I cannot find stores where I can go and look at room dividers to see in person what they are like. I am supposed to rely on an online picture and order it to be shipped to my house or arrange for store pickup at some place like Home Depot.
I cannot find stores where I can go and look at room dividers to see in person what they are like. I am supposed to rely on an online picture and order it to be shipped to my house or arrange for store pickup at some place like Home Depot.
People want more choice and expect every location to have everything available.
I grew up in Alaska. We had one furniture store, a couple of grocery stores, one local option to really look at clothing, and catalogs. Catalogs were the internet of the past. We survived and accepted what we could get. Heck, we did not even have TV when my family moved there. Deal with companies that have a good reputation, maybe with a local presence like Home Depot, and ask a lot of questions.
I think brick and mortar stores are slowly on their way out. Can't compete with online shopping.
Yes it is.
The long time of tax free, helped establish online shopping and delivery.
I still miss being able to try on shoes, before buying, as well as mom and pop hardware stores, where I could go in and ask for a snap ring, and people would actually know what I am talking about.
Yes, and I’m still trying to teach DH that.
At the moment we’re looking for a closet door of a particular size and panel configuration. That sort of thing can only be ordered online. I told DH “hey let’s skip the obligatory visit to Home Depot where we will inevitably find they don’t have this exact item because why should they, and go directly to ordering it online? “
We can have the item sent to our local Home Depot for pick up which is important to us because sometimes we’re here at home and other times were gone for a few days while in her man, and packages get stolen.
At this point it's not taxes (and not just free shipping, I mean sure that's the hook with Amazon prime, but I don't do that almost out of principle (oh I don't have prime, it's not as if I have it and don't use it), and pay for shipping unless I get it free due to cost), but convenience, pandemic was the lesson in that. Buying stuff online through any retailer can be convenient.
But for it to be convenient it actually has to be convenient, meaning not likely to lead to a return, because there is nothing convenient about returning stuff, at all.
So I see online shopping as best for either things that are: 1) unlikely to be available locally (this gets worse if people buy more stuff online so it's self-reinforcing, however a lot of stuff has always been kind of a specialty item, not that easily available) or 2) unlikely to lead to a return, if it's a repeat purchase or a pretty straightforward item then sure it's convenient.
Trees don't grow on money
I have mostly been happy with things I have bought online and return very few items. It’s a lot quicker to look at various store’s items than going to each store. I bought my appliances, light fixtures and closet organizers online.
I hate shopping online. I would much rather see what I am getting. And, for clothes, forget online altogether.
I hate shopping. I like antiquing and flea-marketing and yard sales but do NOT like brick/mortar stores overall. And I buy most clothing used, so there's that. So I do appreciate being able to get much of what I need online. Buying and picking up from retailer is ok, and we do this with home depot/lowe's, staples, etc. off and on. And frankly, if DH isn't running in to buy a tool or some nails or something, he doesn't come home with stuff he didn't know we needed (because we really DIDN'T need it of course!). I shop on Amazon, which not only enriches Bezos et at, but does provide a platform for many smaller sellers. I also shop e-bay sometimes. And some things we just order directly from the manufacturer or specific company. I've not had problems returning anything. I do look for free returns when I purchase. Many sellers make it quite easy to return items, and the post office will pick up returns from our front porch with just a text or phone call. I've bought shoes online since WAY before the pandemic, because it's hard to find wide/extra wide shoes. So I try, return, try again, and then buy multiple pairs for both myself and DH. We should be good for another couple years, lol. Sure beats running from shoe store to shoe store and finding jack. So to each his own - there are good reasons to buy online, and good reasons to NOT.
I have talked here before about how I hate buying fabric online because I can’t feel it for thickness and real finish and texture. Same for color —color doesn’t come through monitors especially well even if you have a color adjusted monitor.
I have purchased paint samples from two different stove companies recently. I wanted to see how red the red was for instance. I wanted to see variance in the three blue colors I was most interested in. But then, that kind of specialty item unless the store has a ring of paint chips for the line of appliances wouldn’t realistically be in a brick and mortar store.
Although I will say this, in the high-end appliance store I visited I first saw the blue color that I ended up buying so that brick and mortar store sold me on that stove line because the color was so great! The sales person had not offered this particular stove line to me when we talk about options, and I was so taken with the blue color that it caused me to go back to the Internet and research carefully the entire line so I could figure out if it met my specifications.I have to have a gas stove in my condo.
The stove company was the only gas oven/stove that offered 30+ colors that wasn’t thousands of dollars more than I was willing to pay.
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