The retail holy grail

One of the least discussed annoyances of midlife is that it takes a lot of the fun out of shopping. Like newlyweds the second time around — who already have more kitchen knives, panini presses and popcorn poppers than they will ever use in their lifetime, not to mention dishes — when it comes to your wardrobe, what you really need isn’t another new dress, but another closet.

Particularly in the unforgettable economy of 2009, where each purchase must be carefully weighed as to its potential wearability and longevity, the notion of shopping as pure sport — in which the thrill of the hunt is sufficient reason to drag in yet another spangled carcass — seems like madness indeed. As the newly reformed, even penitent consumers we’ve become, it seems we must go to great lengths just to justify our love.

Losing the impulse to purchase

Of course it’s a fog now, but it seems to me that back in the days when my children were small, every week was charged with a shopping mission. Perhaps you had to run that afternoon to the mall for winter boots, or else your daughter, who’d suddenly grown three shoe sizes since the spring, would have to wade to school in flip-flops through the snow.

Or maybe you had to find something, anything, to wear to your husband’s office black-tie gala that would stretch over your seven months’ pregnant belly. And lost jackets and mittens, shed like leaves, had to be replaced so often you wondered whether you should purchase them in bulk.

Today, however, like so many other things in middle age, the impulse to purchase has fizzled. You see things you want that might rev up your already extensive wardrobe, but can you truly say that you actually need them?