What Not To Buy Online

For me, online shopping was the perfect invention (well almost): you don't have to fight the crowds, save $85 in gas to drive to the store, no parking problems, and the product just shows up on the doorstep a day or two later. HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK IN MY CONTROL! Woohoo!

But is there "stuff" I wouldn't buy online? Why yes, there is. And the more I thought about it, the bigger the list got.

For instance, I wouldn't buy produce online. I like to cook and, well, I need to touch and feel that stuff to know it's good. I mean really, buying lettuce only to have it show up rotten on the doorstep would suck. Because that would defeat the purpose of online shopping--I'd just have to go to the store and return it only to buy another one.

Then I started to think, what else? I wouldn't buy a car online. Sure, I like the research capabilities that the Web (I mean the 'NET, lol) has for an automobile purchase, but wire funds over on something like that without checking it out? Never.

A house would fall under the same category as the cars. There's something about those two items where you just need to touch, feel, and see them that makes the purchase "work" for me.

Clothes, shoes, cologne, furniture, hmmm the list starts to get longer. So now, maybe I realize I am more hesitant to buy online than I originally thought. Halfway through this post, I'm thinking now: What WOULD I buy online?

My thoughts now are really that I would only buy a smaller group of items online than I first pictured myself doing. Items falling into groups of things such as office supplies or cell phones and those accessories. Maybe I would buy pea gravel or rocks online too (you really can't mess up that order). Oh, and pizza delivery. If they are going to mess up a delivery pizza, well it would happen whether you bought it online or on the phone. I think the fear for me of buying online is that it becomes a non-personal business where a mistake could happen, then I'd have to just do it over again in person. Time, oh that precious item we have so little of, becomes wasted.

In retrospect, heck, I'm not so much a carefree e-shopper as I would have thought. I have no hesitation about giving my information out over the 'Net as I am about making actual purchases. I must still be a little old fashioned when it comes to buying the things I want and need on a daily basis.