This Simple-But-Genius Reason You Always Spend Too Much Time In Target

It's a tale as old as time...er, since the first official Target opened in 1962. You enter a Target store looking to buy something as mundane as tampons and leave with a cart filled to the brim with goodies from the $1 bin.

Despite our efforts to only buy exactly what we came for, we undoubtedly go home telling ourselves that it's fine to just eat peanut butter out of the jar for the next few days because "OMG, this stationery is too cute, and I'll totally be sending out handwritten letters to all my friends and family."

A month passes, no letters actually make it into the mail, and we find ourselves back at Target with a new basket of "must-have" items.

But, what if we told you that there might be a surprising reason why you can't seem to stop shopping once you've started at the beloved bullseye?

According to Delish, one reason people might linger at Target is because most of their stores nationwide don't play any music.

Studies have proven that music has a profound impact on shoppers and that different types of music affect people differently. While heavy metal is likely to discourage shoppers from spending hours in a store, more ambient tunes mellow people out and can actually influence them to spend more money. Music is also linked to increased productivity, so it's possible that its absence causes people to wander around for longer periods of time.

But you might not need to create a high-powered playlist for your Target excursions just yet.

Delish noted that according to the Minneapolis Business Journal, Target has started testing playing music in about 65 stores and could potentially increase that number to 180 by the end of this year. One Target spokesperson told the local circulation that the mega-retail chain is looking to infuse stores with a playlist that's "upbeat, positive, and has a playful personality."

You shop if there's music, you shop if there's not — Target seems to win no matter what they do. Besides, we have a feeling that music or not, our trips to the retail giant will somehow always end with us buying way more than we need.