Inspired by my Christmas shopping. I had just thought of something for my wife which I had forgotten to put on my list. Nothing fancy, but I was just about to head out to a store to get it. And then drag it in my suitcase to where we are having Christmas. The store probably wouldn’t be that crowded, but it also might not have this thing.
And then I gave myself a dope slap and ordered it from Amazon. Free shipping, a donation to Guide Dogs, and no hassling. And what I got, from the reviews, was probably better than what I would find in the store.
I’ve been online for 45 years, but I’m old enough so that a brick and mortar store is my default for most things, in the sense I think of it first. How about you? Do you think Amazon first, or Target?
Your age might be nice, and if there are items that violate your general rule. We don’t need to worry about the merits of either choice - Amazon in my case was by far the better choice, but not what I thought of first.
Online first, always. Even if I ultimately get it from a brick and mortar store, I always start online. And Amazon specifically, at least to get a baseline for the price. From there I can check other websites and B&M stores for better prices (or being able to get it sooner).
46, for anything that I’d consider shopping I think of brick and mortar first. Although I guess looking at Amazon recommended digital music sort of qualifies as shopping.
The term “shopping” to me means looking at a variety of physical products and comparing them which I still prefer to do in person, especially with clothing. Anything that does not need a physical footprint, I first think of buying online, but buying airline tickets, concert tickets, and hotel reservations doesn’t really feel like “shopping”. Digital music is an exception because I can listen to samples before pulling the trigger.
I do think, though, that it feels weirder to buy a physical copy of something that I normally wouldn’t than to order material online that I’d normally buy in a store. In the past 5 years I can only remember doing it three times: twice with concert tickets that for some reason shipped to me instead of sent to my email, and once for a CD that wasn’t available for download. And I still completed the transactions online.
It depends upon what I’m looking for, but in general, it’s at a physical store. The majority of my online stuff is either B&H (cameras) or ebay (little stuff); never Amazon. I don’t get enough to make Prime worthwhile & then I feel like a sucker paying for shipping from them.
Be careful; people drive there like they’re driving racecars.
I prefer bricks-and-mortar, where I can see what I’m getting more accurately than some photo and description online, so that’s what I think of first. However, because I can’t drive, I can’t always get to bricks-and-mortar, so I mostly shop online.
Speaking of which, I wish online vendors offered decent gift-wrap. It’d save me a lot of time, trouble, and money if I could have gifts shipped directly. I don’t want to send unwrapped gifts, though, and Amazon went from gift wrap to shoving things in floppy blue gift bags. I’d be willing to pay extra for seasonal or even plain gift wrap. This year, everything’s coming to me. I gift wrap it with my stiff hands and then find a way to schlepp it over to the PO, where I pay for shipping.
It totally depends on the items being purchased. For clothes shopping or food shopping, I default to brick-and-mortar, because I want to see and feel the items in the flesh. Also, I probably need them right away. For small appliances, books, music, or gadgets, I default to online. For certain big-ticket items (TV, fridge), I like to do my preliminary shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, then shop around online for the best price. I’m in my early sixties, so I’ve had time to do plenty of both.
I’m 57 and I’ve been an Amazon customer since they were just a bookstore. Because I lived in a pretty highly-populated area without a REAL bookstore until they showed up (Waldenbooks in the local mall was as good as it got until Amazon started up and then Barnes and Noble finally opened a physical location nearby - it was mobbed when it was new and it is still there today). I now live in a semi-rural area and rely on Amazon and other online retailers for things I cannot get within a 15-mile area. I’m very familiar with what’s available locally, and if it’s something I want that’s not, I know where to go.
I don’t think today’s situation is a whole lot different from when rural folk relied on the Sears or Montgomery Ward catalogs to get stuff they could not procure locally. I went to college in a rural town in the 1980s and the local Sears store was basically just a showroom with a few floor models of large appliances, and not a large department store as it was in my hometown. If you wanted anything else, you headed to the back of the store where the catalogs were and ordered from that via the dedicated phone lines. They were the Amazon of their times - you used to be able to buy houses from Sears! Not sure Amazon has gone that far yet - when I put ‘House’ in the search all I get is episodes of the TV show.
Depends on what for. Clothing, shoes, jewelry: unless it’s something very specific, brick and mortar. Now that we’ve taught 1.SiL to be specific with her gift requests when the gift she has in mind happens to be a specific one, she’ll actually provide the store and material code: that can be bought online.
Books tend to be online, but then, I tend to buy the kindle version.
Electronics, I like to go see it but may end up needing to buy online because what I want/need isn’t available from brick and mortar places. Exception: keyboards. I will NOT buy a keyboard I haven’t been able to try (I’m glaring at you, fnac).
I’m 67 and It depends on what it is. Usually it will be a store with a door as my first choice because I want to see it or try it on first. If it’s something where I “can’t go wrong” and less expensive then I get my son to order on line and I pay him back. Although interestingly enough it isn’t always less expensive on line so I’ve found out.
Online, but recently I’m realizing that isn’t always better.
The selection online is better. But some items I’ve bought online only to find them cheaper at brick and mortar stores like walmart.
On another note, some items I do order online I can find on sites cheaper than amazon, since amazon doesn’t have coupon codes but a lot of other sites do. Amazon makes up about half of all online sales, no other store comes close.
Then there is the issue with all the fake products on amazon.
I’m trying to move back to shopping at brick and mortar stores, or checking stores other than amazon for online shopping (so I can use coupon codes), but its a hard habit to break since amazon has everything.
But as others mention, it depends. I rarely ever buy food or personal care items online. Auto parts I buy online at stores like advance auto parts (which has a coupon code) then I pick them up in store. But pretty much every other consumer good that can be shipped I buy online. Large items like TVs or large furniture I buy in brick and mortar stores too. Age 40
I just looked at my shopping list. There were seventeen items on it. I bought four items online (all in a single Amazon order). The other thirteen items have been or will be bought in stores (eleven different ones).
Brick-and-mortar, for the most part. I’ll go online if I know I want something that exists, but isn’t available locally; though my first go-to will always be a brick-and-mortar store.
I just thought of a counterexample to my OP. When my printer died, I didn’t even think of going to the store. I went to Amazon, found one cheaper than I thought I’d find, ordered it, and got it in two days.
How about Christmas shopping? Does it involve trips to stores? We usually go before Thanksgiving to a high class mall in San Jose. This year my leg gave out on me in the middle of November, and we didn’t, and it doesn’t quite feel like the holidays. Both my daughters have had babies in the past month, tripling the number of grandchildren I have, and that adds to the weirdness since they didn’t go shopping either.
Basics, such as groceries, normally brick and mortar. Specialty foods, such a York Peppermint Patties, online, from on-line-only or based-in-Geneva American food stores.
If I need new jeans or bras, I order them online. I know the brand and size, and I can’t buy them locally.
If I want new shirts/sweaters/coats/shoes, I will go to a brick and mortar store and buy them there. I want the store to survive, so I don’t go to a store and then buy online from another company. Unless the store doesn’t carry it.
When we travel we go to specialty stores, such as sizeable book stores, special brands of footwear, guitars and whisky (something else I have yet to buy online, even though I’ve had whisky shipped from a distillery and a shop in Edinburgh).
Online shopping here in Australia isn’t as convenient as it seems to be in other places, at least for the kinds of things I buy. Also, my living arrangements make deliveries an impractical shitshow a lot of the time. In an ideal situation I would order online more often, but for now it’s not my go-to.
I default to brick-and-mortar because I strongly feel I should support my local businesses, and that includes even the big box stores because even if they aren’t locally based they still employ my neighbors.
But if I can’t find it around here I’ll order it on line. And shoes I only get on-line, because no store around here carries shoes in my size (I have to go to the next county to a specialty store, and even there they sometimes have to order them) and I refuse to wear footwear of the wrong size anymore.
