Are you a really smart consumer?

After I’ve got a mail including a 20% off coupon from Macy’s this morning, I headed to the store to buy a sleepwear as planned like a smart consumer. On the way going to a sleepwear department, I saw a showcase of Lancôme gifts which says “samples offer with any Lancôme purchase of $35 or more, receive two serums, mascara, moisturizer, lip gloss and cosmetic bag.” Wow!! I ran into the Lancôme counter to buy something I’ve never thought about. I said to a sales lady “I may need a moisturizer.” She told me, “It’s $45 and if you buy just $23 more, you can get more samples of cleanser, toner and three make-up brushes.” Wow!! “I may need an eye remover ($27) someday …” After that I went to upstairs looking for a sleepwear I was supposed to buy. There was the one I was looking for with a reasonable price ($40) and I could get that with $32 by using a 20% off coupon. ‘It’s good!’ But, suddenly I got an idea of ‘better deals in online’. After I logged in Macy’s online store, I could find a better deal (Buy 1, Get 1 50% off) as I expected. ‘Ok!! I may need another color.’  I put one more sleepwear in my basket and entered a 20% off coupon code like a clever consumer. I clicked “order now “, but there was a shipping fee of $8. They said “free shipping with $ 99 purchase” ‘Uh oh, I still need to buy $40 more. What am I going to need and buy?’ I thought and it was not easy to get an answer. So I visited www.missycoupons.com (an online shopping information community) to know what people recently recommended to buy at Macy’s.  They were talking a lot about ‘great sale price of Lenox dishes’. I chose 2 fruit bowls ($10 each) and 2 all-purpose bowls ($13 each) since people wrote those are really useful.  ‘Uh oh, because of a 20% off coupon, I need to buy $3 more to reach to $99.’ It’s stressful. I clicked clearance and chose kids t-shirts ($4) for my daughter. Then I finally accomplished my order. I spent so much time on not so important things and got a headache. I ended up my shopping from $40 sleepwear to $156; $68(Cosmetics), $48(2 sleepwears), $36 (4 Dinner wears), $ 4 (kids t-shirts). Are those buying impulse or well thought out purchase? Many people may have this kind of shopping experience because there are so many great deals from companies and so much useful information around us.