May 17, 2008

Power Shopping: Lunch hour retail therapyBy Jane KwiatkowskiBuffaloNews.com

Visit any mall or boutique around noon — in the city or suburbs — and you will see determined people who shop during their lunch hours.

It’s a 60-minute drill perfected after years of practice. They know where to park, what coupons to bring and exactly what they must buy to earn another cosmetic gift bag despite their overflowing makeup drawers.

“Location, price and convenience are important factors,” said lunchtime shopper Koreen Wood, 35. “How quickly you can get in and out. The store can’t be too busy. It has to be nearby.”

Wood, a legal assistant, and her shopping companion, Leah Conrad, spared a few minutes to talk recently while exploring the Jenny Shop, a new women’s boutique in Ellicott Square downtown. But the women — both of whom work in nearby Main Place Tower — have just broken a cardinal rule of lunch-hour shopping: They stopped to talk.

Lunchtime shopping, according to one expert, may be the ultimate form of retail therapy for one big reason — your time is limited.

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