# Online Shopping



## *Cowgirl*

Americans seem to have an obsession with online shopping. Is it like this anywhere else?

Even I have fallen victim to the lure of shoping online and take it from me:
If you don't want to spend a great deal of time and money don't start. It is extremely addictive.....


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## marinax

hahaha...
i think that is mostly in the US... 
is not that common in Argentina, even more: not every shop or brand has its own website yet !!!


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## fenixpollo

I am an American, and I am not addicted to online shopping. In fact, this week I made my first online purchase! Go me!

On the other hand, when I told my coworkers that it was my first time, they all looked at me like I was from Pluto and said "Your first?" incredulously.

A lot of my coworkers do their online shopping in web-only stores that have no physical shop, such as xxxxx.

MOD INTERVENTION: Name taken out - advertising.


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## Jo!

I don't know if people shop online as much here in England, but it is popular. My mum and sister both did most of their Christmas shopping online, on sites like xxxxxx, and my mum does the food shopping on xxxxx.com!

MOD INTERVENTION: Names taken out - advertising


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## Roi Marphille

hey, 
I usually buy online products which are: 
- difficult or impossible to find in my city.
- cheaper than the ones in my city. 

Mostly, DVD movies, books and alike. Addiction? well, kind of.  

I admit though that in my country is not a common practise. When I tell people they go like: oh my gosh, is that safe? aren't you afraid to be cheated or something?


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## marinax

Roi Marphille said:
			
		

> When I tell people they go like: oh my gosh, is that safe? aren't you afraid to be cheated or something?


 
that happens here as well.


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## BasedowLives

> I usually buy online products which are:
> - difficult or impossible to find in my city.
> - cheaper than the ones in my city.
> 
> Mostly, DVD movies, books and alike. Addiction? well, kind of.



same here.  i can't be arsed to go in search of places that may or may not have it when i can get things online for cheaper.


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## Kelly B

I am not obsessed with online shopping, by any means, but I find it very useful. When I could not drive for a while, it was an excellent way to cope - we do not have convenient mass transit. Some of my family members live far away, and their Christmas gifts were purchased online this week - if it needs to be shipped anyway, I might as well have the store do it directly. I can shop at my convenience, I can find a greater variety of items. My local stores don't carry solid colored 6-ply superwash sock yarn. Can't imagine why not.


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## zebedee

It's a great way for me to get birthday & Christmas presents over to my parents, my sisters and their families in New Zealand from Spain. I browse New Zealand shops on-line from the comfort of my computer and they wrap & deliver to my family at little or no extra cost.

Otherwise my choice of presents would be limited to lightweight unbreakable objects and I'd have to buy them months in advance to make sure they got there on time.

A definite plus for me.


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## Moogey

Well maybe I'm totally off, but I think Americans have quite a lax disposition. Not all--but a lot. They will do whatever they can in order to do the least they can. Online shopping means you don't need to get up, drive to the store, buy it, carry it to the car, drive home, carry it in, etc. That's too much work for a lot of people. Some because they don't have the time, but others cause they're just lazy. Now if you think that was off-track, then you'll think this is way off too! I think it's linked with the ever-so-common obesity problem in the USA.

I speak from my own experience living here in the USA my whole life.

-M


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## GenJen54

moogey said:
			
		

> Well maybe I'm totally off, but I think Americans have quite a lax disposition. Not all--but a lot. They will do whatever they can in order to do the least they can. Online shopping means you don't need to get up, drive to the store, buy it, carry it to the car, drive home, carry it in, etc. That's too much work for a lot of people. Some because they don't have the time, but others cause they're just lazy. Now if you think that was off-track, then you'll think this is way off too! I think it's linked with the ever-so-common obesity problem in the USA.
> 
> I speak from my own experience living here in the USA my whole life.



It's an interesting point and one which I don't entirely _disagree_ with!  

Why bother going to the crowded mall when I can sit on my sofa, watch Letterman on TV and sip a lovely glass of pinot gris whilst burning up my credit cards?! 

I prefer a mix.  Shopping in the physical sense allows me to touch, feel, smell - experience - the product I may or may not choose to buy.  It gives me the satisfaction of "knowing" what I bought. 

Online shopping, on the other hand, aside from the obvious advantages already mentioned, is nice when I am looking for goods that I simply cannot find near my home.  As Kelly mentioned, certain speciality goods - or in my case, even certain brands, can be hard to come by in the local malls and shops.  Online shopping opens up a marketplace to me that I would not otherwise have available, and to me, that is its greatest advantage.


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## tvdxer

I'm not addicted to online shopping, but coming from (a rural area outside) a city of 80,000, I often can only find what I need on the internet: radio equipment and antennas for my hobbies, eurodance / eurotrance music, etc.

Part of it is probably because most Americans have an access to the internet and don't mind using it.  The socialization aspect that might be found in shopping in other countries really isn't present to the same aspect in the U.S., except in small and family-owned stores, many of which have gone the way of often cheaper yet less soulful big-box and chain stores.


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## frequency

I think one of good points of on-line shopping is that the item is delivered to your house, it makes you happy. But don't you think this point could make you addictive?



			
				Roi Marphille said:
			
		

> oh my gosh, is that safe? aren't you afraid to be cheated or something?


 
Internet XXXXX auction stuff is more popular than on-line shopping in Japan. I heard several troubles over deposit between buyer and seller though....it also seems addictive.


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## Roi Marphille

frequency said:
			
		

> Internet XXXXX auction stuff is more popular than on-line shopping in Japan. I heard several troubles over deposit between buyer and seller though....it also seems addictive.


yes, indeed. Auction in Eb*y is really addicting! that's crazy, even more than "_traditional_" (yes, it is already traditional  ) online shopping because we may have the idea that we have purchased something very cheap. 
Now there is also the possibility of online bettings (sports...)! really really addicting too and..dangerous.


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## cherine

Online shopping is not yet very common in Egypt, but people are gradually learning to count on it.
I recently started using it to buy books that are not available here, specially dictionaries and language reference books. shipping can sometimes make things a bit more expensive than they really are, but I don't really have better choices.
I think it's a practical way of shopping, but we must take care not to get lazy because of it, or loose our money over it


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## JazzByChas

I will say that Americans would prefer convenience in all they do...which is why fast food is so popular here in the U.S.A.  So online shopping as an addiction is understandable

I, myself, don't do a great deal of online shopping, for the same reason I don't do a lot of shopping in general: I can't afford to.   

However, I have noticed that businesses like to use the internet, because it saves them time and money as well.  Car dealers will give you no hassles if you come in with the specs for a car you saw online.  They will give you the cheaper price, because they don't have to take the time to show you the car, explain all its benefits, etc.

Most hotels, and travel agencies work the same: internet deals are offered because it saves them processing time (and money). 

So I will shop online when I think I can get a deal or can get something I cannot get in a store locally.  I do a lot of researching of products online before I buy anyway.  The 'net is a real good source of information, and that is really what I use it for the most (other than, of course, this forum...but that was another thread!).  Once I am educated, I will buy it online if I get a good deal, and the shipping and handling aren't more expensive than buying it locally.


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## Alayna_Furse

Shopping for my teenage daughter is so much easier ever since I cam across xxx. Teenagers are particular about  what they wear, which meant that shopping for my daughter was always tricky. Now I click on xxx to find all the latest fashions and the best part is that we do it together whenever we both have free time at home.

MOD INTERVENTION: Name taken out - advertising.


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## Etcetera

I quite like the idea of online shopping. 
But... I like "real" shopping. It's an immense pleasure to walk along book shelves in a shop. You can't take a book from the self in an online book store, you can't open it and read the first two or three pages... You can't sit with the book and a cup of coffee at a table, as you can do in the Bookvoed. 
As for clothes, I prefer to buy them in "real" shops. My figure isn't that standard, so I prefer to try new clothes on before buying them. 
I ordered CDs and books from several online shop, but I didn't like it much. Although my friend who lives in the USA is really fond of online bookshops.


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## alacant

I like online shopping, and buy clothes from the French company xxxx, have done for 10 years, because I know the size that fits me, and don't like going round the shops and trying clothes on. However I don't buy books and music on line, because Then I like to go to the shop and browse. It's not as big in Spain as the U.K. and I think that is because the delivery services are not as good.


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## ireney

*MOD NOTE: Do NOT mention specific commercial sites. It is advertising and it is against the forum rules.*


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## TRG

Moogey said:


> Well maybe I'm totally off, but I think Americans have quite a lax disposition. Not all--but a lot. They will do whatever they can in order to do the least they can. Online shopping means you don't need to get up, drive to the store, buy it, carry it to the car, drive home, carry it in, etc. That's too much work for a lot of people. Some because they don't have the time, but others cause they're just lazy. Now if you think that was off-track, then you'll think this is way off too! I think it's linked with the ever-so-common obesity problem in the USA.
> 
> I speak from my own experience living here in the USA my whole life.
> 
> -M


 
I don't know how anyone could know that Americans are obsessed with online shopping, but Moogey, with his vast exerience, has given us the answer; the Americans are fat and lazy! Why didn't I think of that? I suppose it's because I'm just so used to the practicality and efficiency of online shopping that it never occurred to me. Yesteray, I went to three different stores looking for a rechargeable battery similar to the type used in cordless phones. After the third store I just gave up and went home where I immediately purchased one online. Does this make me fat and lazy, or just obsessed?


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## karuna

I don't think that online shopping has anything to do with laziness. In fact, it may be environmentaly beneficial because shipping company will aggregate shippments thus use less gas for delivery of one item instead of driving an individual SUV to the town for each small thing.

I like online shopping because it let's me to avoid impulse buying. In the shop you are defenseless against a shopping attendent who doesn't know much about the product anyway but has learned his/her sales pitch very convincingly. At online shop I can take my time to learn more about the product from reviews, peruse technical details, consult wikipedia for unknown technical terms etc. After deciding what to buy I can compare prices and find much better deals. Of course, there are certain things like clothes or shoes that I prefer to buy at local shops instead.


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## jess oh seven

Online shopping is very popular here in the UK, too. I'm not sure about other countries, but in Spain its popularity seems to be increasing as well, although there aren't nearly as many online shops based in Spain as there are in the UK.


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## nanel

There are things I buy online, like presents to my foreign friends (it's cheaper and easier), plane tickets, hotels (for the same reason), books, DVDs... and things I don't, like for example clothes, but only because I need to try them on first, if I didn't have to, I'd surely buy them online too!

People here don't find strange that I buy things online, but from what I'm reading here, I think it isn't as common as in the US.



JazzByChas said:


> I will say that Americans would prefer convenience in all they do...which is why fast food is so popular here in the U.S.A. So online shopping as an addiction is understandable


 You're just as fat as lazy as people in Spain and probably any other European country (from what I've seen, I don't have statistic to prove it). I think that's another stereotype. People here say exactly the same: too much fast food, kids are getting too obese, we're lazy, like to play "sillón-ball" (which means you seat on your sofa and watch TV or do nothing at all), etc... The only difference is you, Americans, recognize it


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