That shopping (online or not) is such hard work these days

[wanderings]

Once upon a time, if you needed something, you went to the shop, you handed over your money, you got the goods, you stored your receipt: job done. Nowadays, whether online or on the high street, it's all so damn complicated, the amount of stuff you're expected to do before and after is endless, even if you're not doing it online:

1. Sort out vouchers and discount codes.
2. In supermarkets especially, you often end up buying more than you intended because of discounts; you feel ripped off if you don't.
3. The till worker tries to sell you more stuff: sweets, loyalty card, extended guarantees and so on. I know it's in their script, but it's annoying.
4. You have to hand over lots of personal details.
5. When you get home, you're sometimes expected to register your purchase (especially for electrical items).
6. You're then expected to review your purchase, and your "customer experience".
7. For a while, you're then clicking "unsubscribe" because of all the emails coming in, no matter how carefully you ticked the boxes saying you don't want to receive them.
8. If it's online, you often have to create an account - my heart sinks every time I have to do this, and create a password. I find online shopping stressful because of this alone.

All these "duties" actually make me hesitate to buy things. I know that they're not all compulsory; more fool whoever is not savvy with vouchers, and I know that refusing to hand over personal details has been discussed at length.

Also buying car insurance, and choosing an energy supplier. It enrages me that as the paying customer, I have to do all the extra work: comparing prices, looking up details of car accidents which weren't my fault but still cost me, telling my existing insurer that when I put my details in online, it came out cheaper than their renewal quote, etc. Also that when you use a price comparison website, the prices they give you look much less than they really are, because they don't include legal cover, etc.

Was shopping always like this, with or without being able to do it online?

No it was much worse. Honestly, we don't know we're born when it comes to shopping in 2019

I was a child of the 70s and shopping took all bloody day. You had to queue outside so many shops just to get a few days shopping, because most people didn't have freezers (just a tiny ice box at the top of the fridge) and even if the family had a car, the man would normally have taken it to work.

Just a few days shopping involved...

Queuing outside the butchers for meat
Queuing outside the greengrocers for fruit and veg
Queuing outside the Post Office for stamps
Queuing outside the bank to pay a bill
Queuing outside the hardware store to buy light bulbs or anything else needed for general household maintenance
Queuing outside the bakers for bread

The list was endless and it's one of the few things I hated about my childhood, so I can't get fussed about having to log on to a website now and then and I've never expected a company to tell me I can get something cheaper elsewhere

Give me online shopping over shopping in person any day.

Of course if you want to find the best and cheapest deals on your insurance you have to look around at different companies online - that’s no different to someone wanting the cheapest grocery products 50 years ago and having to try different shops to find the cheapest. It’s never been a case that all items are one price or that all shops will give you the cheapest deal.

If you want to find discounts and coupons and sign up to reward cards to get a cheap price that’s your choice, but it’s hardly a compulsory part of high street or supermarket shopping. It’s only if I’ve made a big purchase such as a TV or bike that I’ve ever had to give an email address to get a receipt/ guarantee, which to be honest is much easier than being given a paper receipt which can easily be misplaced. Now you can use the self-service machines at a lot of stores you don’t even have to engage with a checkout person if you don’t want to.

that’s no different to someone wanting the cheapest grocery products 50 years ago and having to try different shops to find the cheapest. It’s never been a case that all items are one price or that all shops will give you the cheapest deal.

Exactly and it used to take a lot of leg work or telephone work. Even telephoning was a pain in the arse because the old dial up phones used to take ages to dial the number and then you just got an engaged tone...not even a recorded message placing you in a queue.

And you always had to register large appliances but you had to fill in the card and walk to the postbox to post it.

I sound like such an old woman but I swear I'm only 50

I wouldn't describe shopping as that hard work tbh! I had to take my children into town yesterday, one needed new trainers, one needed a new coat, both needed new wellies and waterproof trousers and one had birthday money to spend on herself! We were done inside an hour and then went to Morrisons for some food, took all of 20 minutes. The only personal information I was asked for at any point was an e-mail address for a receipt, which I could have said no to if I'd wanted. I haven't bothered with giving any reviews for anything.

The only time I find shopping hard work is when I have the kids with me or when the supermarket is very busy.

Oh God, yes, I'd take using comparethemarket.com anyday over ringing endless call centres and having to give all the details over the phone to buy car insurance.

I never review anything, never register any purchase and rarely buy anything extra at the till or give any person details like email address.

One big advantage of doing grocery shopping in somewhere like Aldi, is that you know you're getting a good price without having to chase BOGOFs etc.

Why are people registering purchases? They only want you to do that so they can flog you the overpriced guarantee and I never buy those so don't bother registering.

I hate to say it but I have to agree with the OP, I find shopping much harder nowadays! In 1980's it was simple, 'on line', didn't exist for the vast majority, so shopping was all about shops. In those days my budget was VERY tight, so meat was purchased at the market, as were fruit and veg, twice weekly, almost a social event with stall holders and customers alike chatting, and then everything piled under and in to the pram. Milk was delivered by the milkman to my doorstep, I picked up bread from the bakers, and tins etc. from the local Co op (pram left outside with baby).

All our food was paid for in cash, carefully counted out, and everything cooked from scratch.

Now, I can spend 2 hrs at home ordering everything on line, or I traipse around a huge supermarket and spend twice as much as I had planned, with my brain being assaulted by all the choices. I then go home and realise that the things on my list aren't in the bags!

I agree with you OP!! The 3 for 2 offers do my head in. Just make everything cheaper and let me buy what I want! Also you feel obliged nowadays to check for discount codes before buying . I shop a lot less online than I did 4 or 5 years ago. Too much hassle!

Also booking a holiday or flight is ridiculously complicated. I might go back to the travel agents instead.

Yesterday I broke my headphones while walking my dogs in the morning. Before I got home, I'd ordered a new pair. By the end of my working day, a shiny new pair had been delivered to my office ready for the afternoon walk.

WE LIVE IN A GOLDEN AGE.

I don't find it difficult at all. It's easy for me to just go online, search what I'm after, and order it. Takes 5 minutes max. I love the fact that I can order something and it's delivered in less than 24h.

I’m not sure where you are shopping but this is not my experience at all. I rarely have vouchers/discounts so that’s not an issue, I’ve never had to ‘hand personal details’ over and if they ask for my email address (unless it’s to send an e-receipt) I decline. Some stores ask for it purely to send marketing emails so yeah, I just simply say no. I generally ignore the emails for customer feedback, no big deal.

Not sure why you find it all such a hassle. I do get the point about buying more than you actually went in for though but that’s mostly down to self control. Also hate being sold things at the till, not the staff’s fault obviously but I agree it’s annoying.

Online shopping is ridiculously easy, not sure how or why anyone finds that difficult. You just tap a few buttons and it’s done. You don’t need to register for an account with most stores either, you just hit guest checkout...

Literally did all my Christmas shopping on the weekend sat on the sofa on my phone. YABU, it's ridiculously easy to shop these days. I also do all my grocery shopping on the sofa, life has never been so easy in this regard.

@Keletubbie I agree!

I can order almost anything I want, without going out, on my phone. It'll then be delivered to me for free or a small fee. I can also ask for it to be left in a safe place so I don't have to sit in waiting for it.

Ditto online shopping. I have a list of things I buy every time then add to that as needed. The nice driver brings it all into my kitchen for me where I can put it away at my own convenience.

Bloody brilliant.

I actually like the choice of things from online. I remember as a child in the 70s wanting to buy an item of clothing, so you had to go to the local high road with it's limited choice of shop or suburban department store. Then , if there was anything I liked, quite often they wouldn't have it in my size and it would take a week to order the correct size/colour etc etc. And the sheer range of styles available was also limited. I suppose we could have gone into town to buy things, but that seemed such a daring, outlandish thing to do as far as my parents were concerned, that we never did.

I find shopping in aldi or lidl much easier than the big supermarkets because there's only 1 or 2 choices and no BOGOFs to complicate things. Other than that I think you're being a bit ridiculous. Just say no thanks to buying extras, use your email automatic folders to filter all the marketing emails and no need to register electrical items. I don't think it's that difficult really. When I first learned to drive in the late 90s I would set aside a whole morning to phone 10+ car insurance companies for quotes. Same for home insurance. Nowadays I can do it in less than 15 minutes from the comfort of my sofa.

I totally agree op. I’m disabled and chronically ill. It would be so much easier for me if we could go back to the good old days, where I’d be too ill to get food and if I didn’t have a car would literally starve.

First world problems ffs. If you don’t have time for that, use your fully functioning legs and arms to shop in a world, where the sky’s the limit and there is bounty from the four corners of the earth and forget the discounts.

I remember waiting round in loads of electrical shops while my parents shopped around for white goods - went away thought and worried about it tried other shops.

We also had to go food shopping at supermarkets with them - weekends or evenings.

That was 80s.

I think in contrast our kids are in shops much less frequently - so TBH is much easier for everyone.

Also booking a holiday or flight is ridiculously complicated. I might go back to the travel agents instead.

I suppose that's the nice thing at the moment which may go in future - people who want to do it all on-line can and people like IL who want to go to a travel agents up the highstreet still can.

I'm not that old - early 30's and even I remember things being harder, calling round all the insurers for quotes on my first years car insurance.
Getting annoyed that you've just bought something in boots to find Superdrug had it 1/3 off. You can easily check that online now before you go.
You can click and collect or reserve things or find out where they're are in stock at the click of a button.
Oh my god and going to the post office with your mot etc to get your tax disc on a Saturday morning as it was closed by the time you finished work in the week. Same as anything at the bank.

Thanks for your replies so far, keep them coming! Maybe I'm comparing today with the late 90s, when I went to university and started doing my own shopping, and first being aware of all this. Online shopping was more in its infancy then, and I just remember it seeming simpler. Passwords and security checks were simpler. Yes, I know, the more comprehensive checks now are for our own benefit. I also remember first sorting my own car insurance back then too: the phone call seemed a lot shorter than it does now, and the online forms seemed simpler too.

I suppose one thing I'm really ranting about is the being made to co-operate with the harvesting of your information. I know that's nothing new, but nowadays there so many more ways it can be done, and the evidence is in front of me with the targeted ads on the computer screen right now, for everything I dared to browse; also having to give the shopping headspace after you've done it, with the reviews, and marketing emails.

Speaking of browsing, I find it difficult to browse stuff online, especially clothes. It's not the same as seeing it and feeling it, and trying it on. But I know that online you have more choice: many retailers are now online only, and quite often in an actual shop your size might not be in stock. (The same can happen online, but it's then easy to check another shop for the same item.)

Certainly things are easier now than in the 1970s: that was before my time, but I am aware that part of the shopping routine was going into the bank to get money, and writing a cheque for it; alternatively using a cheque book and card (writing the number on the back of the cheque) at the till. I worked in a newsagents in the late 90s, where this routine was still necessary, as the shop did not take cards. I do also remember when you had to order things from catalogues, filling in those complicated forms, and "please allow 28 days for delivery".

And the wasteful bulky packaging which always seems to accompany online purchases: buying in shops less so.

Shopping online is as complicated as you make it. No one forces you to do most of those things you describe OP so just don't do them. I think it's great that we get the choice. I shop online every other week then top up at Aldi or Lidls on the alternate week hence get the best of both worlds.

Adopting one single word will make it all so much easier: 'No'. Although I prefer to be polite and say 'no thank you'.

Collecting vouchers and discounts: 'no'. (My time has a value which I judge to be higher than potential savings which generally turn out to be disappointing once all the conditions have been fulfilled.)

Buying something I don't want: 'no'. (I take a list and stick to it. Items I don't want have no value to me.)

Attempted sales at the till: 'no, thank you'. Or use the self-service.

Handing over personal details: 'no'.

Register electrical items. Usually 'no'. Just occasionally I consider it worth my while.

Review my purchase and experience. 'No'. Or, rather, I just don't.

Getting unwanted emails and 'unsubscribing'. I don't because I haven't given anyone my email address unless I want to hear from them.

Registering to buy online. I factor that into the cost of the purchase and weigh up whether the deal I can get that way is better overall than using a physical shop or Amazon, with whom I already have an account. Or not buying the item at all.

Comparing prices? That's a choice. You can stick with one supplier and possibly pay extra money, or change and pay with time and effort. Or mix and match.

Some three for two offers are dodgy online (see Superdrug or Amazon.) If I want to buy loads of the things on offer I have to do several separate orders, which can be a bit annoying. Apart from that, I don't mind much. I like things on offer, scour the reduced sections for things I know I'll like that are expensive, and do a lot of online shopping (though am trying to avoid Amazon as much as possible these days.)