Theoretical Shopping

I've been thinking a lot about something I've taken to calling "theoretical shopping".¹ There are a lot of things over the years that I might want to buy, or replace versions of things that I'm currently using, like my phone or laptop.

Theoretical shopping to me means doing the research to choose the best product you want to buy for a certain purpose, without necessarily buying your final choice each time.

My philosophy on personal electronics has always been to buy the one that best suits my upcoming needs, and stick to using it for at least five years unless it breaks.

In other cases you might discover a niche product category which you get interested in, as a means to a potential new hobby or entertainment. However, due to said products not being available in your country, or being prohibitively expensive, it might not be feasible to buy it at all.

Instead, I'll go through the process of researching the best products, keeping track of newer products over time and updating my list accordingly. I'll also keep links of where to buy said items and track their costs over time.

Basically, I'll participate in every step of the shopping process up to and excluding the actual purchasing and ownership.

It has been my experience that anticipating an item and the journey of selecting the right one provides more joy than the actual purchase. Usually in niche product categories, I'll convince myself to get something to try it out, anticipate how I'll use it days, weeks or months in advance of purchase. Then, if and when I actually purchase it, the actual enjoyment of owning the product typically has a finite period of enjoyment before I lose interest and it lies unused in a drawer somewhere.

You have to come up with a way to incorporate the use of a new product into your day-to-day life in order to make sure you actually enjoy using it and use it enough to justify the purchase. Otherwise, just enjoy the process of finding the best product, then imagine purchasing it and using it without actually doing so.

On the other hand, sometimes you like following a certain niche product sector but don't have the capital to acquire it. In that case, curating a wishlist of sorts is a great way to record things you want to buy when you eventually have enough money.