online shopping nirvana

I was browsing Amazon the Tuesday before turkey day, around 6:30 PM. I got an offer for a free trial of Amazon Prime (basically free shipping on anything they sell). I already had a free trial last year sometime, but I’m happy to get another one. A smart move on their part to get extra Christmas shopping.

I decided to order a 4-CD set of Christmas music. I saw that I could get free two-day shipping. What the heck, it’s free! Go for it!

Since this was late Tuesday, I figured I wouldn’t get the CDs until Friday, after Thanksgiving. Since I did have a free trial, this didn’t bother me.

Wednesday, 3:30 PM. I’m home, and there’s a knock on the door. It’s my CDs! Delivered by A-1 Courier! LESS THAN 24 HOURS SINCE MY ORDER!

:eek: YAY! WOW!

This is the kind of service I could get VERY accustomed to very quickly. If I had a lot more money than I do. And was much less careful about spending it. And had a lot more space to store stuff.

I couldn’t live without my Amazon Prime. And it works - Amazon is my first stop for anything I think I might need to buy on the web. I love my free 2-day shipping, Amazon loves my money, it’s good all around.

Wow. Thanks for mentioning this.

I am always thinking I should buy more things online instead of in stores. I’m just a typical busy person looking to save time and effort. It’s not that going to the store is inconvenient or anything. I just have things I’d rather do with my time. Plus, I often seem to want things that aren’t easily available in stores. Since Amazon has so much stuff, it really seems worth it, even if I have to pay when the trial is over.

You know what keeps me from doing more online shopping? It’s that if I have to pay a shipping charge or meet a minimum in order to get free shipping, I get hung up trying to find everything on the site that I might want in order to amortize the shipping cost or meet the minimum. And since I don’t want to buy stuff I don’t need, I put off ordering until I need enough stuff from the site to make it “worth it.” Then I end up going to the store to buy the item. Or I don’t get stuff that I need or want badly because it’s not easily available in stores. It’s just silly.

I also get hung up on the fact that it will take a couple of days to arrive, but that’s even more silly because I often don’t even get a chance to get to the store before that! I need to get over it. One or two day shipping will certainly help.

Okay, now you all know way more than you ever wanted about my online shopping habits.