the.com/shopping spree
Capitalism's version of a fever dream, except the bill shows up conscious.
means A bout of spending in which you buy a large number of things in a short, excited burst, often with little restraint.
from 'Shopping' traces to 'shop,' from Old French 'eschoppe,' a small booth or stall, itself probably from a Germanic word for a lean-to or shed. 'Spree,' meaning a wild outburst of activity, shows up in the late 1700s in Scots English, originally meaning a lively frolic or drinking bout — its deeper roots are murky, possibly tied to Scottish Gaelic 'spréidh' (cattle, or a cattle raid), though that link is debated. Put together, 'shopping spree' yokes an old word for market-stall buying to a word for reckless revelry — the phrase itself is a 19th/20th-century pairing, capturing shopping at its most unhinged.
- origin
- spree once meant a drunken escapade, 1800s Scotland
- brain chemistry
- dopamine spikes before purchase, not after
- regret window
- buyer's remorse peaks within 24 hours
- economics term
- retail therapy has zero clinical backing