Do You Shop For Handbags Alone, or With a Group of Friends, Partner, etc?

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#18
I prefer shopping alone (not just with bags.) I find that with friends, we usually end up chatting which equals to casual browsing and not paying attention to details. Plus my friends aren't that into bags so if they're with me, I cannot shop properly as I will feel like I'm wasting their time. I think they don't mind but I would feel bad. Shopping alone is more relaxing and I can look around at my own pace and time.
 
#20
I'm so glad you ladies joined me on this thread! I had begun to feel like something of a leper for stalking handbag stores on my own! One of the great things about this forum is the feedback. Lately I've been seeing threads where ladies are trying to organize meets, for shopping bags of a particular brand. Maybe they have already met in person, but I know I'd find it unsettling to show up somewhere to meet a bunch of strangers, for handbag shopping. Another reason for my solo shopping preference is that since I work from home I can choose weekday shopping. Most of my friends wouldn't be able to do this, due to work routines in schools, offices, etc. But I have never liked weekend shopping, even when I was a teenager. My one flirtation with friend shopping was a few years ago when a good friend I was having lunch with asked me to help her shop for a dress. She said it would only take a little while, but honestly...I thought I would lose the will to live. And yet, I do understand why some ladies like shopping with other people. Another good friend was attending a wedding recently and had no experience of choosing those sorts of clothes. She shopped alone for her dress, but told me the expedition wasn't very successful. She ended up being pressurized by sales staff and came away with a dress she didn't like very much. But I'm sticking to my solo guns!
 
#21
Never with my boyfriend! He thinks I have too many handbags already so he makes me not buy them and then I think about them and have to go back the next day...haha. Either alone or with friends, probably prefer to do it alone slightly more.
 
#22
I prefer to shop alone - even on a gift-giving occasion when my husband wants to buy me a bag, I go out before and pick out a couple that I like and let him make the final choice (since he is paying).
 
#23
Hi heather123,

Most of my bag buying is done online, and, whenever possible, I avoid retail prices, so either pre-loved via eBay or heavily discounted in online sales. In spite of this, I'm still quite secretive with my loved-ones about cost/expenditure, so, for that reason, it's nearly always a solo guilty pleasure.

I never, never talk about the cost of my bags with friends and family, and I'm sometimes a little mortified if someone asks me outright, even if I've snagged a great deal on a bag. I guess this is because I believe, deep inside, that spending hundreds of pounds on an item which is not a necessity (particularly when I have dozens and dozens of similar items at home) is a character flaw. In my head, I can justify to myself how my life will be enriched by ownership of a certain bag, but, if I have a rational conversation with another human being about it, I know that my common sense will prevail and I will quit the internal bullsh*t and put the money into paying down my mortgage. If I need enabled, I'll come to tPF ;)

I enjoy going into town at the weekend with my friends, but it's rarely about buying lots of stuff, and is much more about the coffee-drinking and camaraderie. I do enjoy having a 'stroke' at bags in stores, though, as it helps me to decide on quality/weight etc if I am to eventually buy online.

- Lips
 
#25
I'd say I'm a bit like you, Lips! When I go to Glasgow to see friends/relatives I always grab some me-time to look at bags by myself. I just couldn't be doing with some moralizing friend commenting on how I could be spending my money more wisely. Funnily enough, I rarely buy bags when I'm in Glasgow. Mostly I'll be mooching around in some Royal Exchange Square cafe, blethering with with old school friends. The handbag browsing sets me up to purchase something I've already seen and handled, on eBay. The only bags I have ever paid full retail for are Orla Kiely (whose bags aren't too expensive) and the Warehouse satchel I picked up recently from an Irish department store.
 
#26
Alone... but the interesting thing about that is I always meet a total stranger perusing the bags and I invariably strike up conversations with them. You know, get opinions, stuff like that. And sometimes make them really happy! Just the other day I started talking to a lady in the handbag area at N ordstrom Rack at the Mall of America, turns out she's in the Twin Cities for yearly training, lives in Ohio, and I turned her on to NM's Last Call and S aks Off Fifth in downtown Minneapolis and an easy way to get there. She was ecstatic and I felt good. Didn't find a bag, but loved the social interaction!
 
#27
My beautiful SIL is now very much into handbags, so I enjoy shopping with her for bags. Other than that, I really covet my alone time when I am shopping for a great handbag. I hate being rushed and most of my friends will never go beyond Target or WalMart for what they are carrying. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but when there is some serious handbag shopping happening, my friends are not there to enjoy the experience as much as I do.
 
#28
I like shopping on my own. My gfs and I used to shop together but I found that in recent years our taste diverge. It was fun back then as we would try on everything and comment on them. Now I find that we all head in different directions.
 
#29
I don't mind shopping with like-minded friends or family actually but there is always a danger that I will want to buy something just because everyone else has managed to find something but that's still pretty rare.

I don't mind going shopping by myself either though :p.
 
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