we’ve all felt the new purchase rush and excitement, thinking it was harmless, but for some students, this thrill and excitement turns into a habit of ups and downs in either their own or their parent’s bank account. Is shopping putting a strain on Arcata High students?
Senior Eaman Campbell states that he doesn’t budget when he’s shopping, it’s really just whatever he has in his bank account. “When I shop at Murphy’s it goes from 50 dollars to 120 dollars and if I’m feeling it sometimes 250 dollars. But I feel like that’s too little.”
Is 250 dollars too little? It takes the average worker around 8.4 hours to make $250, so Campbell spends that all in one trip. That’s a full day of work gone within 30 minutes to an hour just due to a shopping trip.
Freshman Nya Golightly believes Target is the best place to shop in Humboldt County, but that Shein is her favorite online store with around 165 items in her cart going from clothes, appliances, and random dupes she found on TikTok. “I don’t think that I’m a shopaholic, I just like shopping,” Golightly said.
Shein prices range from 50 cents to around 70 dollars, with their clothing being “the cheapest clothing you can buy online.” Some say that their quality isn’t the best, but in this case, Golightly doesn’t care, with the mentality of the more clothes the merrier.
Junior Austin Kolshinski stated that she mostly goes shopping at Target if she’s shopping in Humboldt. But she likes going to the Bay Area and shopping online at Brandy Melville as well. Kolshinski proceeded to show a Summer Fridays deal of 50 dollars for three Summer Fridays lip balm, to which she proceeded to say, “It’s the price of two for three of them, I gotta do it!”
Kolshinski also stated that she wants chain stores Victoria’s Secret and PINK to come to Humboldt as well since it’s difficult to get those types of products online without seeing the product you’re buying. Though there was a Victoria’s Secret in the Bayshore Mall just a few years ago but was taken out for undisclosed reasons.
All the interviewees stated their excitement when they shop either online or in person, is the excitement too much? All of them stated no and that they love the thrill of shopping, Eaman made a good point stating that it’s not his fault that stores make shopping so addictive. Are you a shopaholic?
