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I think I’m the only person who considers online shopping less convenient than just going to a local store and buying it. In person you just walk or drive over

by reidjs 5y ago

I think I’m the only person who considers online shopping less convenient than just going to a local store and buying it. In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the item, pay, and go home with the correct product. Online I have to turn on my computer or open an app. Type in a bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent buttons, avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in your credit card, etc. you finally place the order, now you have to wait 2 days to get your damn product?! It ships, now you need to sync up with your mailman otherwise they can’t drop it off (I live in a city.) I miss the delivery, now I need to go to the post office and pick it up myself. So I go there, it’s after 5 so they’re closed. I take off work early the next day and wait in line. Talk to some pissed off USPS package and carry my package home. Open it up. It’s the wrong product or a Chinese knockoff. You get the picture I’m of millennial age. The internet isn’t hard for me to use. It just adds extra complexity for me. I suppose if you need a very specific thing online is better. But that’s rare for me.

Krasnol 5y ago
> Type in a bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent buttons, avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in your credit card, etc. This is the reason why so many stick with Amazon. You gave them your data already and the only thing remaining are the dark patterns which wants to sell you prime but you probably have that already too so you don't have to wait 2 days. Also: their computer/phone/tablet is on already. I honestly buy a lot online because it is convenient. I let it send to my workplace and I don't have to go to the city wasting the few hours that I have left of my day. There are things though I need to go out to shop. Cloths and food and I can't remember a single trip I enjoyed. I need to look in several shops before I find proper and fitting cloths (I'm tall). If sices would be a true standard I could rely on, this would be the next thing I'd do online. Groceries means shopping in supermarkets which are always too full and I need a parking spot since I got to take a car there because I'm doing it once a week only. I tried doing it through Amazon and it failed spectacularly. It never arrived but they only they told me at 9PM...it was Saturday and there are not many shops open at that time here in Germany.
marcinzm 5y ago
Seems to be more of an issue with your situation than in general. I've never had to sync up with the mailman, they just drop the package downstairs in my building (I live in a city). Same with UPS, FedEx and so on although sometimes those need to redeliver the next day. I go to amazon, order the item and then pick it up next time I'm downstairs. So much faster than checking the weather in an app, putting on appropriate outdoor clothes, going to a store, browsing their aisles for where they dumped the thing, waiting in line to checkout and so on. It's the difference between 2 minutes and 30 minutes of my time.
jahewson 5y ago
> In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the item, pay, and go home with the correct product. I think you mean get the kids ready and put them in the car, drive for 20 minutes to Target, spend another 5 trying to park, schlep from the back of the parking lot to the store in 90 degree heat, wander endlessly around the store because they moved one of your usual purchases into and end-cap. Inevitably there’s some part of my bi-weekly purchase that is sold out and I must now figure out a substitute or make my next shopping trip sooner and off-schedule. Finally I stand around for 10 minutes in line behind someone who does not seem to understand credit cards despite them having existed for 60 years. Finally I load everything into the car, wrestle the children in and drive 20 minutes home. My children are now hungry. No, I do not consider this more convenient :)
- mumblemumble 5y ago
  Two thoughts there. First, my partner and I always send one person to the store, so that we don't have to load up the kids or deal with them in the store. Second, I think that this shopping experience you describe is a uniquely suburban experience. Going to Target is indeed awful. But, where I live in the city, it's a reasonably pleasant 10 minute walk to the neighborhood hardware store, which has had the same layout for probably 30 years, and you can be in and out in a few minutes. Grocery store is an even more pleasant 5 minute bike ride, and it's also a human-friendly size and easy to get through fairly quickly. Shopping for clothing is still awful, but shopping for clothing is inherently awful but thankfully infrequent. At my partner's folks' out in a small town, I guess some people do drive an hour round trip to the nearest big box store, but I've always liked that it's a short hop into town, and all the stores are reasonably sized and within a block of each other. With the town's park just a couple blocks away, so we can take turns hanging out with the kids in the playground while the other goes into the store. I guess we don't have as many options, but I'm genuinely happy to choose convenience and happiness over a selection of 73 different kinds of breakfast cereal. Similar when we're visiting my mom, also in a small town, except that the playground is unfortunately on the complete other side of town from the commercial district. Then, at my dad's house in a suburban community, it's nothing but big box stores and misery.
  - 5y ago
bluefirebrand 5y ago
That paragraph you wrote describing the online shopping process is accurate but all of that stuff still takes less time than just the drive to the store, nevermind the drive back.
- reidjs 5y ago
  Factoring in the delivery time, local will almost always be faster. Since I live in a city I’ll usually just stop by the relevant store next time I’m near it to grab the thing. But if you’re in a suburb and/or spend most of your time in residential areas I understand the difference.
deleted 5y ago
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robbrown451 5y ago
Turn on your computer? You can use your phone I suppose, but I'd expect most of us here have their computer already on. If you buy things from a small set of sites, it's very few clicks. Hell I can buy groceries in five minutes (typically picking most of my order from things it offered, since they remember me), and it will be delivered the same day with no additional charge.

by reidjs 5y ago

Krasnol 5y ago

> Type in a bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent buttons, avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in your credit card, etc. This is the reason why so many stick with Amazon. You gave them your data already and the only thing remaining are the dark patterns which wants to sell you prime but you probably have that already too so you don't have to wait 2 days. Also: their computer/phone/tablet is on already. I honestly buy a lot online because it is convenient. I let it send to my workplace and I don't have to go to the city wasting the few hours that I have left of my day. There are things though I need to go out to shop. Cloths and food and I can't remember a single trip I enjoyed. I need to look in several shops before I find proper and fitting cloths (I'm tall). If sices would be a true standard I could rely on, this would be the next thing I'd do online. Groceries means shopping in supermarkets which are always too full and I need a parking spot since I got to take a car there because I'm doing it once a week only. I tried doing it through Amazon and it failed spectacularly. It never arrived but they only they told me at 9PM...it was Saturday and there are not many shops open at that time here in Germany.

marcinzm 5y ago

Seems to be more of an issue with your situation than in general. I've never had to sync up with the mailman, they just drop the package downstairs in my building (I live in a city). Same with UPS, FedEx and so on although sometimes those need to redeliver the next day. I go to amazon, order the item and then pick it up next time I'm downstairs. So much faster than checking the weather in an app, putting on appropriate outdoor clothes, going to a store, browsing their aisles for where they dumped the thing, waiting in line to checkout and so on. It's the difference between 2 minutes and 30 minutes of my time.

jahewson 5y ago

> In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the item, pay, and go home with the correct product. I think you mean get the kids ready and put them in the car, drive for 20 minutes to Target, spend another 5 trying to park, schlep from the back of the parking lot to the store in 90 degree heat, wander endlessly around the store because they moved one of your usual purchases into and end-cap. Inevitably there’s some part of my bi-weekly purchase that is sold out and I must now figure out a substitute or make my next shopping trip sooner and off-schedule. Finally I stand around for 10 minutes in line behind someone who does not seem to understand credit cards despite them having existed for 60 years. Finally I load everything into the car, wrestle the children in and drive 20 minutes home. My children are now hungry. No, I do not consider this more convenient :)

mumblemumble 5y ago
Two thoughts there. First, my partner and I always send one person to the store, so that we don't have to load up the kids or deal with them in the store. Second, I think that this shopping experience you describe is a uniquely suburban experience. Going to Target is indeed awful. But, where I live in the city, it's a reasonably pleasant 10 minute walk to the neighborhood hardware store, which has had the same layout for probably 30 years, and you can be in and out in a few minutes. Grocery store is an even more pleasant 5 minute bike ride, and it's also a human-friendly size and easy to get through fairly quickly. Shopping for clothing is still awful, but shopping for clothing is inherently awful but thankfully infrequent. At my partner's folks' out in a small town, I guess some people do drive an hour round trip to the nearest big box store, but I've always liked that it's a short hop into town, and all the stores are reasonably sized and within a block of each other. With the town's park just a couple blocks away, so we can take turns hanging out with the kids in the playground while the other goes into the store. I guess we don't have as many options, but I'm genuinely happy to choose convenience and happiness over a selection of 73 different kinds of breakfast cereal. Similar when we're visiting my mom, also in a small town, except that the playground is unfortunately on the complete other side of town from the commercial district. Then, at my dad's house in a suburban community, it's nothing but big box stores and misery.
- 5y ago

bluefirebrand 5y ago

That paragraph you wrote describing the online shopping process is accurate but all of that stuff still takes less time than just the drive to the store, nevermind the drive back.

reidjs 5y ago
Factoring in the delivery time, local will almost always be faster. Since I live in a city I’ll usually just stop by the relevant store next time I’m near it to grab the thing. But if you’re in a suburb and/or spend most of your time in residential areas I understand the difference.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

robbrown451 5y ago

Turn on your computer? You can use your phone I suppose, but I'd expect most of us here have their computer already on. If you buy things from a small set of sites, it's very few clicks. Hell I can buy groceries in five minutes (typically picking most of my order from things it offered, since they remember me), and it will be delivered the same day with no additional charge.