by Ashley McGee |

I am a total and absolute shopaholic. I’m constantly on the lookout for the best deals and the latest trends. Whenever
I’m out with friends, I can’t help but stop to see what’s on sale at the stores nearby. I live for the rush of putting together
outfits, trying fifteen or more on and leaving with what I consider to be just the perfect one. Online shopping just doesn’t
have the same effect. The buyer has to wait days, or even weeks, to recieve their prized possession and all they’re allowed
to base their decision off of is a picture and a paragraph.
Who cares if clothes look good on a computer screen if they don’t compliment your body shape? And if you haven’t
ever tried on the newest fashions for yourself, how will you know if you personally will look good in them? The truth is,
none of the information online shopping provides you with actually matters. Any girl knows that every girl’s body shape
is different and sizes vary from store to store.
Of course, you could always just return it – or can you? PayPal’s 16-section “User Agreement” states that they will
only give you a full refund if no item was received at all. That means, even if you’re not happy with your purchase,
you will still be in charge of shipping and handling, which can range anywhere from $6 to $65 according to Practical
Ecommerce, on top of the fees to return it. This still holds true even if, alternatively, it’s the supplier’s error, and it’s
because of their mistake that the wrong item is delivered.
Since online shopping relies so heavily on technology, problems like these are more common than one might think.
Even the smallest inconvenience, like a page not loading, may completely reset your purchase. You would never have to
worry about this in a store. It would be as if you reached the checkout line and had all your items returned to the shelves
because the line was moving too slow.
While this is a common complaint of online shoppers, the online purchasing process is no faster. With all the
information you have to type in, it could easily take up the ten minutes you might have to wait in line and more. And if
you mistype anything, even by one letter, you could end up not receiving the item or having it sent to the wrong person.
With all this, I’m happy to dish out the few dollars in gas money it will take to drive and buy the item in person. You’ll
end up spending more on shipping and handling for the sake of so-called convenience. The fact of the matter is, just
because we have the technology to do so, doesn’t mean we should.
In doing so, we’re losing the entire essence of shopping – the ability to compare different items, return items with ease
and not be required to agree to two pages worth of “fine print.” We’ve spent decades perfecting the shopping experience.
So, if it’s not broken, why try to fix it?