Buying duplicates/multiples - when is it a good idea and when isn't it?
November 29, 2014 5:23 PM   Subscribe

I often obsess in my head about how many of X item I should buy at a time. What is your process for deciding this with maximum end satisfaction for any given category?

For example, I will acquire a pair of shoes that I really like. I will then either:

A) wear them until they die and then try to find more and find out they are discontinued, resulting in disappointment and wasted money on subpar alternatives until eventually something decent turns up again,
B) wear them until they die and then find more and buy more,
C) buy a second pair to put in the closet as soon as I decide the first pair is a winner and then eventually wear the second out as well while congratulating myself on my foresight,
D) buy a second pair to put in the closet as soon as I decide the first pair is a winner but then later find a new pair of shoes that serve the same function but that I like even more and feel stupid for having a sat-in-the-closet-for-two-years brand new pair of shoes that are now unreturnable subpar shoes I don't want to wear but that aren't worth enough to resell,
E) buy a second pair to put in the closet as soon as I decide the first pair is a winner and then eventually wear the second out as well and wish I'd bought three or four pairs because the item is now discontinued.
F) Same as D but with three or more now-regretted items.

This happens across many categories - shoes, clothing, towels, silverware, dinnerware, windshield wipers, spice mixes, boxes of granola bars, and so on. Often these scenarios are complicated by added purchasing incentives(buying two right now will mean free shipping on the second, the product is currently on 20% discount, etc).

Anyway. How do you decide the number of items you will own of something you currently quite like? Is that number the same across categories or will you buy ten pairs of the same sheets and only two pairs of the same sneakers?

Bonus: What about if it's something you don't know if you like yet, but you strongly suspect it's a winner and there is added incentive to buy multiples in the initial purchase?
posted by vegartanipla to Shopping (16 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
It depends on the category of item and whether or not you like shopping as a recreational activity. For stuff that can be very unique and hard to find and that you don't like shopping for, I think it's prudent to get 2 or 3 if you really like them because you might not find good shoes the next time you need them. The trick is to not go looking for shoes again until the extra pairs wear out and spend your time more enjoyably. If you like shoe shopping, then you can count on being able to find another pair of shoes you like whenever you need one and there's no need to store them.

I would put stuff like house-wares, spice mixes, non-perishable foods in the "easy to replace whenever you need it and not hard to find again" category. Especially stuff like silverware and dinnerware which they don't mix up or discontinue that often apparently. Clothing depends on the person. I like to buy multiples because I only have a few types of things I buy that I don't see every time I go looking for clothes.
posted by bleep at 5:38 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


There are optimizers (Must get the best deal even if it's a lot of work) and satisficers (must meet minimum criteria for $ITEM and then done) in the world of shopping. You seem like you might have a touch of both which can be difficult. For me the big deal is comparing the item against the likelihood of finding that item again. So when I found jeans that fit? I freaked out and bought three paid because jeans never fit me. However finding shoes that fit? Not so tough and I'm more interested in trying out other kinds of shoes. I could imagine liking lots of kinds of shoes. All of it is sort of a fiction really, even an item that seems the same may not be exactly the same (they change recipes and fabrics and whatnot) so you're just getting close, not all the way there.

I live in a small apartment, so anything where I am buying an exact duplicate (sheets) I limit to what I think I'm going to reasonably use. One winter pair, one summer pair, one "I'm doing laundry" pair. I also buy most of my stuff at super-deep discount (used or on ebay or whatever) so sales don't affect me at all. If you've got a big place, you can pretty much fill it up with granola bars. I think part of this for you may be having a cycle where you get rid of the third-best-shoes once you realize you're never going to wear them. My sister is like you. She has drawers of clothes with tags still on them from when she was a slightly different size or when something was on sale and the thing itself actually taunts her from her dresser. So maybe if you just see the third-best-shoes as a "cost of doing business" for being able to stockpile, you'd forgive yourself a bit better about this cycle? I never buy extra windshield wipers, for example, because I turn them over so rarely, but I often stockpile socks because I use them a lot and the kind I like go on one specific sale once a year so it's easy to plan.

And part of it is managing regret. I know this sounds stupid but it seems like you have anxiety about avoiding future regret and I guess I'd try to unpack that a little. So you didn't buy the best shoes earlier. Experience has shown that a good par of shoes will come around again. Maybe getting to a mindful state about the cyclical nature of capitalism generally might help you compartmentalize this stuff in a way that you're not getting agita about it.
posted by jessamyn at 5:44 PM on November 29, 2014 [11 favorites]


How do you decide the number of items you will own of something you currently quite like? Is that number the same across categories or will you buy ten pairs of the same sheets and only two pairs of the same sneakers?

The optimal configuration is a formula based on how much I like the item and how sad I'll be to never have it again and how much I hate to waste things and how much it costs and how bored I'll get with that thing over time.

Mr. Llama buys things more based on the first, so we have eight bottles of Open Pit barbecue sauce in the basement pantry. He will not go through those within the allotted time before expiration as he only uses two tablespoons every other month on a chicken patty in a sandwich.

That would drive me crazy and in fact it will drive me a little crazy when I throw each of those in the trash six months from now.

I have a soap I like that's hard to get in quantity so I bought a case over a year ago and I'm still using them and I'm really delighted about that arrangement.

I have a particular bra I like, but it's seventy dollars. Ideally, I'd buy maybe six at a time but that's almost five hundred dollars on bras.

I have a pair of boots I love, but I will love them as long as they last, more than a year, and then I will get a different pair of boots.

So I'd say for each person you'd have to assign weight to these values:

Affection for Item
Sadness at loss
Avoiding waste/spoilage factor
Cost
Potential for boredom

And then evaluate how you feel about Item.

But you'd have to do it differently for each, because love of cinnamon Altoids, awesome sunglasses, hair product, and gorgonzola cheese have different values for each of those things -- different set values (sunglasses don't go bad) and different levels of affection. I think I like gorgonzola cheese more than my soap, for example, but realistically, I'll never buy more than four to six ounces at a time because it's cheese.

What about if it's something you don't know if you like yet, but you strongly suspect it's a winner and there is added incentive to buy multiples in the initial purchase?

It would depend on the evaluation above. I'm not feeling super math-y at the moment because I just drove like four hundred miles but I think a formula would be pretty attainable once you assign a value to the importance of each quality, and then a score to the item.

I'm sort of dying to do this and wish I were feeling less stupid at the moment.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:45 PM on November 29, 2014 [6 favorites]


I basically only buy multiples of shoes and clothes if it makes sense for me to have the extras in my rotation. I don't store them. Usually I'll get a couple colors of something I really like, but stuff like jeans, I keep several pairs that are identical. Things last longer this way, and by the time they wear out, there is a good chance I am up for a change.

I don't even consider buying extras of the other stuff you mention, other than stocking up on non-perishables when they are on sale, and then only things I already use lots of and only as much as I can reasonably store in my cabinets.
posted by ktkt at 5:48 PM on November 29, 2014


Often these scenarios are complicated by added purchasing incentives(buying two right now will mean free shipping on the second, the product is currently on 20% discount, etc).

I'd flat out ignore that unless we're talking about something like razor blades, which Mr. Llama bought several hundred of in 2006 which we used for years and years and years because it was such a deal. But normally that wouldn't factor into it for me.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:51 PM on November 29, 2014


It depends. I recently purchased three pairs of reading glasses to have around the house. I like them and have decided to buy 3-4 more to have one in every place I might sit and read, including a pair for the car and office. This was more of a practical decision.

I do often buy shoes I LOVE in different colors because I have a hard time finding comfortable shoes that are also to my liking. This has more to do with not wanting to run out of them.
posted by harrietthespy at 5:59 PM on November 29, 2014


Well, with shoes - I have very tender feet - if I find a potentially really good pair I buy two pairs.

I wear only one pair of the two I bought. However, I do not wear the same pair of shoes two days running, and haven't for years. Therefore my shoes don't wear out half so quickly. I also get them reheeled and resoled at the earliest opportunity, and keep them polished.

If within a couple of weeks, the first pair I bought attacks my foot, I can still return the second, unworn pair.

How many sheets you need depends on how many beds you have. Assuming you change your sheets once a week, buying two sheets means you only have to launder bedding every other week.

How many clothes you need also depends on how often you do the activity that requires that cloe, versus how often you launder it. If you go to the gym 7 days a week and launder your gym clothes weekly, you need 7 sets of gym clothes plus 2 for contingency.

If you change your towels twice a week, you need to figure out how long it would take you to get a mound of dirty towels big enough to be worth laundering. Oh, but since you have 2 sheets, you want to do a bed & bath wash once every two weeks, so now you know.

With consumables, you buy two, then buy a replacement when you get down to one. For annoying, rapidly-consumed items that you run out of before you realize you only had one left - with me it's razors - maybe buy a handful instead of just two.
posted by tel3path at 6:23 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


When I comes to fashion / clothing stuff, I think there is value in being required to change at some future time. When those shoes are dead - it's time to move on to a new, different pair.

If it's a practical item, I'll usually buy a couple of backups. It depends a lot on cost. Example: I've got 3 lightweight trackpoint keyboards in the closet, for the sad day when trackpoint dies.

On occasion I'll buy a duplicate for posterity, as a cheap (probably silly) investment. I have a big box of Hot Wheels toy cars, unopened in original container, from when my son was at that age.
posted by doctor tough love at 6:43 PM on November 29, 2014


My solution to this for shoes -- and as many other things as I can find that this applies to -- is to pick something classic, and then you never have to worry about the shoes you like getting discontinued. Doc Martens are Doc Martens are Doc Martens. Chuck Taylors are Chuck Taylors are Chuck Taylors. (And, yes, I know there is fretting about factories opening up in China vs. the US/UK and blah blah blah, but I think that's way too finicky and not germane to your question.)

I've been wearing Doc Marten boots since I was twelve years old (so, 20+ years) and they don't seem to be going anywhere. My feet have changed, the socks I like have changed, my pants have changed, presumably factories and other minor details have changed, but Doc Martens stay the same.

I do the same thing for t-shirts. I love the American Apparel v-neck unisex tri-blend shirts. I've been buying them for about a decade now, and while there have been some minor changes, they're still great shirts. And, frankly, my body shape has changed a lot more in ten years than the shirts themselves have changed. Every time one of these shirts dies, I just buy another identical shirt. It's great!

Some things, though, just don't lend themselves to this. Jeans, for instance. Companies change up their denim too quickly, and fashions change. So I've just resigned myself to a fucking American Idol level jeans search every time a pair dies. It's miserable, but you gotta keep your butt covered, so it kind of is what it is.

TL;DR - find some classic staples that will not change for the foreseeable future and just know that a new one is always available, mostly unchanged from the first pair you bought. In areas where this doesn't apply, just suck it up and know that a good bra is hard to find.
posted by Sara C. at 7:28 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Also if you're having this problem with things like towels and spices, which are virtually identical across brands, you probably need to sit down, take a deep breath, and understand that it's ultimately not that big a deal if there are minute differences between the bottle of peppercorns you bought last month from Kroger and the one you bought this month from Trader Joe's.
posted by Sara C. at 7:30 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


For shoes (category A, comfort) I found a brand that I like that typically straddles the line between style and comfort (Born, fyi) and I just go back to that well whenever I need new shoes. Thus, no need for duplicates.

For shoes (category B, style) I don't buy duplicates because these will take a long time to wear out and by the time they do I'll be looking for another style.

I recently bought two of the same winter coat, marked down to $60 from $300. It was a huge savings and now I have an extra which could also be given as a gift if I decide I don't want it.

I generally only buy duplicates when it's 1) an item I've been using for a long time, 2) it's a great savings, which means even if I end up not wanting it I know I can make someone else happy with it.
posted by stoneandstar at 7:38 PM on November 29, 2014


Also I used to have a much bigger problem with this kind of strategizing when my anxiety was bad. Just food for thought.
posted by stoneandstar at 7:38 PM on November 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


I address the "save more by buying in bulk" question with "save more by buying only what you need, when you need it." Buy paying full price for two purchases, instead of discount price for one bulk purchase, I am paying to reduce the risk that the item isn't my 100% perfect item. And that is a perfectly good use of my money.

And as far as things going out of stock after you've decided they're perfect... Dems da breaks. Life is temporal.
posted by samthemander at 7:49 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


I never buy extra windshield wipers, for example, because I turn them over so rarely, but I often stockpile socks because I use them a lot and the kind I like go on one specific sale once a year so it's easy to plan.

Wipers are a good example of something that is a commodity and easy to find. There's no reason to stockpile wipers because every town has several autopart stores that all have entire aisles of wiper blades, and they will all work fine to move rain off your windshield. Socks and shoes (assuming you have even slightly picky tastes about fabric and color or have hard to fit feet) are less of a pure commodity, and you can get into exactly the situation you describe (where a shoe available today will be gone next year) or what Jessamyn describes (where one brand is different than another, so because of sales or availability buying in bulk makes sense).

But at the same time, tastes and fashion change, and your body changes (yes, including the shape and size of your feet). To pick your particular example, I've regretted buying multiples of shoes a lot more often than I have regretted not buying an extra pair, even though shoe shopping for my hard-to-fit feet is a huge hassle, the foot equivalent of SaraC's jeans.

And I like having a house that's not full of stockpiled things that I have to take care of, remember, and manage. That is worth more to me than the 20 percent off sale, honestly. It's freeing to not have the stuff sitting around, and I kind of like knowing that I can order new stuff online or go shopping when it wears out.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:12 PM on November 29, 2014


(Possibly a non-answer to this question, but I think stockpiling windshield wipers sounds like a great idea, especially if you live in a dry climate where they dry-rot easily. My wipers need changing, but I never seem to get around to going to the auto parts place. But if I already had a spare set, I could just do it when I thought of it/as soon as I needed to. YMMV if you live in a climate where they don't need changing often.)

To make this an actual answer, I think maybe the key is to buy extra when the item in question is expendable, or when it needs changing more than once a year. You probably don't need to stockpile sheets, because high quality sheets will last for many years. You might want to stock up on t-shirts, because it's always good to have plenty of shirts and depending on your lifestyle you may run through them quickly. It's good to have a backup of pantry staples like olive oil or salt, but silly to buy four canisters of pumpkin pie spice when you only bake once a year.
posted by Sara C. at 9:19 PM on November 29, 2014


I buy extras if it's something that is inconvenient to get (the reason I brought a ridiculous amount of good Cajun seasoning with me to NY from TX (most of which expired before I used it), and the reason I buy Sushi Chef teriyaki sauce by the case since they stopped carrying it at any of the local stores), or if there is some chance they will stop making it before I need to replace it AND it is something that isn't easily replaced by something else (sandals I LOVE, the specific running shoes I use for dog agility, jeans that fit perfectly). My rule is that if I buy something, use it for a while, and realize it makes my life better in some way, I buy more, otherwise, you have to accept that some things are ephemeral, and that that is part of what adds spice to life.
posted by biscotti at 5:23 AM on November 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


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