I’ve been walking around with a knot in my stomach for months, only I didn’t realize it until yesterday… as I unpacked the groceries. Where were the fruits and vegetables? Surely I bought them, but when I looked at the counter the evidence of being a bad mother hit me between the eyes. Bad mother, but fiscally smart shopper?
When had this happened? Now, I have always price shopped, and I remember standing in the produce section. I remember looking at the prices of oranges, shaking my head before moving onto asparagus. Did I actually dismiss my way through the entire department? Apparently I did, if the contents on my counter are to be believed.
But the really scary thing was the familiarity of the groceries I had purchased. I had seen them before, years ago, when the kids were infants and my husband was in graduate school and… we were broke.
Okay, before you start sending me checks, let me make clear that we aren’t broke. We do quite well and are fortunate that job loss isn’t on the horizon (yet?). So why am I shopping like we’re one step away from a soup kitchen?
Enter the knot in my stomach, or what the economists call lack of consumer confidence.
Go on, tell me the market will bounce back. I’m still not shopping. Give me a tax cut. Still not shopping. Say I’m over-reacting. Don’t care, I won’t shop. And it seems most Americans agree with me. Are we all walking around with knots in our stomachs?
And doesn’t part of solving this economic crisis involve untying these knots. Isn’t part of the solution psychological?