SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Glad you could find some time for us. It's a weekend when many of us wish we might have some inside line on how we could shop like a pro. Well, NPR's Alina Selyukh found exactly this pro, someone whose job it is to think about shopping. And the two of them went to the mall.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: I just saw your message. Hi.
KATIE THOMAS: You must be the one with the microphone.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMAS: Hi, Alina.
SELYUKH: Hi. I'm Alina.
THOMAS: How are you?
SELYUKH: Nice to meet you.
THOMAS: Nice to meet you in person.
SELYUKH: Katie Thomas has been coming to this mall in Pittsburgh...
THOMAS: My whole life. So I grew up here. I worked at the Macy's in high school.
SELYUKH: She may not be a professional shopper, but she is a shopping professional, in that Thomas is paid to parse our spending habits. She leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, which is like a think tank inside an influential consulting firm, with Thomas as part anthropologist, part oracle and a frequent eagle-eyed visitor at the mall.
THOMAS: So normally, I honestly just, like, start and browse. And look what kind of fun things I see. I love, like, a holiday display.
SELYUKH: We meet by the Nordstrom, where she usually starts her research rounds. But today, Thomas is here to shop, or, rather, serve as a shopping guide for tips and tricks. And her first tip comes up right away as she flips through the hangers at the clothing store Madewell.
THOMAS: So I love to read a label.
SELYUKH: Thomas reaches inside a long-sleeved shirt to read the tag. The idea is to compare the caliber of the fabric to its cost.
THOMAS: Cotton and modal, and that's not that bad.
SELYUKH: And you would be checking for...
THOMAS: I mean, I like natural fabrics, but I'm not opposed to synthetics because I think some degree of, like, poly makes it softer, makes it less wrinkly. But I just like to know, especially with regards to the price.
SELYUKH: So you're just saying that's one way to make sure that the price you're paying is worth it?
THOMAS: Not even just what something's made out of, but the quality of construction, so the stitching.
SELYUKH: How even is it? How tight and neat are the seams? In other words, does the price match the quality? The next thing Thomas points out is that sometimes what's in store and what's online are two quite different selections.
THOMAS: There's an interesting age thing that can sometimes happen with stores. For instance, I would buy something from Abercrombie online, but whenever I go in this store here, I feel old.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SELYUKH: That's the second tip, to consider a cross check in store and online. We test this in person.
THOMAS: So let's do a walk through Abercrombie.
SELYUKH: Should I be prepared to feel old?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
THOMAS: Yeah. You should.
UNIDENTIFIED SALESPERSON #1: Hi, guys.
THOMAS: Hello.
SELYUKH: Hi.
THOMAS: See, don't you already?
SELYUKH: (Laughter) A little bit.
THOMAS: Yeah. I do think that what they have in store, to me, always feels younger than, like, what you can find online. Because this is who they're getting in the store.
SELYUKH: But the company knows that Millennials who grew up with the store - in this case, it's us, the olds shopping here - still have enough of a brand loyalty that they'll keep coming back. So it's worth checking all the venues. Now to the third trick, this one for people who only shop the women's section.
THOMAS: One of my hacks is always browse the men's section.
SELYUKH: The reason is the pink tax, the hidden cost of simply shopping as a woman.
THOMAS: Which is sometimes there's, like, men's versions of things that either are cheaper or don't have, like, synthetic in there. And sometimes you'll see sort of an equivalent male-female sweater, and there will be a price or a materials difference.
SELYUKH: Like, the same basic shirt but maybe women's with more synthetic, men's with more cotton, and men's still priced lower than women's. And for the final trick, Thomas offers the tried and true.
THOMAS: I'm a thinker. So that's part of my thing with shopping, is, like, I probably wouldn't pull the trigger on a lot today. I would go home and think about it and come back.
SELYUKH: It's the sleep-on-it rule to rein in the impulse to buy. Except, of course, sometimes the impulse is the very joy of shopping. Thomas acknowledges this. When we pop into Sephora, she spots a lip care set on holiday sale.
THOMAS: It's candy cane lip sleeping mask, all in peppermint.
(CROSSTALK)
SELYUKH: Turns out peppermint is her jam at the holidays, but she decides to keep going and maybe swing back later if it's still in her mind. And it is.
UNIDENTIFIED SALESPERSON #2: All right. Tap here.
UNIDENTIFIED SALESPERSON #2: Have a great night.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHECKOUT SCANNER BEEP)
THOMAS: Perfect. Thank you. You too.
SELYUKH: Do feel a little more complete?
THOMAS: Yes.
SELYUKH: (Laughter) Do you, really?
THOMAS: I do.
SELYUKH: I think the lesson here from an expert is that treat yourself is...
THOMAS: Yes.
SELYUKH: ...Also applicable.
THOMAS: It is, especially at the holidays. But also, I think the good lesson is it's OK to do a walk-around and then come back and complete purchase.
SELYUKH: And I guess if all else fails and you still wake up with regret, there's always returns.
Alina Selyukh, NPR News, Pittsburgh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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