01 买买买,痛痛痛
刚刚过去的双11,亲们败了多少雪花银啊,周末大家估计都没有出门吧,难怪我感觉大街上冷冷清清哒。
目测现在应该有一大批亲们已经拿到战利品了,拿到战利品的那一刻你们心里是什么感受,是不是如购买时那般冲动呢,还是感觉平淡,甚至都忘记要拆开包裹了?
激动过后我们要面对一个残忍的现实,你的腰包空了多少?是不是辛辛苦苦奋斗一整年一朝回到解放前啊,是不是这个月剩下的日子里都要吃土了?
你有没有算过,这些物品有多少是必需品,又有多少是为了凑单随便买的,你有没有比较过,这些物品的价格和平时相比到底是高了还是低了?
好了,我点到为止,双12马上又要到了,各位亲如果想控制住自己的购买欲望,就请关注今天的故事——个退休老太太关于购物冲动的感悟。
02 退休奶奶告诉你,怎么理性消费
Margaret, a recently retired pharmacist, was a discount shopping club junkie. The steeper the discount, the bigger the high. Rolling her cart through the warehouse aisles, grabbing items in bulk off the shelves, she felt good about scoring a deal. Toilet paper, cereal, wrapping paper—it didn’t matter, as long as it was a bargain. Everything about the store, from the visibly slashed prices to the no-frills decor, screamed, “You are saving money, you shopping genius!”
今天故事的主人公是一位退休老人,她叫玛格丽特,曾是一位药剂师, 她极其热衷于购买打折商品。
打折力度越大,她的情绪就越嗨。
那她到底嗨什么呢:轻推购物车,横扫货物架,大堆大堆的货物眼睛都不眨眼的放进购物车,这样的成就感,换作是你,你也会上瘾啊!!!
她买了啥?我们来看看喽,厕纸,燕麦,包装纸,什么都有,总之一句话,什么打折买什么。(写到这里,我泪流满面,奶奶啊,求包养,我很好打发,麦片就好)
奶奶此时仿佛已经飞入云霄,商店里的每个物件(不管是打折促销价位牌还是各种不起眼的装饰物)都在冲她尖叫:嘿,你节省了这么多钱啊,你真是个购物天才!
And yet when Margaret took a cold, hard look at the receipts from her weekly trip to the discount store, it was clear she was spending way more than she ever had at the regular grocery store. She had gotten so used to focusing on the “You saved ________!” tally at the end of each receipt, she was ignoring the total amount she was spending. Margaret realized that just by stepping foot in the discount store, she was falling under the store’s halo effect.
不过,美好的时光总是短暂的。当玛格丽特奶奶再一次平静仔细地查看每周去打折商店的购物账单时,她很明显的发现到了不对劲: 她在打折超市的花费远远高于她平时购物的花费。
她开始寻找原因了,不得不佩服奶奶的反思精神啊,要是换个普通人(比如你我),估计也就是捶胸顿足责备自己一场,然后,该吃吃该喝喝,下次还是抵挡不住打折的诱惑哒。
她过去看账单的时候一直太过于关注“您本次购物共节省 ______”这一栏的数字,忽视了每次花费的总金额。
玛格丽特嗅到了商家的狡诈: 商家会使用这种“光晕效应”手段,让消费者在成就感错觉中不停买买买,难怪每次踏入打折商店,奶奶就控制不了自己的购买欲。
This was liberating her to spend without guilt, and she had been all too happy to indulge. To find her way out of this trap, she redefined what it meant to save. No longer would getting a good deal qualify—she had to stay under a set spending limit and get a good deal. She still felt good about saving, but no longer let the glow of savings turn her weekly trips into shopping sprees.
商家的这种狡诈行为使得玛格丽塔奶奶释放了花钱的内疚感,而且纵容她一次又一次因为花钱而感到开心。
这不是一个好事情啊,家财万贯也经不起这种消费啊,况且在老人家眼里,勤俭持家才是传统美德啊。
玛格丽特奶奶于是开始寻找方法走出陷阱。
她的方式其实很简单,她把节省的定义调整了一下: 节省不再单纯的意味着每次购物少花多少钱,而是指,在花费计划内每次购物能够节省多少钱。
这样一来,她依旧会因为自己节俭而感到骄傲,而且也不用担心自己为了这种成就感而产生多余消费。
03语言分析
1.The steeper the discount, the bigger the high
折扣越高,她越嗨。
这句话要注意的是比较句的使用,the 比较级+ the 比较级的句型结构。
另外,the high 在这里必须要结合上下文理解, 这里的high是名词,表示最高点。
2.Rolling her cart through the warehouse aisles, grabbing items in bulk off the shelves, she felt good about scoring a deal.
推着购物车经过一排排货物架,成堆的物品扫入到车里,她感觉自己完成了一次无比成功的购物。
核心结构: she felt good about ...
这句话拿出来主要是让大家体验一下使用非谓语动词的使用好处。rolling through, grabbing off两个动作非常形象的描绘了打折疯抢的氛围,要是拆开来单独写成句子就缺少了动作的一气呵成感,就产生不了过瘾的感觉了。
3.And yet when Margaret took a cold, hard look at the receipts from her weekly trip to the discount store, it was clear she was spending way more than she ever had at the regular grocery store.
当玛格丽特奶奶再一次平静仔细地查看每周去打折商店的购物账单时,她很明显哒看到: 她在打折超市的花费远远高于她平时购物的花费。
核心结构: it was clear ....
还记得it的用法吗,这里指代了clear后面的一句话 she was spending way more than she ever had at the regular grocery store. 这句话太长了显然不适合直接放在主语的位置,所以需要it发挥最用。我们再来仔细看看这句话,核心结构是,she was spending ... 后面是一个比较结构 spend more than she ever had ,way在这里要特别拿出来加粗一下,因为这里用作副词,不常见的用法,表示程度上相差很大。
4.She had gotten so used to focusing on the “You saved ________!” tally at the end of each receipt, she was ignoring the total amount she was spending.
她过去看账单的时候一直太过于关注“您本次购物共节省 ”这一栏的数字,以至于她忽视了每次花费的总金额。
首先注意一下时态,she had gotten .......she was ignoring,表示两个动作有先后顺序的,所以你理解的时候不要单纯的视为并列的顺序。
Be used to doing something 这样的结构表示过去常常做某件事情,要和used to do something 有所区分,后者指过去曾经做过某事。
其次,这句话里面又一个隐藏的 so ... that...结构, so used to.....(that)she was ignoring. 找到这个结构就能找到前后两句话的连接关键了。
5.No longer would getting a good deal qualify—she had to stay under a set spending limit and get a good deal.
单纯的购物省钱已经无法满足这个要求了- 她必须在花费计划内购物省钱。
这句话我要指出的是倒装句,否定词开头的句子都要使用倒装句式,而且不是部分倒桩,应该主谓倒装,所以我们看到了would助动词跑到了主语getting a good deal 前面。
04 故事与我何干
这个故事让我们看到了商家的狡诈:光晕效应使你感受到打折的直接好处省钱,你一感到高兴就会放松警惕,然后买买买,一不小心就超支购买。
如果不想一次次冲动消费,可以向玛格丽特奶奶学习,分析清楚每次购物的目标设置上限,在这个基础上再考虑商家提供的优惠计划是否能帮你节省钱。
贪小便宜很容易吃大亏,所以,面对外界诱惑时,比如无脂肪零食,无糖饮料,超低价格提供超值服务,你一定要练就火眼睛睛,看清楚哪些对你有用,有没有光晕效应在起作用。
05延伸阅读-- 对错不能作为衡量工具,你应该时刻问自己为什么
In the quest for self-control, it is a mistake to frame every willpower challenge in moral terms. We are too quick to give ourselves moral credit for good deeds done or merely contemplated, and too good at justifying giving in. Thinking in terms of “right” and “wrong” instead of remembering what we really want will trigger competing impulses and license self-sabotaging behavior. For change to stick, we need to identify with the goal itself, not the halo glow we get from being good.
如果做事的衡量标准是对或者错,忽略了真正做事情的目的,我们最终得到的将是与初衷相悖的冲动,这种冲动带来的是自毁前程的各种表现。 所以,如果想要变得更好,我们要时刻牢记自己的目标,忘记自得状态带来的光环。