--- title: 'More Bargains, More Bills: The Dark Side of Cheap Shopping' description: Do you like to buy a few expensive items with long lifespans or several cheaper options that won't last? Your answer says a lot about you. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 499 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2025-09-17T14:53:42.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - News word_count: 797 canonical: https://money.com/quantity-vs-quality-shopping-dark-side/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Bar graphs of shopping baskets increasing](https://img.money.com/2024/12/News-Shopping-Habits-Finances.jpg) When shopping, do you opt for quality (buying a few expensive items with long lifespans) or quantity (picking up several cheaper options even though you know they won’t last)? Your answer to this question can say a lot about the state of your overall finances as well as your personality, new research suggests. While low price tags may initially lure quantity-focused shoppers, these folks tend to spend more in the moment and accrue more debt in the long run. "Buying more \[things\] makes it harder to track spending,” says Rodrigo Dias, an assistant marketing professor at the [University of Colorado Boulder](https://money.com/best-colleges/profile/university-of-colorado-boulder/) and lead author of a [study](https://academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jcr/ucae059/7781686?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false) in the *Journal of Consumer Research*. “This can lead to unintentional overspending, which adds up over time.”~ ~ But the implications of this simple shopping habit run deeper than that. ## Regain financial stability with the help of Freedom Debt Relief ### Freedom can start you on the path to resolve your debt, especially if you owe over $20,000. Why wait? Select your state to get started today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/l67257dab4e3?ap_referrer=%2Fquantity-vs-quality-shopping-dark-side%2F) ## What your shopping habits say about your finances When first beginning to research people’s shopping preferences, Dias says he and his co-authors were surprised by the preliminary data. From the get-go, they found that shoppers are remarkably consistent in their habits related to quality vs. quantity. For instance, people aren’t just quality-or-quantity shoppers on a few types of items — they tend to take that approach across the board. In other words, if you prefer to buy only a few pairs of high-quality shoes, you are very likely to have the same preferences for food or furniture. You will probably keep that preference for future purchases, as well. Dias explains that this habit was so consistent and surprising to the researchers that it became the focus of their meta-analysis, which ultimately involved measuring data from more than 24,000 participants across 32 studies. ## Quantity shoppers spend more, have more debt At the outset, the researchers hypothesized that people who purchase high-quality items would be the big spenders, given that high-quality items often cost much more. “But our data found the precise opposite,” Dias says. In addition to spending more overall, shoppers who favor quantity tend to rack up more debt and struggle more with paying that debt off. Over a one-year period, 26% of quantity-focused shoppers saw an [increase in credit card debt](https://money.com/debt-statistics-crisis-growing/), while credit card debt increased for only 13% of quality-focused shoppers. For quantity shoppers, Dias says that debt is likely to linger longer and grow over time because when they make these frequent purchases, more of their income is going toward buying stuff — not paying off their existing debt. The researchers found a striking example of this phenomenon playing out in another area, too: [student loan debt](https://money.com/student-loan-debt/). They analyzed the debt loads of 10,000 student loan borrowers and found that borrowers who fell into the quantity camp owed about $43,000 on average. By comparison, quality shoppers owed roughly $38,000. ## The ‘vicious feedback loop’ of buying a bunch of cheap stuff As it turns out, buying cheap stuff is actually quite expensive, and not only in the long term. It is true that high-quality items are often more expensive than low-quality versions that may need to be replaced more frequently. In some cases, the increased price may be a barrier to purchasing the "better" product. You might think that because buying quality items requires more money up front, these types of shoppers might be spending more now to save more later. And while there are certainly examples where that's true on an item-by-item basis, Dias’ study flips that assertion on its head. In a shopping simulation, people who were considered quantity shoppers actually *outspent* quality shoppers at check-out, selecting $89 worth of goods compared to $79 for quality shoppers. This suggests quality shoppers spend less in the moment *and* over time. As Dias explains, our shopping habits are complicated. It’s not just a comparison of price points — there are cultural, psychological and economic factors at play. In many cases (but certainly not all), he says, quantity buyers may be struggling with compulsive buying or low self-control. The purchases might be made for the sense of satisfaction, not necessarily because the buyer needed it or couldn’t afford a higher-quality version. There are a variety of reasons why someone may be a quantity buyer, but regardless, the habit is likely bad news for your finances. Dias says quantity shopping tends to lower overall financial wellness. And lower financial wellness, in turn, often prompts people to favor quantity shopping. “This finding is particularly troubling,” he says. “It points to the possibility of a cycle of financial vulnerability, where financial struggles lead to purchasing habits that exacerbate those struggles, creating a vicious feedback loop.” ## Reduce payments and make debt manageable with a Debt Relief program ![VISIT SITE](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/25289/medium_2e7b27ce-b30d-40a3-beef-0139ecba6b47.png) Our Partner [VISIT SITE](https://money.com/go/94993ff9e639?bidid=4063533571&pmeta=p129-c628-u31158&ptid=665765888&ptoken=af17c0d4cea6e274617237f0ec29adc0) ![VISIT SITE](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/23879/medium_3847e650-29eb-411b-9b8c-05deb0d02cbc.png) Our Partner [VISIT SITE](https://money.com/go/b721b051ebc3?bidid=4063533572&pmeta=p129-c628-u31158&ptid=665765888&ptoken=7a2edded7eb81f8a2da90a6989741bfa) ![VISIT SITE](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/15565/medium_832cc4b7-74f8-4735-8fe1-6917816cbe8d.png) Our Partner [VISIT SITE](https://money.com/go/9b7ead16a12c?bidid=4063533570&pmeta=p129-c628-u31158&ptid=665765888&ptoken=0d3c67aa12ae73b2b61ae1a9f0fe93d8) ![VISIT SITE](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/22445/medium_ba73f26a-1e1e-4e49-9739-df1298783de6.png) Our Partner [VISIT SITE](https://money.com/go/06033e55ed9d?bidid=4063533575&pmeta=p129-c628-u31158&ptid=665765888&ptoken=c6c0dadc4e4bbec63d0cc5f588ce4cb4) ![VISIT SITE](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/9246/medium_94931930-28cf-46b5-b09d-683979caec81.png) Our Partner [VISIT SITE](https://money.com/go/ea6abda14025?bidid=4063533573&pmeta=p129-c628-u31158&ptid=665765888&ptoken=eb785bd8d0f0f42a8e2411635d47f82e) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/25289/medium_2e7b27ce-b30d-40a3-beef-0139ecba6b47.png) If you owe over $20,000 or more, Freedom Debt Relief can help you get back on your feet! 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