"A Million Little" Things You Don't Need

An recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Rachel Dodes says retailers are adding accessories to their traditional products as a way to make the shopping experience more fun—and to tack on extra dollars to the traditional price of holiday presents:

As stores brace for what's predicted to be the slowest growth in holiday sales in five years, retailers and manufacturers are trying to sell shoppers on add-ons to supplement their gifts. Target is selling $4.99 kits of beads and sequins that customers can use to decorate their $89.99 digital frames. To accessorize the videogame "Guitar Hero III," there are $14.99 "guitar skins," adorned with skulls or an American-flag design. On the higher end of the accessories spectrum, Neiman Marcus has an $88 wireless computer mouse in the shape of an actual mouse, with Swarovski-crystal eyes and ears.

My question is: Why? As I've previously talked about, signs are pointing to a slow down in consumer spending, as was indicated when October retail results came out earlier this month and many retailers missed their results. Analysts are predicting that as the holidays approach, consumers will focus their spending on items that are less discretionary, so home and apparel items might suddenly fall further down the list.

So if people are limiting the number of shopping items on their lists, and scaling back their purchases, isn't it counterintuitive to encourage them to buy trinkets that they don't need? What makes retailers sure shoppers will fall for such ploys? Consider some of the accessories offered these days at Victoria's Secret:

Victoria's Secret has more than tripled the number of small accessories it's offering this holiday season, such as $25 underpants with a pocket designed to hold an iPod and matching earbuds. Another accessory it's offering for $42: a dangling Swarovski-crystal earring-like piece of "bra jewelry" that comes with two small bottles of perfume. Wearers are instructed to spray one of the scents onto the jewelry and then clip it onto the front of a bra.

This is ridiculous. I think retailers are better off pushing the things they actually can sell, not encouraging consumers to spend more money, when signs are pointing to the fact that they don't have much extra to spend. If a woman needs a basic underwear set, does she really need the Santa outfit to go with it?

Doubtful.