Beat the Impulse Buy When Shopping  Avoid the Trap  It’s a
dangerous world when it comes to shopping—colorful sale signs,
overly peppy salesmen and the ever-so-enticing point-of-purchase
displays.  Okay, so maybe dangerous is a stretch, but everywhere
you go marketers have made a career out of stirring your impulse
to buy. The danger doesn’t revolve around an advertising
conspiracy; rather it involves your budget and the potential
harm it can have, including debt.  Military members run the same
risk of debt as everyone else, but they may also have additional
consequences to face: lecturing from chain of command, loss of
recommendation for promotion, and in extreme cases, discharge.
How Bad Can it Be?  The Marketing Science Institute found that
60 percent of all purchases are unplanned. In fact, according to
a ShopSmart Magazine poll, 60 percent of women who were
attempting to rein in their spending made an impulse purchase,
(39 percent of which were in the last month). The average price
wasn’t a simple cost