What would entice you to buy something online?
What would entice you to buy something/ anything online?
I am usually very skeptical when it comes to buying something online from other sources beside Amazon. The website must be vetted by preferably more than one source and has to be legit but then, it’s very hard to tell what’s legit these days.
Before doing any kind of online shopping, I would usually check the big box stores near me first, to see if they carry whatever it was I’m looking for. If they do, great. Next, time to price check. If I need to buy items in bulk, I will usually go with Amazon since it usually offers a better deal and I would get it delivered to my door.
Of course, then there’s the issue with my mom. I would be subjected to her interrogation when the package arrives. “None of your beeswax!” I wanted to say once but I doubt she would know what that phrase means. When it comes to English colloquialism and slang, my mom doesn’t know most of it. I know that fact because I often have to translate it for her at work – from English to Chinese.
Is online shopping your preferred way to buy things or do you want to buy things in person?
Online shopping is my prefer way to buy things if that “something” is not available in stores. Like garden supplies. Even at the farm supply store near me, the garden supplies I need is fairly limited. For example, trellises and cages, they usually only have those flimsy wiry things they call “tomato cages”. I can barely trellis a pepper in those, let alone a tomato plant. I tried it on a determinate tomato (bush tomato plant), the cage would still be too small.
I don’t usually shop around in a lot of places online to find what I need. I usually just stick to Amazon because I like the familiarity of the site and its return policies. Other sites are tricky because I don’t know whether I can return it if, say, I ordered the wrong size and need to return it.
Like I purchased a humidity dome for my plants last year. It came and I found out it was way too big. To return it, I must pay for the postage, which was crazy. I didn’t have to pay for the postage when I bought it but the postage to return the item was equal to the price of the item, so why bother?
This is Another Story 
Amazon is indeed a good online option. Other stores are not as good as Amazon. Thanks for sharing Yinglan
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I think it depends on the stuff you’re looking for.
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Truly
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Quick and convenient
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Amazon does not vet their sub stores. And, Amazon’s prices aren’t all that great. When we were locked down we started having our groceries delivered by Wal Mart. After four years and a big move we still do. Here’s what we learned, Wal Mart has massive warehouses everywhere. They can literally deliver anything to anywhere at prices below Amazon’s including food which Amazon can’t do. And, you don’t have to fight them to make you whole.
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I think Walmart’s shipping sucks. It’s very unpredictable and never any updates. I tried it a couple of times and had to ask for a refund because the items never got to me.
I never get my groceries delivered just like I never shop for clothes and shoes online. I gotta go pick ’em myself.
There’s an Amazon warehouse near me and another building up north, so I can usually get it in one or two days. I mostly buy garden stuff from Amazon, things I can’t find at Home Depot or Lowes and I can typically find some good prices on those.
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We have never had a problem with WalMart. We get updates by text or email every step of the way. Amazon doesn’t ship a lot of what they sell. We originally started having groceries delivered during the lockdown. Now, we mostly buy staples because we grow our own veggies and fruit. There is a great butcher and bakery in the nearest big town. I buy shoes online, but only from companies that I know.
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Maybe it varies from region to region.
I’m the same now, I mostly just buy things like bread and yogurt and fruit at the grocery store. I grow my own veggies but I’m struggling with fruit since I can’t grow bananas here. So I still have to rely on the store for this.
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I think you’re right. I suppose we could grow cows since our farm was a former dairy farm, but you don’t usually eat those kinds of cows. We do trade out alfalfa, which the dairy farmers cut and bale, for dairy products. We get fresh milk, cheese and yogurt. They trade some of that to an egg farmer which gets us eggs. If one of us is in a baking mood, we only go to the butcher.
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