to hate the very idea of online shopping and absolutely refuse to participate?

[GodzillasBumcheek]

For one - i haven't got a credit card (by choice - can't spend money i don't have), and even if i did, how secure are 'secure' pages, really?

For two - how can i try shoes on over an ethernet cable? how can i feel the fabric of a scarf (obv so i know if i'm going to find it itchy, not because i'm some sort of Cloth-Snob).

For three - if you end up with damaged or unsuitable goods how much more awkward is it to send them back? (That's a genuine question - i really don't know!)

And finally - when you get grocery shopping online how irritating is it when you end up with a box of eighteen petits filous which go off tomorrow?

Come on - is it really that great?

YANBU - but you are missing a whole world of shopping enjoyment.

Not food shopping, doing that on-line irritates the shite out of me although that might change when my PFB arrives but....

Internet shopping rocks, get yourself a credit card with an 0% offer on purchases for a year (you can apply on-line ) and fill your boots.

Amazon is a life saver for forgotten birthdays - I've got prime membership so get next day delivery free. I buy shoes from Amazon!

There are loads of small specialist companies that are thriving on the internet & you can get far more variety than on the high street. In fairness Oxford Street is my nearest shopping centre which might sound fabulous but I just can't stand the crowds any more - I'm becoming very middle aged.

Oh, the boxes of pointlessly expensive baby things I've bought (whilst I still have an income), I love our postman and I think he loves me. There was a thread a while back where Mum's of boys were recommending funky websites - all the links are stored in my favourites for future use.

I still prefer a RL bookshop for proper book shopping enjoyment though.

My lovely new Stokke high chair has JUST been delivered - ordered on-line 24 hours ago!

Do you mean you don't have a debit card either because they are accepted everywhere I've ever shopped online. If you don't have a debit card just ordinary shopping must be awkward in any case.

As others have said you get to know what will fit and what needs to be tried on in the shop.

Returning can be even easier than posting sometimes they arrange someone to collect if you phone up.

Some shops will mark on the receipt which items are shortdated and you have the choice not to accept them.

I buy a lot on the internet and recently have done a weekly food shop as we are determined to stay in budget and we can't be trusted in the shop. We write out our meal plan for the week, check what we haven't got, set up a delivery date and add to it during the week if we run out of anything.

I've been doing this 2 weeks and it has already saved us about £30 (like I say I can't be trusted!). All the available offers are grouped together so you can choose the ones you want - sometimes in store I miss them or there are empty shelves. It also means you don't waste so much food as it is all earmarked for a particular meal and you don't have to think too hard about what to have for dinner as it is all planned. You do have to pay a delivery charge but compared to what we save it is minimal.

I consider internet shopping to be one of the great inventions of the 20th century. Internet shopping and email are probably, for me, the two technologies I most appreciate every single day.

I love shopping and enjoy going into town. But, as I have very little time, I now buy almost all essentials online which gives me more time to enjoy the experience of shopping when I do go (eg I had a lovely day buying handbags and necklaces last week).

Online I buy regularly:

• Food and household groceries
• Books, dvds, cds (I am addicted to Amazon)
• Basic work clothes from stores like M&S - including the 400 vests, black t-shirts, white tops etc that seem to be the core of my wardrobe
• Shoes (not always but have had great success, even buying my wedding shoes online)
• Cosmetics

I also increasingly do my gift shopping online, having things delivered either directly to the recipients or to me which I find extremely convenient.

Oh, and all travel plans are made online. I haven't called an airline or a travel agent in years!

So, YABU to not even try it.

Well, I have just this second done my Ocado shop which is coming this evening and it took 20 minutes for me to choose everything.

I bought 98 items - I can't even imagine how long it would take me to drive to the supermarket, put it in trolley, unload trolley on conveyor belt, pack back into trolley, pack into car, drive home, unpack.

Probably 3 wasted hours.

I love Amazon and am always ordering little parcels for myself to be delivered at work.

I have never done my food shopping online and really can't see the appeal.

I much prefer to go in and look at what I'm buying, esp fruit and veg. I also hate doing a big weekly shop as invariably things go off or go to waste. I prefer to go to do a quick buzz round the supermarket after work and just pick up a couple of things at a time.

I love ordering veg boxes which just arrive and you are not sure what's in them, but it lasts the week.
And the milkman is a great solution to milk eggs, yoghurt.
I love ordering books over phone.

But some grocery shopping needs to be a physical act Kids like physical shopping too. Otherwise we would all be blobs sitting in front of our computers.

When you are tired of walking round the shops you know you have spent enough money!

YANBU all the time.

I order everything I order on phone btw can't crack online.

online shopping is bloody marvellous, I haven't been near a supermarket in ages and wouldn't mind if I never set foot in one ever again quite frankly

I had a moment the other day when I realised I hadn?t been into a shop in two weeks. I buy everything on line, have most non-food stuff delivered to the office so there?s always someone there to collect it (am sure my colleagues think I?m a shopping addict) and relish not having to trail round shops. But then I started to worry the dcs were missing out on an important part of life, so bundled them up and got on the bus. On the way, dd announced she needed a wee, and couldn?t wait, so we got off, did a wee in the loo in the park, and waited for the next bus. Which was full. So we waited 20 minutes for the next one. As we got off the bus, dd fell over and grazed her knee, so we had to find a chemist for Savlon and plasters. Then ds pulled over a display of suncream. They both moaned and complained all the way round the market. Then ds was spectacularly sick all down himself, and dd needed another wee but Mothercare (where I?d gone to buy ds a clean t-shirt) wouldn?t let us use their loo. We?re not doing that again.

I like both online AND proper shopping.

I find I spend less on an online grocery shop with Ocado than I would if I went in person to Tesco. I've never had a bad experience/silly subsitution yet.

I often go and look round the shops at, say, some shoes, try them on for size and fit. Then go and look them up the Internet and buy them £10 cheaper from another online shop. Or i use a promotional code and get dosh off or something

Haven't needed to do many returns. Those I have done have been easy and free.

You can't beat a good old fashioned shopping spree in town. But t'interweb thingy is growing on me.

mysupermarket.com - you do your shop with one of the supermarkets on there, and they show you a comparable shop at all four of the big ones. You can then choose whichever is the cheapest. Am totally addicted.

Re: Window shopping.

DS sits on my lap (or DH's) and we cruise around Amazon/online toy shops. He is into lego at the moment, so you type lego into the search engine and off it goes. Dragons/dinosaurs are currently ruling our world so same thing. Obviously we don't buy everything (or even that much) that we see, but there is some very cool stuff around.

I have just had a terrarium with carnivorous plant seedlings delivered for his birthday, found by "window" shopping, the internets.

i love internet shopping for things - books, DVDs etc. as i dont get harassed and a constant ´mummy i want one of those, and those and those´in my ears from one of the kids in tow after they´ve eaten all their snacks and are by now, very bored. havent tried food shopping yet as i do like to pick and choose stuff but wouldnt rule it out.

Bit late to this but 'is it really that great'? Yes. It is.

I don't much enjoy shopping and even less so with children in tow. I don't buy clothes that often as I am v tall and can rarely get anything long enough. But then if I find a site I know is good I will keep going back - unless you live somewhere with plenty of shops (I don't) you can be just as stuck to find suitable clothing in RL.

Books, music, toys, food. All the time. Presents - almost all of them online. Couldn't cope without it.

Love it, it's not proper money when you only have to click a wee button.....

Am in ass end of southern Italy and would not have survived without Amazon (and latterly bookdepository free postage!) or Britishcornershop.co.uk for bonkers things that ex-pats need (Salt and vinegar crisps and after 8 mints etc)

Do all my Christmas shopping online from here, taking advantage of 20% days without having to see nasty yucky people, BOGOFs, 30% ers, those Littlewoods thingies where you get 3 x2 and half price if you spend over £60 etc etc....then when I get back to the UK I don't have to plough round the shops, I can sit with my mulled wine and scented candle and mock......

Online shopping is brill if your pregnant.
I just getting too tired to run around shops, also i have just discovered this dress

www.asos.com/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=UATAC612648

I'm going to wear it to my friends wedding!

And i wouldn't have got that on the hightst
becuase ASOS are online store only. WAY HAY!!

Love it, love, it, love it! Echo williow0703 above that it;s great when you're preggers. And when you have three dcs, which I now do as of April, dragging three around the shops isn't really an option. Also, you can often get discount codes online - www.moneysavingexpert.com/forum - and of course you have the time to browse and shop around more.

I don't often buy clothes online, but if I do it's usually from shops I know have clothes that fit me.

One of the best inventions of this century....IMO!

Yes i do like online shopping too.
I have 3 kids 3 and under !! bringing them all shopping is a nightmare really. Everyone stares cause there so young for a start. If they kick up i get lots and lots of attention! Stress stress stress
So my only options are evening shopping which i do now and again or online where i can do it from the comfort of my home where all 3 kids are happy.
If i didnt have kids i would not do so much shopping online but there are certain things i would get online.
So yes online shopping is a godsend in my house.............

YANBU to not want to online shop, if you actively enjoy going into shops.

Personally I love it! Actually hugely empowering in that you have more time for more enjoyable things (I don't particularly enjoy dragging myself around shops).
Ocado is totally fabulous.
I balance it out with 'real' shopping at greengrocers, markets, florists etc. Can't stand shopping centres or 'real' supermarkets, they bore me to tears.

It has saved my SANITY and us money.we are currently using Asda and if they replace an item at a more expensive price you only pay the cheaper price!

Can understand concerns about CCs (and LOL at being a bit trollifying too) but there are pretty good safeguards in the security area, and flexibility too (insofar as PayPal can be used on many sites, which debits your bank account after setup)...

WorldPay and FuturePay can be used on some sites so allowing payment with Debit cards, not CCs....

FuturePay is for regular subscriptions, and either party can cancel, not like a Direct Debit where the company has to stop it from taking money from your account.

Pretty sure there's one company that can issue "once only" numbers, so once that specific number has been used, it won't work again for your name and address. Now that means you can be 100% no fraudster will be able to use it, once you've bought your goods online. Cahoot from memory (though I currently have no CCs - I use debit card and PayPal).

I live alone, so tend not to buy food (but at least one elder sister has done so, for some time, and it means the delivery guy brings the items up the steps to her front door, so less strain on her, when she had had a long day as school head!)

I have bought (or reserved, at local Argos) all sorts of IT and mobile phone gizmos. Really like to compare a few before buying, and generally easier than walking around 3 shops only to need to go back to the first as the other two were "out of stock" (that I really hate, when I've set my mind to get something in particular).

Just today an optical USB mouse arrived, cost me 210p (via Ebay), and it looks like postage from China was about 150p... Loved the fact it has "For Hove or Office use" (as one sister lives in Hove!)

So back to the question - I can quite understand some being worried, or wanting to shop (I love the odd visit to a big shopping centre, like Meadowhall, but as I don't drive and it's 100 miles away, it's that bit more of a treat, esp if it's a "Christmas shopping special" and I'm on a coach with only one other male on board, and he's busy driving!)

Ok, Morloth (lol...i feel like i am picking on you or something, but your comment warranted an individual response so tough luck), i can't window shop online with one DD while the other two are interrupting and trying to climb on us!

The supermarket trip has been a thing we've done (taking turns which twin goes with me) since they were about 3 and we realised they hardly got any time alone with me or DH...and i really enjoy it, so it's not stopping any time soon.

However i can obviously see why other people would do a supermarket shop online if they found traipsing around stressful.

You are all (probably) right about the other things though...i haven't been able to look at books in a shop properly since DD3 arrived. And the craft shops around here just don't have enough of what i want. I may have to crack out the debit card then.

Fizzpops - i don't understand. Why would normal shopping would be awkward without a debit card?

LOL "normal" shopping as opposed to abnormal freaky shopping....