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If you’re shopping for a gift for your Dad for Father’s Day for 3 September, or getting started on Christmas gift-shopping, give yourself and your wallet a break between 3-27 August 2011.

During this period, Mercury will be retrograde – first in Virgo, from 3-8 August, and then in Leo from 8-27 August.

Buying items during Mercury retrograde times is prime time for selecting items which have the wrong size, colour, shape, model, specifications, or which don’t work as they’re meant to.

Mercury in Virgo retrograde (3-8 August) suggests you could have a particular issue with DIY power tools, gym or office equipment, clothing,craft kits, health products or any “organiser” type items as Virgo rules all of these areas. If you intend to buy anything like this for your Dad for Father’s Day, either buy it before 3 August, or wait until 27 August at the very least. If not, you could well be back to the store (online or bricks-and-mortar) requesting a refund, repair or exchange when Mercury fully retraces it steps  on 12 September.

Mercury in Leo retrograde (8-27 August) is rife for problems with toys, games, children’s items, romantic gifts, sports equipment, entertainment, hair products, and anything at all to do with glamour. Whether you’re buying your Dad for Father’s Day – or anyone anything for an anniversary, birthday, engagement, or Christmas, take enormous care that you select the item carefully if buying it at the mall, or that you enter all details precisely if buying online. Or someone could be wanting to refund, repair or regift it!

If you think shopping is a simple act based on simple human needs, you’re sadly mistaken. Either that or you’re a really good, amazingly efficient and unemotional shopper. For most consumers, shopping takes on meaning beyond a basic exchange of goods and currency, serving as therapy, entertainment, sport, drug, and sometimes, um, torture?

Right now, during the height of the season—the shopping season, that is—seems as good a time as any to ponder the deeper meaning of shopping, with the help of 10 insightful quotes:

SHOPPING AS ENTERTAINMENT
“Shopping will continue to be this nation’s highest form of entertainment.” – Toys R Us CEO Jerry Storch

SHOPPING AS CONTACT SPORT
“Shopping is a woman thing. It’s a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase.” — Erma Bombeck

SHOPPING AS PERSONAL EXPRESSION
“Whether for a plant, a pair of pumps, or a political candidate, shopping is a way we search for ourselves and our place in the world. Though often conducted in the most public of spaces, it’s essentially an intimate and personal experience – as we taste, touch, sift, consider, and talk our way through myriad possibilities. Shopping involves searching not only externally, as in a store, but internally, through memory and desire. It’s a vehicle for self-expression, self-definition, creativity, even healing – an interactive process in which we dialogue with people, places, things, and parts of ourselves.” – April Lane Benson, Ph.D., author of  To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop

SHOPPING AS DRUG
“For millions of us on the whirling dance floor, shopping became a way to pick ourselves up after a tough day at work and a source of entertainment on weekends. Mindless accumulation proved as satisfying as any drug.” – Andrew Benett & Ann O’Reilly, authors of  Consumed: Rethinking Business in the Era of Mindful Spending

SHOPPING AS (DUBIOUS) STRESS RELIEVER
“Shopping relieves stress … However, like with new toys on Christmas morning, the feeling quickly fades and is replaced by more stress and guilt as they are left to deal with the consequences.” – Dr. Brad Klontz, co-author of  Mind Over Money

SHOPPING AS SUBSTITUTE FOR THERAPY
“I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.” – Tammy Faye Baker

SHOPPING AS PATH TO HAPPINESS
“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” — Bo Derek

SHOPPING AS CHILDLIKE EXPLORATION
“The purest example of human shopping I know of can be seen by watching a child go through life touching absolutely everything. You’re watching that child shop for information, for understanding, for knowledge, for experience, for sensation. Especially for sensation, otherwise why would he have to touch or smell or taste or hear anything twice? Keep looking: Watch a dog. Watch a bird. Watch a bug. You might say the ant is searching for suitable food. I say he is shopping.” – Paco Underhill, author of  Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

SHOPPING AS … A WHOLE MESS OF UNHEALTHY STUFF
“Shopping was my escape, my friend, my balm, my release, my pacifier, my pleasure, my secret, my pastime, my kill time, my fantasy, my reality, my recreation, my therapy, my drug, my stimulant, my lover, my memory, my link with the past, my trip to the future.” – Avis Cardella, author of  Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict

SHOPPING AS TORTURE
“I represent millions of men who look at holiday shopping the same way they do a drug-free colonoscopy. Or, worse, being trapped in a room with a TV that has only one channel and, even worse, plays only ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ reruns over and over.” — Lt. Steve Rose, who writes the View from a Cop blog in Atlanta

The elves better get busy, there’s a lot of shopping left to do.

Despite the strong start to the holiday shopping season, the majority of Americans only completed about half of their holiday shopping in the final days leading up to Christmas, a new study has found.

This is not the first survey to show that shoppers still have plenty of gifts left to buy, but this one shows shoppers may be more prepared for the holiday at this point than they were a year ago at the same time.

In the latest poll—a survey conducted by BigResearch for industry trade group the National Retail Federation—the average person had completed 49.5 percent of their shopping by the second week of December, up from 46.7 percent at the same time last year.

On Tuesday, the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker survey found 84 percent of Americans still had shopping to do. That survey found that Americans were spending more on the holidays largely because they had expanded their holiday gift list, they were buying more expensive presents or they were treating themselves to items as they shopped.

With retail sales tracking ahead of last year, and more shopping left to do, these studies seem to support the growing optimism for this holiday shopping season.

The NRF took the rare step Tuesday of increasing their holiday sales forecast. The group now expects sales to rise 3.3 percent to $451.5 billion, up from its original forecast of a 2.3 percent increase.

The BigResearch survey, set to be released Wednesday, also found:

As Christmas falls on a Saturday, consumers only have one more weekend to shop for the holiday, and weather forecasts from Planalytics suggests that Mother Nature will cooperate and make it relatively easy for shoppers to hit the mall.

This Saturday is expected to be the busiest shopping day this month, with Christmas Eve expected to be the second busiest, the NRF said.

While most people will interpret the potential demand as a good sign for the rest of the season, there are sure to be some who will voice concern. For one, shoppers are farther along than they were last year.

Also, last year there were quite a large number of Americans who said they had not finished their holiday shopping even by Christmas Day.

That’s because while it is human nature to procrastinate, delayed purchases also can be a sign of financial stress among consumers. This is especially true when you observe that a majority of consumers told BigResearch that they were using cash, checks or debit cards to do their purchasing. Less than one-third, some 31.1 percent, used credit cards to buy gifts.

But other signs are pointing to a merrier holiday for retailers. Consumers were saving and planning for the holidays and are using the season as a time to stock up on items they have wanted for a long while.

The American Express survey appears to back that assumption, considering the number of people who reporting they are spending more. About 26 percent of those who had started shopping said they were spending more than last year.

As the NRF predicted ahead of the season, shoppers are increasingly turning to their smartphone to help with their purchases. Among those in this group, about one quarter have used their phone to make an actual purchase, the BigResearch study found. However, most of these people are using their phones to locate stores or browse gifts. About one-third, are using their phones to receive text messages with offers, and slightly more than that are using smartphones to read reviews.

Clothing and accessories are the most popular gift being purchased, followed by books, CDs, DVDs, videos and video games.