A Study on Shopping Online While Drunk – How Much It Costs Americans

A recent study took a look at buying habits of Americans while under the influence of alcohol. SUI (Shopping Under the Influence) may not land you in jail like a DUI would, but there is still a cost attached to shopping while drinking (SWI).

The bottom line of the study is that over half of Americans admitted to shopping while drinking and cellphones and accessories ranked at the top of the list of regretful purchases.

Let’s look at some more details of this study.

And for those who are reading this while enjoying an alcoholic beverage, the study publishers produced big colorful infographics.

Type of Alcohol Matters

Gin drinkers are apparently the worst shoppers while drunk, doubling the purchases of Whiskey, Beer, and Tequila drinkers.

Girl Power

This one may not come as a total surprise, but women are often blamed for being big shoppers and when alcohol is involved, women continue to outspend men online.

Drunk Shopping Sprees

The study took a look at the big spending and found another correlation between alcohol types and big-ticket shopping.

Again Gin drinkers top the list, but this time wine drinkers seem to mellow out on the big tickets items, keeping red and white connoisseur at the bottom of the big-ticket spending sprees.

It would have been interesting to know if there is a difference between a good bottle of vino and a cheap bottle, but in either case, it seems wine drinkers are less likely to go wild online.

Regretful Purchases

Over 51 percent of respondents to the study stated they returned an item after they purchased it while drunk. Especially sellers of cellphones and accessories may see higher returns from drunk purchases.

But if you sell musical instruments or pet supplies, even while drunk, shoppers seem to be happy with their buys and keep them.

The Weird and Wacky Purchases

No study on this subject would be complete if it didn’t include a few of the more bizarre purchases shoppers made while intoxicated.

“Body Enhancement” pills (hmmm… gimmicks) seem to make this list, but that shouldn’t be a total shocker. But one does wonder what to do with a drum of clear glide lubricant or a gorilla grow tent.

The data was compiled by the Archstone Recovery Center of the Palm Beaches (Florida) and looked at buying habits by 1,000 men and women across the U.S. who admitted to purchasing products on Amazon while drinking.

To learn more about the details of this study, click here.

Do you have a funny story about buying something online while consuming an adult beverage? Head over to our Facebook Discussion Group or use the comments section below.

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