Why Do We Spend Money at the Airport?

On the way to Victoria last week, I came across a very interesting article from one of the on-board magazine about why travellers spend so much money buying things at the airport?

According to experts they call this impulse behaviour as Transumerism. We tend to spend alot of money for things we don't need at the aiport is because of the long wait for boarding. Going to an international destination, you need to be at the airport at least 3-hours before your departure time. This makes sense to me due to the fact that security has gotten tighter due to the September 11 attacks.

Abu Dhabi Airport Shopping Mall

However, since most people will get there probably 3 or more hours earlier, the process of checking in is also now becoming shorter. Now, once the passengers are checked in and they have 1 - 2 hours lag time before departure, they ended up browsing the shops. As these passengers get bored waiting, they ended up shopping to pass the time.


I find this is true to me as I have bought some things at the airport before that I didn't need, but of course this was I would say 8 years ago, I have gotten smarter and I just bring a book to pass the time.


So to basically summarize this whole transumerism, if you don't want to spend money on unnecessary things at the shops, bring a book, something to pass the time so you don't get bored and have the urge to shop.