Why are people in a long line at a food truck happier than those in line at a grocery store?
Why do we remember a bad vacation in a positive way, but bitch about a minor annoyance related to the new device we just bought?
The distinction may surprise you.
With a food truck or vacation, we’re buying an experience. With groceries or a device, we’re buying a possession.
Waiting for an experience fosters anticipation, aspirational thinking, conversation with others and a sense of community. We get excited. We savor the experience as it happens. We remember how that experience made us feel. And, in remembering it, we feel the same emotions again.
Waiting for a material good (i.e. a possession) fosters impatience, critical thinking and buyer’s remorse, due to our tendency to compare our stuff with others.
Plus, an experience is unique to each person. We can’t really compare our concert experience to another’s. Not like we can compare our clothes or car to another’s.
Most businesses are in the business of selling possessions. Yet most of us are happiest receiving experiences.
Which story are you telling?
The one about a possession? Or an experience?
The one about a transaction? Or transcendence?
Interested in more on this? Read this.
(Image by Henrico Prins)