Tag Archives: shopping

All the extras

We’ve been looking to replace my old minivan, and shopping for a hybrid SUV. Today I decided that I’ll just stick with my van for a couple more years, and probably go all electric when I do upgrade.

Nowadays shopping for a vehicle is all about the extras you get lumped together. It’s not about personalization, it’s about packaging. My wife wants a sunroof, ‘Oh well then you have to go two models up and you get the video rear view mirror’ (makes me dizzy), ‘the built in GPS’ (my phone and CarPlay is fine), ‘and the trunk opens by waving your foot under it’ (wow, I couldn’t live without it, I think to myself sarcastically).

I can’t see myself buying another gas-only car ever again, but while we still want a larger SUV, the choices seem to be overpriced features in hybrids, and I think I’d rather wait for a larger full electric, that I’m not spending thousands more on features I don’t want.

My commute is 6.6 kilometres (4.1 miles) round trip, to and from work. For now, I’ll keep my minivan and shop again in a couple years… maybe then I’ll be a little less fussy about paying for features I don’t want.

Ordering online is too easy

Sometimes it is just too easy to order things online. The draw to impulse buy something is strong. The incentive to buy in bulk, or more items than you need is exaggerated by a pricing scheme that invites buying excess. I needed golf tees to use to put my paper archery targets onto my target block. 25 tees would last a long time, 50 would last well over 2 years, but I got 75 because it was a great deal. It didn’t cost much more to get the extra 25 tees… but that little bit more was still money that I didn’t need to spend.

I don’t golf, and never visit golfing stores, so I don’t know how much I saved, buying from Amazon rather than from a place that has to pay high fees for retail space? I don’t think about the fact that a store like that is good to have in the community, and worth supporting. I also like the idea of not going to a store that I don’t need to right now. Not walking by people in isles, people who seem less interested in social distancing than they do in getting to the items that they are shopping for.

The appeal to just online shop rather than going to retail stores is strong. When the pandemic ends, I suspect online ordering habits won’t. I wonder what this will do to our local economies? If we will end up with less choices, and more ‘big box’ stores that have the draw of meeting many needs, because niche needs are easier to get online? I wonder if there will be a pricing reset for retail space?

I also wonder how much extra junk we are all buying, because more is better, and bulk items are cheaper? We live in a consumer product driven world and online shopping is an easy way to accumulate a lot of stuff we really don’t need.

A 30 year tradition

It was either Christmas Eve 1989 or 1990 and I was home from universtiy for the holidays. My friend Ross and I had yet to do any Christmas shopping. We drove to a huge mall with a restaurant, ordered lunch and had a few beers, then started shopping. At first we shopped together, but that wasn’t working so we split up. This was the pre-cellphone era so we made plans to meet in an hour. At that point we talked a bit about our purchases, gave each other ideas, and planned a second meeting.

I don’t remember if we split up again or just stuck together after that, but we ended up back at the restaurant, ordered coffees, and then started being brutally honest with each other about how good (and bad) we thought our purchases were for our family members. This resulted in a return or two, and some more purchases, before eating again and heading home.

By 1993 I was living in Vancouver and the commute to Toronto was a bit too far to make Christmas Eve plans with Ross. I have spent a few Christmases ‘back home’ and sure enough we still kept the tradition going, but we’ve celebrated this day many more times at a distance. So, every Christmas Eve morning I get a call from Ross. Every Christmas Eve for 30 years. And hopefully for 30 more.