Just for the smell of it

Last night I wandered past Hoss on Regent Street, a very sweet, pretty, high street chain (one of two) I had no intention of purchasing but the smell of the store was just too hard to fight. From the dirty, polluted street path of Oxford Circus I was drawn in by the sweet aroma of what I can only describe as raspberries, cream and marshmallows. The combination of this yummy smell, the pretty display of art deco mirrors and the super lovely assistants who wore ribbons in their hair were just too much to resist on what was a glorious Thursday Spring evening.

All of a sudden, out of no where I was immediately overcome with an uncontrollable consumeristic (did I just make that word up?) urge, I just had to buy something, anything, what could I get my hands on? what could i have? I needed to take a piece of this loveliness home with me. I then spied a super cute navy and coral spotted cricket jumper, it was the deal breaker. It was surrounded by an array of what seemed like hundreds of other spotted combinations - racing red and yellow, grape and bottle green, dusty pink and chocolate it was just so beautiful and somewhat French - I was super chuffed with my find.

Although, when I returned home with my new purchase it all seemed to change, the jumper sucked, it was boring, nothing special and kind of plain - why? Maybe because its new home didn’t smell like raspberries, maybe because my room is kind of dusty, my wardrobe old (and only has 3 sides) my carpet an off shade of mustard and my duvet due for dry cleaning - cue ‘I hate London standards of living’ moment.

I got to thinking, why do items always seem more alluring in the shop? What is it about the retail environment that enhances our senses, draws us in, makes our hearts beat faster and injects us with the "I have to have it or I'll die serum”? Is it the trick lighting? The skinny mirrors? The often loud, terribly hip background music? or does the item simply look nicer when it is complemented by its mates? Or maybe its like dating - the thrill of the chase, once we have it in our hot little hands we lose interest and don’t want it anymore.

Needless to say the spotty cricket jumper is returning to its original home, where it belongs and where it will be happy amongst all the other spotty cricket jumpers - thank goodness return policies exist and our statutory rights are not being affected.