Online Shopping only Can Cost You Money and Fun.

Kingsoopers and Costco

As a home buddy, I am very much accustomed to online shopping. If I ever go out shopping, it will once-a-month Costco shopping, and at most once every other week local grocer–Kingsoopers shopping.  For someone  like me who is accustomed to a wide variety of green vegetables, Kingsoopers really  sucks, and it nearly kills my interests in food, an importance source for pleasure. Costco is good for bulk-buys, and somewhat expected that it cannot fulfill my desire for varieties in food, so it doesn’t disappoint me as Kingsoopers does.

As a result, my grocery shopping now strips down to once-a-month Costco. This leaves lots of time for me to sit  in front of my computer either writing, working on school stuffs or binge-watching youtube. I am chained to a computer. 

After I returned from China early August, I shopped twice at Costco, and twice at Kingsoopers.    My satiation index from food, boosted by my China trip,  now has gong done to the lowest, so low that I feel down, as if there is nothing more to live up to  in life any more.  

To take actions to rectify the situation, I decided to cut the chain to computers temporarily, and drive 15miles up to Boulder for a visit of brick-and-motar stores, Trader Joe’s and Marshalls.    TJ offers much more varieties in food.  In my last visit of  Trader Joe’s (in May),  I bought two heads of fannel roots, the first time in my life.  They smell good and delicious, and indeed makes me a smudge  happier. 

As usual, TJ was packed with people.   Glad to see so many people!   And they all seem enjoying themselves!  How lovely.   Smaller footage, more variety of vegetables, cheeses, lovely flower cuts,  sauces, canned food, tea and coffee, and potted house-plants, I love TJ. It’s once a month treat for myself. If it has a store near me, I would be very happy to forget about Kingsoopers for good.

Marshall’s—Bed Head I paid too much online!

Then, I went to Marshall, potentially to get a pair of name-brand sunglasses. The two pairs I had I left them at my parents’ home.  Eh, perhaps add a tube of correction lotion to brighten up my face; it looks so saggy and wrinkly, even I myself does not live to look at it in the mirror.  I cannot stop from questioning myself.  Since when? I no longer care about my daily presentations to the world? is it a sign that I am old?

The skincare and cosmetics area are chaotic. There are so many products to choose from, too hard to decide. I picked up a box of facial cream—claiming containing Vitamin C and hydrautic acid, formula for youthful look.

In the process, I spotted the bright pinky—Bed head hair product—my hair dresser in China used on my unruly hair. It worked magic, so I bought two bottles online after I returned from China. They costed me close to $40. Here it stands there with loud color, the exact bottle I bought online, it costs only $8 dollars a bottle, less than half of the price I paid! Why I didn’t think of shopping it here at Marshalls?

The lesson is that if you are too lazy to drive out of your comfortable home to shop, you will probably pay more than you should.  Store-only discount prices will not show up on your computer monitors no matter how many hours you have spended in comparison shopping online to get the best price, especially for sundry items like hair products or kitchen utensils or gadgets etc., because these prices will not be collected by the e-commerce department of Marshalls!

Shopping at Brick-and-Mortar Stores, Fun and Money-Saving

If you live in sparsely populated suburban, you barely see people even if you take daily walks in your neighborhood. I grew up in China where you literally run into hundreds of people if not thousands. All it takes is that you step out of your doorsteps.  If I don’t see people , known or strangers, for an extensive amount of time,  I will feel down. For my sake of sanity, if not for saving ten bucks or more,  driving out of my home and browsing stuff in real brick-and-mortar  stores is a must activity. It brightens my moods.   

Knowing this need of seeing people,  I won’t feel time-wasted even if I come home empty-handed. I am somewhat immuned from clothing related stuff at Marshalls because my clothing  at home are much better than those hanging in the racks of Marshalls. I only need to shop in my own closet. 

When Shopping at Brick-and-Mortar Stores no Longer Have Such Positive Effects?

However, if you live in a city center, and  can go into store in a whim, the fun getting out of  shopping in a real store will be much less, or to the contrary, you would like to avoid crowds as much as you can. Then, friends please forget about my above advice.   I used to live in HK where it is known as shopping paradise, as there is a shopping mall at nearly every subway stations.

I did not go to stores at all then despiste I pass two shopping malls on my daily commute. On the contrary, I stayed at home or office to enjoy quietness and peace, or go to mountains to hike on weekends and holidays. The city is very crowded, people mountain and people seas.

Seclusion was something I long for, not the comfort of seeing  living and breathing fellow human beings. 

How delicate our socials needs are. Too much, or too little, both will disturb our emotional calm.