The 13 Best Movie Shopping-Spree Scenes Since the '80s

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Here at Racked, we're dedicating this week to the kind of fantastical shopping that most of us only get to experience in dreams (or at 80%-off sample sales). Taking a page from casino parlance, we'll be talking a lot about "whales," those big spenders who feel perfectly comfortable dropping tens of thousands of dollars every night on roulette, or, in our case, on Cartier. Welcome to Whale Week 2013.

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• Montage of mall glory days, complete with a price tag of $195 and shots of a credit card imprinter. Valley Girls (1983)
• The storyline here is that the Earth passes through a comet tail and everyone dies except for two valley girls, some zombies, and malls. Mayhem and shopping ensue. Night of the Comet (1984)
• Is it wrong that we kind of prefer the men's-white-button-down-mini-skirt look? Whatever, you owned those sales ladies, Julia. Pretty Woman (1990)
• Oh Cher, malls never had it so good. Clueless (1995)
• One of the best and most unappreciated shopping montage parodies, courtesy of Christina Applegate and Cameron Diaz. The Sweetest Thing (2002)
• When you're a big enough deal, you don't pay for your own clothes. They're gifted to you. Or you have major hookups in or around the Vogue closet. Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• And the fruits of Stanley Tucci's labor. Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• Get your shit together, Steve. You're embarrassing Ryan Gosling. Crazy. Stupid. Love. (2011)
• When shopping is a disease. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
• Whale fail. Samantha didn't get the ring because she "draws the line at 50 [thousand dollars]." Also, fun fact per IMDB: Director Michael Patrick King originally wanted a paddle with 69 on it, but, "as this was not available, 969 had to be used instead."
• People clap when we wear gogo boots, too. Lots of people. Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
• If you're Queen Latifah and you just found out you have multiple brain tumors, you buy pantsuits. Because it's not supposed to make sense. Last Holiday (2006)
• There's no actual shopping spree scene here, but, sorry, did you expect Marie Antoinette to do her own dirty work? Silly plebeians. Marie Antoinette (2006)
• And finally, the movie that launched a thousand whale dreams. It's funny becuase we, too, would probably spring for the pink car float over most things. Blank Check (1994)

For those that didn't come of age in the '80s, this might come as a surprise: The entire decade did not in fact take place in a mall. But most of its films did, and the holy grail of '80s mall culture was the movie shopping spree. The '90s perfected the genre, creating the ideal mixture of the latest fashions, some flashes of a Visa and/or Mastercard, and continuous, unrestrained laughter. Just add music—preferably "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Above, recall 13 of the greatest big-spending moments ever captured on film, but fair warning: We take no responsibility for any credit-card damage this slideshow inspires.
· All Whale Week coverage [Racked]
· The History of Coco and the Chanel Diamond in Under 4 Minutes [Racked]