The World's Biggest Shopaholic

Shoppers can apparently be split into two types: recreational shoppers and non-recreational shoppers. "Recreational shoppers', as its name suggests, are people who shop for fun. The "non-recreational" type shop only when they need to.

According to a survey by ACNielsen (an international consumer market research group,) the highest percentage of "recreational shoppers" are in Asia-Pacific. The No.1 countries are Hong Kong and Indonesia, both with 93% of the people surveyed who shop for fun. The U.S. and U.K. have 68% and 34% recreational shoppers respectively.

The survey results actually make sense. Living in a city, such as Hong Kong, there are really little one does in ones free time. In Hong Kong, 90% of the time I go out (non-work related) is for shopping. (By shopping, I could mean all kinds of shopping -window shopping, grocery shopping, target shopping etc.) Because afterall, if I don't go shopping, what else is there fun to do in the city? At least when I was studying in the UK, I could take the occasional weekend trip out of London to visit friends. And when I visit my relatives in San Francisco, I could just ride a bike whenever I want to, but in Hong Kong, one would have to make an effort to go to the countryside.

The conclusion? It is logical that there are more recreational shoppers in city since there is less to do (and a lot more shops and products to choose from.) So my question is, are you a recreational shopper?