Offline or online shopping?

I love online shopping, but there's just somethings I don't want to buy online, and it sucks that physical stores (namely shopping malls) are all disappearing entirely. Sometimes I want to physically hold and inspect a product, and not just blindly trust that I'll get what I buy online. I love going out and going shopping. Sometimes hopping from store to store. Shopping various GameStop stores for DS games a few years go was my favorite thing ever. I still enjoy Goodwill hopping, but now that they've all removed their glass cases with higher-end electronics in them, it's much less fun than it used to be. Still fun CD and DVD shopping there though.

WHAT THE FUCK did i just read

I agree.But what I do not like about online shopping is "waiting for packages" that are delivered at random times of the day! Or when you order at some large company like Amazon or the smaller dutch variant bol.com they split your order into many little packages! Sometimes even all ariving at the same day but different times! That is the annoying part...but usually it's already the next or sameday delivery

If I could, I would stop visiting supermarkets as well. Online shopping for food is more or less non-existent at the moment.

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I don't know if you meant it does not exist at all or that it's limited. In the Netherlands at least we can shop groceries online for a few years now! The best one is Picnic and they drive around in those funny looking tiny electric trucks. Really funny if you drive close to the distribution hub...than you really see A LOT of them!

@Jayro As far as I know many of my problems don't apply to the USA. Treating customers the way it is often done in Germany would probably not work in the US (at least if one wants to keep their job). Admittedly my only visit overseas was a while ago (year 2000). What I've experienced was an almost exaggerated friendliness and helpfulness when going inside a store. I will never forget the young man that brought me a coffee after I ordered a tea. His reaction wasn't very far away from Dobby the houseelf. I didn't even really care. Tea, coffee. Hot drink with caffeine. Calm down young man! He rushed off with the coffee and rushed back with a tea apologizing a 100 times.
In Germany it is more like: "If you are – for whatever reason – not a 100% satisfied, then we hate you!"

Shopping as such never had an appeal for me (neither online nor offline). That is personal preference. I agree with you on the "see, hold, inspect, touch". It is superior to reading a text and looking at some pictures. However, the downsides (unfriendliness, arrogance, less products, high prices) stop me from considering offline shopping.
Ironically I buy computers locally. There is a little shop. They order what I need, they are friendly, they do the work for me (comparing parts so I don't have to read specifications and data sheets). They don't treat a Linux user as some kind of infectious alien. In short: They offer service.


@Animewaifu7 If you mean my text above: It is a blog entry about problems and frustration when shopping locally.

@Archerite The packages. I always feel a bit bad because of the packages, the padding, all the materials used for transporting. And then it is often cheaper for them to sent multiple packages instead of one adding even more waste. On the other side: Many people go by car to the shopping centers. Starting up hundreds of combustion engines isn't very environmentally friendly either.

An electric delivery vehicle bringing food to each house certainly is more effective than everybody driving to the supermarket for two articles.
As far as I know delivery services already exist here as well – mostly limited to cities. Sometimes they exist for decades, even before online shopping. Some shops deliver especially to retirement homes or old people in general. Existing online services don't deliver to surrounding villages (which is plain stupid – If I was to place an order their vehicle would be full of non-perishable goods. It would be economic to deliver to me).

My problem with online retailers (read: Amazon) is their treatment of employees. At least a retail floor worker isn't peeing into a bottle to make sure their customer gets their item on time.

That being said, I shop almost exclusively online...but I like window shopping a LOT. Browsing images on a website never give me a real idea of what I want, or I fear getting a bootleg item when it's not something I'm entirely familiar with. (I bought a water bottle that turned out to be a china bootleg...that wouldn't have happened irl)

Clothing, too. I just keep buying from the same place because I know their shirts will fit, but anything else is a crapshoot. Amazon Wardrobe exists, but I've used them like, 3 times, and their clothes quality is appallingly bad every time lol.

Due to covid, I don't go grocery shopping anymore--I just get it all delivered, too. And honestly, while it's a huge convenience (and our local grocery chain only puts a $5 fee extra on deliveries, what a deal!) I got my order today, and half my things were incorrect or even missing. There's a lot of issues to iron out with fully online shopping.

I'm not talking about salespersons in my experience at all, just the sheer lack of products to buy physically. I have good experiences with personnel, generally. I'm just tired of physical stores disappearing, forcing me into this "online-only shopping" dystopian nightmare.

I also wanted to add on about salespeople. I can't imagine many times where a floor person has been anything but unhelpful, honestly. But the only places I shop irl are mostly import snack shops (can't get those online), a retro video game shop, or a local book store, because I'd rather support the store and its employees who will helpfully pick out books, offer their ideas and recommendations, or even give you fun freebies for coming back often. That really is probably uncommon though, and depends entirely on it being a smaller chain vying for your return money. But honestly, the friendly kinda custom experience is worth paying a few dollars for imo over buying a book online.

Oh, oh, also, those Nuro electric cars are so cool. They're just about rolled out to my area, so I'm excited to see how they handle delivery.

@Chary , I kinda feel the same way. I miss video and game rental stores. renting stuff from say netflix just isn't the same. I miss the tangible side of things, where you could actually feel and see the back of a game or movie box. or even spend time with the family at one of those places. online has taken that away.

"it dominates every aspect of life"

Ahh, finally "not having a life" has the advantage :3c

Well seeing going outside can risk your life at the moment I avoid everywhere as much as possible and get groceries delivered. Now it's okay to be antisocial lol

@Milenko the tables have turned >:3

A little "Off Topic":

We "do not want to get vacinated" People were "forced" to buy online - Our Politics in Austria want to "lock" us out of the "Non Food" Trade Society (3G/4G Rules and that Kind).Good,very good.So personally I buy Online.End of the Story.