What might motivate avoidance spenders to shop?

Avoidance spenders often engage in shopping as a means of coping with stress or negative emotions. This behavior is linked to using retail therapy as an escape, allowing them to temporarily forget their problems or stressors. The act of shopping can provide a sense of relief or pleasure, offering a distraction from the challenges they face in their daily lives. The emotional satisfaction derived from purchasing items serves as a short-term solution to alleviate feelings of anxiety, sadness, or overwhelm.

This context helps to understand why avoidance spenders might gravitate toward shopping specifically for emotional relief rather than for other motivations such as impressing others, meeting basic needs, or finding bargains. Those motivations typically stem from different psychological or financial drivers.