Online Shopping is Taking Over

[PaulaJedi]

More and more brick and mortar stores are closing. Online shopping is extremely popular. Why?

Stores are stocking fewer varieties of items. It used to be that you could find absolutely anything at Walmart. Not anymore. There are brands they no longer carry. The personal section, like shampoo, only carries about 4 brands. You can't really look around for something new. I've gone to stores, even grocery stores, and simply cannot find things and am forced to shop on Amazon.

Here is the problem in America. Amazon wants to save money so they rarely use UPS. If the item is tiny, they MAY use UPS. If the item is large, they use the postal service and we have to pick it up. The problem here is that now that 90% of Amazon's products are shipped through the mail, the post offices are overwhelmed. I drive by my small post office and see them filling a van to the brim with boxes. Sometimes, they can't fit it all and you have to wait or pick it up.

Amazon Prime no longer exists. They even stopped using their own Amazon trucks. It's rare for items to come in 2 days directly from the warehouse and you can forget next day delivery. What happened to the drone idea?

So, the more we shop online, the slower it becomes, but we can't always just run to the store because less is being sold in the stores!

Is this happening by design so that they can see and control what we buy? It would be easy for the government to stop a shipment. More and more shipments are already being delayed. I can't tell you how many times a delivery was delayed. It's taking over a week to get my daughter a pair of shoes! (She needs an old model, so we can't go to the store).

 

[MODAT7]

I have to shop online because of my health problems and difficulties getting out. I don't particularly care for amazon, but I use them. UPS has destroyed and damaged more packages than I can count, so I'd rather not see them around. They're also too stupid to leave a package beside my door and often leave it where it will get rained on. Since I live in a big metroplex, I see Amazon trucks all the time, and they do most of the delivery around here. Some amazon deliveries are slower than others, but this probably has to do from which warehouse the product is shipped from. During big holiday sales, the delivery channels are overloaded and there are delays. During the slow times, it's more incompetance.

As far as tracking, stores have been doing that for decades. It's not hard to link a credit card, check, or phone pay to the receipt and process that. Store discount cards are 100% tracking. Some of that is to help with inventory management, tracking what you buy and when you come in so the delivery trucks can have your products on the shelves. The rest of that is just outright spying.

Since you live out in the country, I expect your experience to be different from mine. Deliveries may be delayed and grouped together (often with your neighbors) to help keep those costs down. I would think the store shelves would be stocked if the product is a good seller, but corporate morons often get the idea to do something stupid and essentially "ghost" a product. That irritates me to no end.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I have to shop online because of my health problems and difficulties getting out. I don't particularly care for amazon, but I use them. UPS has destroyed and damaged more packages than I can count, so I'd rather not see them around. They're also too stupid to leave a package beside my door and often leave it where it will get rained on. Since I live in a big metroplex, I see Amazon trucks all the time, and they do most of the delivery around here. Some amazon deliveries are slower than others, but this probably has to do from which warehouse the product is shipped from. During big holiday sales, the delivery channels are overloaded and there are delays. During the slow times, it's more incompetance.

As far as tracking, stores have been doing that for decades. It's not hard to link a credit card, check, or phone pay to the receipt and process that. Store discount cards are 100% tracking. Some of that is to help with inventory management, tracking what you buy and when you come in so the delivery trucks can have your products on the shelves. The rest of that is just outright spying.

Since you live out in the country, I expect your experience to be different from mine. Deliveries may be delayed and grouped together (often with your neighbors) to help keep those costs down. I would think the store shelves would be stocked if the product is a good seller, but corporate morons often get the idea to do something stupid and essentially "ghost" a product. That irritates me to no end.

Yeah, but the variety of products has decreased significantly.

Out here in the country, the post office is overloaded even when it's not a holiday because we ALL order online.
The cost of gas is insane, so we don't go to the store unless we're already going to town.

My son eats Hippeas chips -- great diabetic snack. Nobody sells the individual bags, only the bigger bags, so we have to mail order those. They don't even have all the flavors in the store.

 

[Bones McCoy]

Yeah, but the variety of products has decreased significantly.

Out here in the country, the post office is overloaded even when it's not a holiday because we ALL order online.
The cost of gas is insane, so we don't go to the store unless we're already going to town.

My son eats Hippeas chips -- great diabetic snack. Nobody sells the individual bags, only the bigger bags, so we have to mail order those. They don't even have all the flavors in the store.

So many products are only available online anymore!

Marshmallow Santas even!

 

[Mayhem]

Online FTW is all i can say.....

 

[The_Ruffneck]

I do a lot less online shopping than i did a decade ago.Partly because there's just not much i need but also due to how high shipping is nowdays especially that international shipping.

Anyway now and again i need to go to the health food store to buy a few things, there are hardly any left anymore most of that is online.You're right that a lot of brick and mortar stores have closed and so many of them have been turned into fast food takeaway outlets, there is so many more of these than 25 years ago it's insane.People claim to not have any money but this ubereats food delivery thing is absolutely booming here, it's crazy.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I do a lot less online shopping than i did a decade ago.Partly because there's just not much i need but also due to how high shipping is nowdays especially that international shipping.

Anyway now and again i need to go to the health food store to buy a few things, there are hardly any left anymore most of that is online.You're right that a lot of brick and mortar stores have closed and so many of them have been turned into fast food takeaway outlets, there is so many more of these than 25 years ago it's insane.People claim to not have any money but this ubereats food delivery thing is absolutely booming here, it's crazy.

Nobody will deliver out in the country, so we can't do that. There are just so many times I can't find what I need at a store.

 

[Mayhem]

Think about it ya can't live out in the sticks and have everything thats available in the burbs.

 

[PaulaJedi]

Be careful ordering from Amazon. China is selling things, lying about 2 day shipping. You really have to dig through several pages to find the seller location. Sometimes it says CN (China), and sometimes they lie and say California. It's getting ridiculous.

"Nobody will deliver out in the country"

This was a statement not a complaint. I cook. I don't need fast food. I love my 15 acres of forest.

 

[PaulaJedi]

And the fact that stores in the city don't stock well anymore has nothing to do with my living in the country,