Don't Shop at the Beach and Get Free Shipping!

Lady#1: Oh, I just loved our stay at Myrtle Beach.

Lady#2: It was great! I just wished we had more time.

Lady#1: I know. You need more than five days to shop at all these great outlet stores.

It was at that time I had to interrupt: "Did you all get a chance to spend anytime at the beach?"

Lady#1: Oh no Dearie, we didn't come here to have fun. We just came to shop.

Me: Did you get a chance to enjoy any of the shows?

Lady#2: We didn't have time to do anything else but shop.

Joyce and I walked to our car without saying anything. Joyce was the first to break the silence. "If I ever get so old where my biggest thrill is just to shop, just shoot me."

At first I was offended by this comment since I have such a passion for shopping. But then when I put it into the context I had to agree. I'm not saying that we didn't go shopping while we were at the beach because we did. And that brings me to the saddest point of all. It wasn't just the fact that these ladies missed out on the beauty of God's creation and the tranquility that the ocean brings by spending all their time locked in shopping mode. I'm saying that they wasted valuable shopping time at the "outlet shops" where the prices where probably higher than many 25% off sales. (For the short hour that we spent browsing the mall (during a rainy moment in our day), I could not find one legitimate bargain.)

So for the next 5 hours on our ride home, Joyce and I discussed the time consumption of shopping. And our final conclusion was that people could have a greater shopping experience if they could overcome two barriers to shopping on the Internet.

We agreed that the greatest disadvantage of shopping on the Internet is the shipping cost. I know that when I won my CD player at the online auction at uBid, I saved $125 off of the retail price. But I have seen it on sale for only about $75 more than what I spent on it. Yet when you add the shipping cost, it brought my savings down to $35. Which of course is still a good savings. Even if the price is a little less on the Internet than at the local mall, I can't help but cringe when it comes to having to pay those high shipping charges. It is easy for me to forget about how much time I saved by shopping on the Internet and the gas that it would have cost me to search from store to store for that elusive bargain.

Go To Page: 1 2 3