Shopping: In Store vs Online
What are you doing out here? It's so early and it's freezing! You're in line for a sale? Man, that's rough, Buddy, but there is a much easier way to do this.
In the daily life of a high school student, most find it hard to find time to buy gifts during the holiday season or to just find the perfect present for your best friend's Sweet Sixteen. Between studying for tests and doing tank-loads of homework, shopping is one of the last things on my mind. Even if I made time, where do I go to find the perfect gifts for all my friends and family?
Even though the holiday season is over, the memories of holiday shopping still linger. After this holiday season, I have garnered a few tips to make your next shopping experience way less time consuming.
I have been to sales in the early morning, standing in freezing temperatures to get that brand new book or the awesome new video game. It's terrible. While outside, people slump and lean on each other, waiting for the doors to open, but once you get in the store, it's a whole different story. You can't walk around and leisurely look through the shelves and displays. It's war. You have to try to get in and out as fast as you can. Checkout lines stretch across the store, and you end up waiting hours just to leave with all your goodies.
Last year, when buying a pair of shoes for my mom, an associate asked me if I wanted to have them wrapped. So I said yes, thinking "How long does it take to wrap a box?" I spent the next half an hour waiting for the woman to come back with my mom's present. Every time I asked what was taking so long, the other associates told me that they were looking for extra wrapping paper. If they were out of wrapping paper, why would they offer to wrap gifts? I told them not to worry just to give me the shoes, that I'd wrap them myself and ended up being late for my choir concert.
There are easier ways to find presents for the holidays and special occasions at lower prices. Many stores have websites that offer holiday discounts and though they may not be as extreme as Black Friday prices, it beats waking up before the sun. Online shopping also allows you to find things fast. Search what you're looking for and if it's available, then *boop* it pops up. No parking hassles (I don't drive yet, but just saying), no crowds and no mundane sales people who couldn't care less that you need to find a red sweater for your sister or that your choir conductor is going to gut you for being late.
This is a fool-proof plan that works for me. Start by figuring out what you're looking for. Make a list. A sweater for her, a jacket for him, those books for them, etc. Have a credit card ready. Once you've done that, take a look at the first thing on your list and think. What store would I go to to look for that? More than likely, the store you think of will have an online counterpart. Take Barnes and Noble for example. Say I'm looking for the newest novel by Veronica Roth, author of the "Divergent" series. All I have to do is type in her name and all her works will come up. Way easier then trudging up to the third floor of the store and scouring the shelves for that last copy of "Allegiant." Add the product to your cart. Then move onto your next item and repeat.
Look for online discounts as you're looking through products. Side banners will advertise 25, 50, 75 percent off select items. Click on those, see what they're offering. You never know, you could find something you weren't even looking for.
There are, in my opinion, only two downsides to online shopping is that you have to wait a few days (and maybe a few weeks) for your purchases to arrive. There's no instant gratification. If you need something by a certain date, order it at least a week in advance, just so you have that safety net. The second is that if you don't have a credit or debit card, you can't shop online. But even so, online shopping is super easy and reliable — and you don't even have to get out of your sweat pants.