It’s funny how convenience has inadvertently led to more frustration.
Take for example online v offline shopping.
With 99% of websites these days you can adjust the filters to find out in mere minutes if they have the size, style and colour that you want.
In a shop you have to figure out their floorplan, (do you see any signs for pyjamas?), then if they don’t have your size, are you willing to ask a staff member if they do?
Then you may encounter the biggest flaw of brick and mortar stores – limited shelf space.
The website flexes it’s infinite options and your desire for individuality squeals with delight!
The store can’t do that. The store can only stock limited amounts and they’re going to pick the bestsellers.
Surfing the web means you can browse two shops at the same time in two separate tabs.
Unfortunately H&M won’t let you take the jacket across the shopping mall to Zara for comparison purposes. You have to buy it first!
Furthermore if you decide you want to leave the crowded H&M to visit Zara you have to enter the river of people and get buffeted along as you try to swim upstream to Zara.
To shop offline means getting out of bed, getting dressed, driving, parking, walking around all day, paying for parking, and then driving again (fingers crossed there’s no traffic). All in all the whole day could be spent buying a few items.
Contrast that with shopping online where you don’t have to leave bed.
Also the only real inconvenience of online shopping, returns, is actually improving at a rate of knots. Some companies offer free returns and include packaging and stamps for the return in your delivery.
In summary all the annoyances with offline shopping weren’t that annoying before online shopping came along.
They were just part and parcel of the experience. There was no alternative on offer. You just had to accept the negatives and get on with it.
But now the convenience of buying online makes the difficulties of shopping offline irksome.
Thomas Duggan 