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Bummed and spending hard

Source: USAToday

This will come as no surprise to people who have done their share of shopping therapy. A new study confirms that "people's spending judgment goes out the window when they're down, especially if they're a bit self-absorbed." Subjects were shown a sad video clip and afterwards they were willing to "pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip." That must be why I always buy a $50 bottle of wine after I watch a George W. State of the Union address.

Related:

Shopping genes

Women who love wine, and the men winemakers market to

Women as top tech shoppers

Interactive wine bars

Springwise reports on an upscale wine bar that takes advantage of three hot trends - ubiquitous computing, wine and infolust. Located at the chichi St. Regis Hotel in New York, the Adour has a 4-seat wine bar that goes way beyond cork and zinc. "Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface." Select a wine and "a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes."

I've gotten into wine over the last few years. And there is an unending lust for info and nuance with each glass. Every time you think you know something, there is more to know. I'm sure quite a few over privileged infolusters will lay out their devalued dollars to try it.

Speaking of wine, my friend Angela Natividad just launched a new wine blog, Soleil en Verre, giving us even more wine info to lust over.