The Fun and Ease of Online Shopping vs. The Brick and Mortar Option

When my sister and discussed our shopping plans this year we found to our surprise that our attitudes were much different. She was the hip New Yorker, living in a trendy section of Brooklyn and commuting in to her publishing job in Manhattan. I'm a down home Midwestern type of girl who prefers to drive everywhere and I love my suburb. We were chatting together on my mother's couch after we had stuffed ourselves with cake from our parent's anniversary party, and when we got onto the topic of shopping (my favorite pastime), my sister gave me quite a shock. While I was dreading the upcoming birthdays and Christmas, but my sister had a very positive outlook. She was looking forward to the experience, and I was flabbergasted.

As it turned out, she was a devote of shopping online, and so she was looking forward to surfing around, researching options and deals, and getting all her shopping done early. I argued with her, saying that the personalization of actually finding a gift by oneself in person was something that couldn't be duplicated by a machine. Also, many of the really great items I would like to get were not the kind of items that were technologically oriented, and what little vendors would have their stores online?

The debate got pretty heated, and soon we decided to bet on it. We bet each other a new iPod player (pretty technologically oriented there, but I figured that I could sort it out once I won) that the other person would have much better shopping runs if each of us used the other's techniques. I was positive that if she could discover how nice it was to go into the brick and mortar shops, she'd forget all about online shopping ? and I definitely knew that I would like shopping online. Since we were basically buying gifts for the same people, we'd have a fair contest. We'd be fair in our evaluations, as well, and insist on telling each other how we'd done. Each of us would rate the shopping system on ease, quality, price, and getting gifts that was appropriate and appreciated by the recipients. Here's our results:

For our brother's present, I hopped onto the internet and typed in bird watching into the search engine. After searching through a couple options, to my surprise I quickly found a birding book that was specific to our state, plus a CD of bird calls. The site not only offered free shipping, but would wrap the package and mail it to the my brother. "Well", I thought. "That was easy ? but I knew books and CDs were easy to get via the internet. How about something tough?"

I thought I'd cheat a little bit by trying to find something that could only be bought locally. That failure would take my sister's idea out the utility of online shopping and blow it completely out of the water. For this specialized task I picked one of my favorite foods ? the organic, wild blueberry pancake syrup sold in our local farmer's market. While it's always a pain to wake up early on Saturday mornings to drive all the way down to the market, it's worth it to get this locally-made, yet exotic product. Unfortunately for me, it was easy to find. I entered the phrase Blueberry Syrup into Froogle and it was the first product sold there. I had no idea they sold this stuff on the internet! The new franchising and marketing opportunities have enabled the local growers to market and ship their product all over the states.

One last shot ? I'd look for something for my sister, to get something so personal and unique that you'd definitely have to go there to get it. It was an item that we had seen on a friend's wall, and for years now my sister had wanted one of her own. As it turns out, Thai elephant painting (the elephants grab paintbrushes with their trunks and then paint a canvas) is now online, and yes, they will take custom orders. I hadn't really been willing to fly to Thailand to get a painting, anyway, but I certainly hadn't thought that would have been online.

I called up my sister in defeat. After two hours online, I had bought all my major presents. Sis answered her cell phone and said that she was still stuck in rush-hour traffic on the way to the store.

The author's shopping review website is http://www.malls-info.com which lists and reviews major shopping malls. Any or all parts of this article may be reprinted in any form, as long as there is a link to the website. The HTML is US Shopping Malls Directory

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Google News Updated : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:51:33 GMT Dodgers stand up to Phillies in Game 3 win - FOXSports.com Washington Post Dodgers stand up to Phillies in Game 3 win FOXSports.com - 4 hours ago by Ken Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on the FSN Baseball Report and MLB on FOX. LA revitalized at Moyer's expense MLB.com Kuroda's pitch serves its purpose for Dodgers USA Today New York Times - Los Angeles Times - Boston Globe - Philadelphia Daily News all 2,467 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:00:36 GMT Fantastic finishes: 5 NFL games down to the wire - Washington Post Washington Post Fantastic finishes: 5 NFL games down to the wire Washington Post - 3 hours ago Dallas Cowboys' Mat McBriar (1) has his punt blocked by Arizona Cardinals' Sean Morey as Monty Beisel (52) looks on during overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008 in Glendale, Ariz. Blocked punt downs Dallas San Francisco Chronicle Backups Burst Through Line and Lift Cardinals in Overtime New York Times Sports Network - FOXSports.com - Houston Chronicle - Philadelphia Inquirer all 749 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:15:50 GMT Forecast: Summery Sunshine Sticks Around - Washington Post Chicagoist Forecast: Summery Sunshine Sticks Around Washington Post - 2 hours ago Columbus Day will feel a lot more like Labor Day as temperatures climb to around 80 degrees. This unseasonably warm weather will continue for the next several days. Enjoy a warm, sunny Columbus Day Times Herald-Record Beautiful start to the work week The Star-Ledger - NJ.com The Capital Times - Journal and Courier - Richmond Times Dispatch - The Virginian-Pilot all 241 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:03:26 GMT 1.5 million G1 Android phones pre-ordered - TG Daily Product Reviews 1.5 million G1 Android phones pre-ordered TG Daily - 6 hours ago By Wolfgang Gruener Chicago (IL) - T-Mobile’s upcoming G1 may not be the best-looking iPhone rival, it may not have the most complete feature set and T-Mobile may have undersold the device at the recent launch event. Get ready for next-gen mobile InfoWorld HTC G1 Android Phone Racks up 1.5 Million Pre-orders eFluxMedia Brighthand - InformationWeek - ReadWriteWeb - ZDNet all 153 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:21:21 GMT UK government takes stake in three banks - CNN International Canada.com UK government takes stake in three banks CNN International - 32 minutes ago LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government on Monday said it would make a multi-billion investment in three of the country's major banks to help them through the "first financial crisis of the global age. In quotes: Bank bail-out reaction BBC News TEXT-Lloyds TSB terms for acquisition of HBOS Reuters guardian.co.uk - Wall Street Journal - Bloomberg - AFP all 1,923 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:18:47 GMT European, Asian markets bounce back - The Associated Press Vancouver Sun European, Asian markets bounce back The Associated Press - 1 hour ago LONDON (AP) - European markets opened strongly Monday following Asia's lead in response to the widespread government efforts over the weekend to shore up the world's troubled financial system. The financial crisis A light at the end of the tunnel? Economist World stock markets welcome European bank rescue AFP MSN Money - New York Times - New Straits Times - Voice of America all 769 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:23:04 GMT Manatee dies before reaching rehab site - Boston Globe WHDH-TV Manatee dies before reaching rehab site Boston Globe - 4 hours ago By Emily Canal After a 27-hour trip to Florida, Dennis the manatee, rescued from the frigid waters of Cape Cod, died in Orlando yesterday as SeaWorld employees carted the mammal to a rehabilitation center. Video: Rescued Manatee Dies After Mass. Rescue AssociatedPress Manatee rescued off Cape Cod dies en route to Florida Sea World New York Daily News WFLA - eFluxMedia - Cape Cod Times - South Coast Today all 565 news articles Publ.Date : Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:21:21 GMT Merchant Datafeeds Amazon RSS Feeds

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