People often spend part of their discretionary income to buy goods or services that give them happiness. However, existing research suggests that we frequently make wrong assumptions on which purchase will contribute more to our wellbeing.
This study assesses the wellbeing potential of material and experiential purchases among a large group of Siberian shoppers. A specific goal of our study is to include older adults and compare the results we obtain for younger and older adults. We collected participants in two main ways: i) By contacting shoppers at shopping centers, right after they made a purchase. We included both relatively upscale centers as well as open markets, and shopping areas that attract a relatively older crowd. ii) By recruiting people on social networks. The results are somewhat surprising, in that they seem to indicate, in contrast to the prevailing opinion in the literature, that there is little difference in wellbeing between material and experiential purchases. The paper will discuss the results in detail and compare them among the different age groups, economic, and education levels.