Sentimental Impulse

Have you ever quandaried the idea of why we are such consumers? Commerical builders spend millions of dollars to create enough parking for us to pull out our credit cards.

Recently, I just made a purchase which was somewhat methodical, but mostly impulsive. How often do we have to grab that candy car, gum, or magazine on our way out?

I spent my college years studying buyer behavior-the psychology of the consumer, and how to appeal to them.

Currently, I have the title as an Account Manager, but in reality i'm just a salesman. Whatever stigma attached is irrelevant. It's my job to promote products and suit the needs of my clients, or sell them.

So why do I purchase things? Why do you?

It's easy, we want them-think we need them. The fact of the matter is that we buy a lot of things that later we regret or kind of wish we had not. I'm sure that you have had buyer's remorse one time or another.

But there are other times that we end up owning things that are well liked, and grow in intrinsic value over time. They become important to us and even sentimental. We like these items, and look for similiar things, remembering how well we liked the original. A good example of this would be the purchase my father made years ago. Growing up, my father owned a 1965 Plymouth Valiant. Now, a lot of you may be thinking to yourselves, what kind of car is that? No, it's no thunderbird, camaro, corvette, or mustang. But yes to me, this classic rivals them.

Recently, I have been thinking about getting a weekend fun vehicle. So lately I have been perusing the net searching. Strangely enough, I remembered the Valiant and how cool I thought it was. So with a few taps of the keyboard, a picture of a 1965 plymouth valiant appeared. Keep in mind, this is a somewhat rare car so I truly did not expect to find one.

There she was-she stood out and I analyzed the pictures, as memories of the old days flashed back. After a couple of days I decided that I wanted that car. This car was being auctioned so I had to set my price, and sure enough, mister Jon Banks is now the proud owner of a Plymouth Valiant. I'm ready to get my hands dirty, throw on a new coat of paint, and rev-up the 225 slant six.

I surely did not need this car, but there is something nice about getting something for yourself, especially when I know it will carry sentimental value.

Back to the race

After a long, nice, and eventful time off, I made the early morning trip into office. There is something therapeutic about taking time off. I am so thankful that I was intentional about how I took my time. I truly packed in some quality events. So how did I spend my time off?

Well, I spent quite a bit of the time back at my old stomping ground. My best friend who is currently residing in CA was in town, so we surely made the best of it. I ran into some old high school friends and had some laughs. While I was there I spent much of my time with the family. We enjoyed many great dinners, and had our traditional holiday events.

The second half of my vacation was back here in town. My plans were to meet up with my good friends and relax. It was a great few days, ended with a packed weekend and New Years. You would think that going back to work would have been tough, but after getting the most out of my vacation it wasn’t that bad.