You’re out shopping with your partner, who’s on a mission to find a new jacket. As they sift through racks of coats, your attention drifts – and there it is: a pair of trousers, perfectly folded, with a bright red tag screaming 50 per cent off! You don’t need them, but the discount feels impossible to ignore. Before you know it, you’re at the checkout, trousers in hand, while your partner walks out empty-handed, because there was “simply too much to choose from”. Sound familiar? It’s a classic shopping tale – but why do sales have such a magnetic pull on us?

If you ask an economist, they might shrug and say it’s the Law of Demand – lower the price, and demand goes up. Simple as that. But it’s not just about the price drop. It’s about the thrill of getting something for less than it used to cost, feeling like you’ve outsmarted the system. Add in a limited-time offer or the possibility of the item selling out, and the sale becomes impossible to resist.

The main force at play here is loss aversion – our tendency to feel the pain of loss more intensely than the joy of equivalent gain. Imagine finding €100 in the street – it’s a nice surprise. But losing €100? That hurts. Our brains are wired to avoid that pain, which is why sales feel so urgent. They tap into our fear of losing out, making us act impulsively.

And then there’s scarcity – the fear that if you don’t act fast, you’ll miss out. Sales often come with an implied deadline or limited stock, which makes us feel like we have to decide now. That little voice in your head says, ‘These trousers are probably end-of-line items from last season – if I don’t grab them now, they’ll be gone forever!’

But there’s another trick at play here: anchoring. Imagine the original price was €200. That number sticks in your mind, even if it’s way more than you’d normally spend. Now, when you see the same trousers on sale for €100, your brain instinctively compares it to the €200 price tag, making the discount feel like an opportunity too good to miss.

There’s also the notion of ‘transaction utility’ – the pure pleasure we get from feeling like we got a good deal. It’s separate from how much we actually value or need the item. Think about it: when someone compliments your new trousers, isn’t ‘Thanks, I got them for half price!’ often the first thing you want to say?

Knowing these psychological traps is the first step. But how can you avoid falling into them?

Keep a running wish list on your phone of things you want to buy. Before any sale purchase, check your list. Is this item actually something you’ve been wanting, or is the discount creating an artificial desire? This simple habit helps you distinguish between genuine needs and those impulse buys that sales are so good at triggering. Sales should help you buy what you already want for less – not convince you to want things just because they’re discounted.

When a deal catches your eye, try this: walk away and give it a couple of hours. If you’re still excited about it, go back and buy it. You may wonder, why not just buy it and return it? Once we own something, we tend to value it more – this is known as the ‘endowment effect’ – making returns harder. Ever noticed how hard it is to cancel a free trial once you’ve started using the service?

Before reaching for your wallet, ask yourself: ‘Would I rather have these trousers, or put this €100 toward my next holiday?’ Suddenly, that ‘bargain’ might not seem so irresistible after all.

And finally, while easier said than done, leave your credit cards at home – or ‘freeze’ them temporarily on your mobile app – and pay with cash. Studies show we tend to spend less when using cash compared to cards. When we can feel and see our money leaving our hands, our brain processes the spending more deeply than the painless tap of a card. Plus, carrying a limited amount acts as a natural spending limit.

Next time you’re tempted by a sale, pause and ask yourself: Is this a genuine need, or am I just afraid of missing out? The bargain might feel good in the moment, but the satisfaction from a purchase you truly wanted lasts much longer.