Online Shopping

I’m fine with the various tangents but bear in mind the original point wasn’t about shopping online for stuff ppl need, it wasn’t about stuff ppl want but are time starved to go to shops. Not about ppl who’d need to use public transport to visit shops, nor shopping online for essentials or time sensitive purchases. Not about trying to compare (inaccurate) times needed for one activity V’s the other

I was highlighting the innumerable non-essential inexpensive impulse buys bought with next day delivery… just because we can

It is not better for the environment to have that one van V private cars because I would never actually go out to the shops just for a 4pk of neoprene stubby holders, let alone make it an individual shopping trip & separate to my other shopping needs.
Assuming I even bought at all (which is very doubtful) it'd wait until my next scheduled trip to shops, but somehow I’m fine getting a team of ppl to get those stubby’s to me in a matter of hours
(substitute ‘stubby’ for your own last non-essential online shopping item)

Online shopping is fantastic but there really is no need to expect or have every purchase treated the same re the time/resource needed to fulfil it

I have never needed to go online for that. Leave me in a 'discount shop' for sometime and I will always walk out with something - 'ooh that's cheap'
 
Only some do that. I just refuse to go shopping with him. Don't understand why people go with their other halves if they hate it so much!
Well, I generally have one golf day and one 'family' day each weekend, so if she wants to drag me round the shops on family day then that's where we're going. I get through it by making sure we stop for a cake and a milkshake at some point. 😄
 
In the vein of this.

Somerset Council has decided to introduce parking charges on Sunday. The car parks are already only half full or so on a Sunday now they want to drive away even more shoppers.

It is no wonder that there are so many empty shops in the town which show no sign of having occupants when even the council do not want people going in to town.

Local news last night said the Council has decided to shelve the plans for the moment having received lots of complaints from traders.
 
Because they get dragged there by their wives 🤷‍♂️
No, he's right, going to the shops 'for fun' is definitely the domain of the women. A bloke will enter the shopping centre, go directly into the two shops he needs, and then leave. 😄

I am with Lord Tyrion on this. Most of my life I have enjoyed a good gander round the shops and my BIL is the same.
 
I'll wander for a while, book shops mainly., buy one and go to a pub. Eventually she'll ring and say "What pub are you in?"
Last time she came in to find me sat, having a laugh, with two blokes I'd never met in my life, at the next table. She joined us and then on the bus home she asked "How'd you know them?". I said "I don't, but one of them said the golf word and that was it".
Pubs 👍
 
I feel like I've returned to the 70's and I'm listening to comedians in a working men's club 🤦
In all honesty, there are a couple of shops I don't mind browsing round, one is TK Maxx and another is Sports Direct. Probably the only two you have a chance of getting something for a non-extortionate price. Other than that I'll be telling her to get a move on and asking when we can go and get a cake.
 
In all honesty, there are a couple of shops I don't mind browsing round, one is TK Maxx and another is Sports Direct. Probably the only two you have a chance of getting something for a non-extortionate price. Other than that I'll be telling her to get a move on and asking when we can go and get a cake.
I agree that cake is essential to any shopping trip 😋
 
I’m guessing I’m in the minority then. Though I don’t go shopping often which is more to do with time constraints and maximising time with the kids. I genuinely do enjoy a wander round the shops with my wife, sometimes I go with an idea of what I want other times aimlessly just enjoy a mooch round see what takes my fancy and buying it for myself, for Mrs M or my kids.

Every trip will come with me finding the nearest Caffè Nero for a Flat white and a pastry pit stop then off we go again. I don’t care if it takes all day to do I just value that time together and enjoy the experience of buying people I care about things. Much as I don’t like Christmas it’s not the shopping part that bothers me!

As for the OP point surely there’s a simple solution don’t allow yourself to impulse buy online goods if you don’t like the idea of the roads being clogged up 🤷
 
That's a good idea, what the less mobile/vulnerable people in the community really need is an extra tax.
I’m not going to debate it, it was just a random thought…and maybe not that serious a one.

But if it’s a debate, exclude food and household essentials, the sort of things the grocer’s delivery boy would deliver before the days of the internet. But as said…I wasn’t being 100% serious.
 
I’m not going to debate it, it was just a random thought…and maybe not that serious a one.

But if it’s a debate, exclude food and household essentials, the sort of things the grocer’s delivery boy would deliver before the days of the internet. But as said…I wasn’t being 100% serious.

There is a memory of my early youth and pocket money jobs

Getting worn out just thinking of the miles I used to do on a delivery bike back then, 2 paper rounds in the morning every day, one in the evening, fish deliveries on a Saturday and occasional weekdays in the school l holidays.
 
very slightly off topic

mooching round town today and I saw the Poundland is closing down - that says something about town centre shopping. Now that is a place to get un-needed tat on the cheap.
 
One of the interesting things to see in the future is going to be the effects of the change in the budget to import duties when it comes to buying from cheap online sellera such as Temu and Shein as well as buying direct from abroad.
 
I much prefer online shopping. Specific thing you want can be ordered in 10 minutes rather than spending hours trawling round shops. Nearly always cheaper online as well. In the lockdown times I did get a little bit addicted to it as a parcel coming through the door was about the only thing you could look forward to - but I think I'm over it and back to normal now.

As mentioned above the 'buying on impulse' factor can be debateable. In a shop you might purchase something on a whim, lest you not see it again. Whereas online, research and comparisons can be done to select the right product for you before ordering.
[/QUOT
One of the interesting things to see in the future is going to be the effects of the change in the budget to import duties when it comes to buying from cheap online sellera such as Temu and Shein as well as buying direct from abroad.
There has already been talk where I am of them putting up council tax because they are not getting the revenue they need from Car parks in the town
 
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