"an elegant tapestry of quotations, musings, aphorisms, and autobiographical reflections" (James Atlas)



Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Shopping - love it, hate it

Haven't been here for a while, haven't had much to write about. Study and long service leave conspire to keep me around home a lot, which I don't mind. Especially as I'll be travelling soon enough, visiting friends in Singapore and my family in Germany over Christmas. Which means I need to organise my Christmas shopping, card writing, and general preparations RIGHT NOW!
So, armed with my little list, I headed off to Highpoint shopping centre yesterday, expecting to find at least half a dozen items on my list. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. And now I understand why people have changed their shopping habits so much in the recent years.
I was trying to find a particular DVD, and was confident I would find it in the ABC Shop, the DVD being a BBC production. Wrong. So I tootled off to JB Hifi, again, no luck. Ok, onto the next item. I was looking for a (branded) Tshirt. I had spotted them in a local shop, but was sure I could find one at a better price in one of the bigger stores. More stores, more competition, better prices, right? Wrong. The particular brand of tees was quite expensive, and I didn't see the point of paying $$$ for something mass produced in China, of flimsy material, just because it boasts a 'name'. So, tick that one off. The next item, not exactly on my list, were a pair of trousers. The shop didn't have the right colour in my size, "but we'll get them in later this week." Well, goodo, that's another trip into town. And so it went on. In the end, after about 3 hours of traipsing around, I returned home with one item.
I got onto the net, and within 1/2 hour had purchased most of the items I had been looking for, at reasonable prices, with no outlay on petrol, no frustration, no mind-numbing walking around a crowded shopping centre. So, now I understand why retailers who are not online will just not 'make the cut' in the future. Admittedly, some items will always be tricky to buy online, but I'm definitely a convert to internet shopping!