To shop online or not to shop online? That is the question.
So I have a new love in my life and it goes by the name Etsy.com. This site is fabulous, its all hand made stuff at mostly reasonable prices. Its perfect for finding holiday gifts for the crafty person in your life, or just the adorer of anything unique.
Then there is of course amazon.com with their cheap books and countless other amusing products. And lets not forget Target.com and Macys.com and all the other wonderful .coms out there. But I have got to wonder is online shopping for holiday gifts on your lunch hour less personal than spending your sataurday rumaging through store shelves while sharing your personal space with some woman named Alma from New Mexico? Something about it just seems too easy. Its like I'm cheating, comparing prices and getting good deals and saving time, not to mention not having to lug bags around all day. They are just delivered right to my house. It just doesn't seem to fit in with my idea of what christmas shopping should be.
Maybe it isn't the gift receivers that I am cheating, maybe in the end I just feel like I am cheating myself as I do so love to shop in stores with the crowding and the people and the holiday music blaring. I'm nearly done with my christmas shopping and yet I have only been shopping once after work and I only went to like three stores.
So, Online shopping. Is it the make-you-do-your-shopping-early, safe-you-time-and-money inovation that it seems to be or is it the death of holiday shopping fun?
posted by christina @ 10:04 AM
12 Comments:
two reasons i dont think its cheating:
1) i hate shopping, so im simply not going to spend the hours shopping in busy stores, and everyone'll just have to make do with whatever i had the patience for. so people get better presents from me if i shop online.
2) there are many things(colors/sizes, or items) that can't be found in local stores, like etsy, or out of stock things, etc.
That makes me feel a little better. I guess it really is that I just miss the shopping. I hope people will like the presents that I got them!
shopping is for GIRLS
plus, stores want you to think 'it just doesnt fit with what your idea of christmas shopping should be'. You spend more shopping in their physical spaces. online you can ignore all of the other departments and head straight for the virtual sale rack/ whatever else it is youre after, whereas stores are set up strategically so you'll buy crap you didnt plan on.
that is true, shopping online has helped me to keep to my budget, the only time I cheated was when I went to lush and let them talk me into buying nearly $50 worth of stuff. Granted most of that was budgeted money, but still I only went in there to buy one bath bomb.
Who is Alma, and why is she shopping in California if she lives in New Mexico?
I think that online shopping is wonderful, especially because there are tools to help you get things for people that they actually want (ie Amazon wishlists). I would rather get somebody a gift that he/she really wants without thinking of the idea myself than put a lot of time into thinking up a gift idea and have the person hate it.
Yes, it would be nice if it was really the thought that counts, but if your grandma knits you a sweater that a blind woman could tell is hideous, will you really wear it? Will you wear it once and then never again? Will you keep it in your closet because you are guilt-ridden to throw it away or too ashamed to give it to a homeless person? Wouldn't it just be better if you put a really nice cable-knit sweater from Eddie Bauer on your Amazon wishlist and Grandma can buy you that? I think so. You get something you like, and Grandma feels good because she knows you will actually wear the sweater she bought you.
Yay online shopping!
It is the thought that counts! But the thought that shows that someone actually knows you. Clearly if granny knits you a sweater you hate instead of getting you the Eddie Bauer one granny has no idea who you are and thats the "thought" that really counts! Its more of a challenge to think about the person and listen to them and know what they like than it is to just look up a list of stuff that they have already picked out for themselves! That said, some people are just impossible to buy. Basically I like 9/10 gifts that I receive. Basically if its pretty or unusual or smells nice I will like it. End of story. Some people are not quite so easy to buy for though...and they should all have amazon wish lists. But no sara I didn't get you something off your wish list, but I hope you will like it anyway...let me know if you don't and next year I will just stick to the list. :)
I hear what you're saying about wishlist shopping for some people. And you didn't buy me something off my wishlist, but you did look at it, which may have helped the gift-buying process. I don't use wishlists for all people, but it's good to help me figure out whatever band my brother likes at the moment, and what new Pavarotti CD is out that I can buy for my granny. But I think that it's cheating if I buy something off of Zeph's wishlist rather than putting some thought into it, and I bought most of the gifts I am giving in the Castro.
I also bought a present on Etsy, and it may be the coolest gift I give this year. Yay for Etsy, and yay for Beth, who I think is the one who told you about it.
All brothers should have wishlists.
i, too, was puzzled by Alma, and how she made christmas shopping more fun.
she is a tourist and she doesn't make it mmore fun per say she is merely a par tof the experience.
not to be snobby or anything, but i don't want to spend my holiday season crammed into a macy's sale rack with tourists (especially since the tourists here seem to be disproportionately from Hickville, USA.)
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