I know that online everything is the way of the world now, but online shopping brings me out in anxiety every time I do it. I suppose I'm stuck in the mindset of when I was a teenager in the mid 90s, able to shop on the high street independently when it was all new and exciting, and real shops had everything, online shopping wasn't a thing yet, and I long for the old way. Here are the specific reasons online shopping makes me anxious:
- What you see isn't always what you get. In a shop you can see the object, touch it, try it on (if it's clothes), know that it exists. Sometimes after months of chasing something up, you're then told it never existed, is discontinued, etc.
- It's there on the screen, but you can't have it immediately. With most things in a shop, when you see it, you can buy it at once. But by the time something is delivered, the desire for it may be gone. (I know this doesn't always apply in shops, when sometimes what you see is only the display model.)
- Delivery. 'Nuff said. MN is full of threads about botched deliveries. Sometimes I opt for "collect from store" because I feel it gives me more control.
- The unpredictability. So many things I have ordered online lately I have had to chase up, sometimes more than once.
- Having to "create an account", for a shop that I may only buy from once - this really boils my piss, and be told that my password is "too weak". Having to create an account makes the connection to the shop feel too permanent for my liking.
- Resulting avalanche of email: confirming purchase, asking for feedback on your shopping experience, confirming despatch (means nothing), asking you to review the product, and trying to sell you more stuff, even though I take care to tick or untick all the boxes.
- Wasteful packaging, sometimes mountains of it for a small item.
- Every time I give card details online, thinking that they may get into the wrong hands.
- The hassle of returning things if they're not right.
I realise that not visiting an actual shop is nothing new - I do remember ordering obscure things from catalogues, filling in an order form, sending a cheque, with the proviso "please allow 28 days for delivery".