Shopping Fun Facts
Bizarre Shopping Incident
A Squirrel Attack
A Chicago woman Marcy Meckler filed a law suit at Cook County Circuit Court to sue Old Orchard, an open-air shopping mall, because a squirrel attacked her leg while she was at the mall on December 3, 2004. She was attacked by the squirrel right after she had left Tiffany & Co. jewelry store and was walking through a courtyard. She claims in her case that in the struggle she fell and suffered serious injuries. The suit states that the mall failed "to warn the plaintiff of the squirrel's presence." She attempted to get $50,000 from the mall.
Women and Shopping
Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society, 1903, women shopping in Chicago, Illinois.
A study done by GE Money stated that women spend over 8 years of their life shopping. A woman spends 399 hours and 46 minutes each year shopping. Therefore, in a 63-year period, women will shop for 25,184 hours and 53 minutes. The 399 hours and 46 minutes are broken down into the following:
1. About quarter (94 hours and 55 minutes) of her shopping time is spent at the grocery store shopping for food for herself and her family (perhaps because most men do not voluntarily do the grocery shopping).
2. About 10% of her shopping time (36 hours and 17 minutes) is spent buying gifts for family and friends.
3. 48 hours and 51 minutes are spent window shopping.
4. The rest of the time, women shop for themselves: clothes, shoes, accessories, beautification items, and toiletries.
Sarah Palin Shopping Spree
The amount that the Republican National Committee has spent on Sarah Palin's clothing and accessories in 2008 (including some on her family as well) reached over $150,000. The amount includes thousands of dollars spent in stores like Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York and Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis. Besides clothing, the Republican National Committee also spent over $4,500 on hair and makeup in September 2008.
As to Hillary Clinton, we know that she paid about $3,000 for two hair-styling sessions during her run for president in 2008.
Malls
Mall of America
Mall of America is the largest mall in the world: 4.2 million square feet. It opened in 1992 between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. It includes more than 500 stores, 50 restaurants, 14 movie screens museums, an amusement park (America’s largest indoor amusement park), and an aquarium. It attracts 40 million visitors each year--more than Disney.
Southdale Mall
Southdale Mall, in Edina, Minnesota, is the first modern mall—an all-indoor shopping center with climate controls. It opened October 8, 1956, with 72 shops. Today it houses 150 shops that cover 1.3 million square feet.
Malls=Time and Money
Americans spend more time in the malls than anywhere else (except home and work).
The more disorienting the mall’s floor plan is the more time and money shoppers spend.
Shoppers who shop for 3 hours spend 4 times the amount than shoppers who shop for thirty minutes.
Where Should You Shop?
The following are the three top companies in 2003 which donated the highest percentage of their earnings to charity:
First place: Target donated 2.1%.
Second place: Nation Wide Insurance donated 1.3%.
Third place: Coca-Cola donated 1.2%.
Procrastination
The single busiest shopping hour for the Christmas holiday season is December 24 between 3 and 4 in the afternoon.
Theft
"Bad boys, bad boys
Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you!"
According to the Houston Chronicle, in 2006, retail stores in the US had goods in the value of $41.6 billion stolen. Despite prevalent use of security cameras, thieves still succeed in retail stores.
Wal-Mart reported the highest amount of stolen goods—$3 billion.