Let’s
Go Shopping!
I am going to say
from the beginning I prefer shopping via the Internet, particularly during
times like Christmas and birthdays. Instead of driving around seeking the best
deal I check out various online stores, taking into account shipping and
handling and whether that alone will counter any discounts that the online
store is able to offer. Factor in both the cost of gasoline for your vehicle
and the cost of the electricity for your computer and the time it takes you to
get from point A to point B. Take a moment to consider will the store have the
item or will you have to go elsewhere and if it does how long will you have to
wait at the checkout?
Shopping on the
Internet has been made simpler with advent of tabbed browsing. It is possible
to have several pages at once so you can compare prices shop at several stores.
If you are well organized the best time to Christmas shop (and I must confess I
am not) is early in the year. This is all very well and good if you are looking
at practical items like new bedding or tools. Buying clothing for children for
Christmas early in the year when they are liable to grow several inches makes
no sense.
Certain items can
only be bought by going to the store; groceries are one, unless you happen to
live in an area where some of the larger stores will actually deliver to your
home. If you search on the Internet for home deliveries of food you come up
with many different companies offering a wide array of grocery products, just
check out Amazon. Perishable goods are where it isn’t always practical to have
the items delivered. Milk deliveries
are in the past, however if you do an Internet search it’s encouraging to see
that they are coming back on a very limited scale in some areas.
Supporting your
local economy by shopping locally at local stores, farmers markets and
supporting local co-ops is a valuable option. Planning trips can save time and
money, instead of getting in your vehicle to go to the grocery store to buy one
item, make a list of a weeks worth of groceries and also see if you need to go
to the post office, the bank, the pharmacy etc, make your trip worthwhile. If
your children are doing after school activities if either you wait for them or
if you go home, provided you are not required, why not see if you can run some
errands while you are waiting? Why not phone around to see if the stores have a
particular item and at what price, if not, look elsewhere, and that includes
the Internet.
There will always be
those who do enjoy shopping and those of us who don’t. What we all need to do
is plan our trips to the stores for both the sake of our budgets and the energy
consumption of the planet.