Retail Therapy

A character, who is almost Always Female, is depressed or unhappy and goes shopping to make herself feel better. A variation involves the character getting a makeover for the same reason. Shopping may even be a part of said makeover.

Retail Therapy often accompanies a Shopping Montage, although to demonstrate that a character is truly depressed and in a really bad spot, she may be grimly and desperately shopping alone. Alternatively a group of friends may decide that a particular friend is being too mopey and take her shopping in an attempt to cheer her up. Depending on the character, this can be met with mixed success.

Usually this occurs after experiencing rejection or turbulence in a romantic relationship, but Retail Therapy can be a response to all sorts of trauma, ranging from things like having a bad day to losing a job. A sympathetic character generally won't use Retail Therapy to cope with the death of pets and/or other characters, as this implies the character attaches a monetary value to lives. Male characters who use exhibit this trope often carry connotations of being effeminate or extremely materialistic.

Can overlap with Credit Card Plot if the character in question incurs massive credit card debts because of the excessive purchases made during Retail Therapy.

This is Truth in Television for a very large number of people. Even men (even if they deny it).

Examples of Retail Therapy include:

Anime and Manga

Re-Al's robot assistant tries to take her shopping to keep her out of trouble early in Ergo Proxy.

Film

In The Muppets Take Manhattan, Miss Piggy is given a cheer-up makeover by Joan Rivers.
Cher from Clueless goes shopping whenever she's feeling down. When she doesn't get her driver's license, for example, she has to walk home, all the while mulling her problem. On the way, however, she's distracted by a pretty dress on a shop; she goes in, buys the dress, and then continues mulling her problem.
The makeover variant happens in Legally Blonde whenever something bad happens to Elle.

Literature

Becky Brandon of the Shopaholic series, who has issues with overspending during her Retail Therapy.
Jody from Bloodsucking Fiends when she's upset about Tommy having friends over during the day.
The first Undead And... book has Betsy getting a pedicure to feel better about the whole "now a vampire" business. Sadly, vampiric bodies revert to the way they were at death the next time the vampire sleeps. Seeing the pedicure undone reduces Betsy to tears.

Live-Action TV

Victor, from the Canadian TV series Student Bodies. He was rich and he usually dealt with negative emotions by going out and buying something expensive.
Sex and the City is a classic example.
Lily Aldrin from How I Met Your Mother does this on a regular basis. It gets her into trouble after she maxes out a huge stack of credit cards doing it; she then goes on another shopping spree because she's depressed about her huge credit card bill.

Music

The Barenaked Ladies song "Shopping" is about this. ("Everything will always be all right/when we go shopping!")
Queensrÿche's song "Retail Therapy" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, though it's about a male character who gets his jollies from buying electronic gadgets and downloading apps.

"I've got 62 apps to keep me happy.... but what about tomorrow?"

Web Comics

Schlock Mercenary has an explanation of how it works, from Doctor Bunnigus. Unless, of course, some clown from reality TV starts harassing the patient - venting irritation on a stupid talking head also helps, but police may object.

Western Animation

Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender loves to go shopping, and on occasion when he's feeling down, his friends will be more than happy to oblige him. It's more for stuff like weapons, though.
On The Simpsons, Mr. Burns says this is the only way he knows to cope with defeat.