Fancy store windows have always enamored me and my favorite outings always involve shopping. Just walking into a nice store of typically the latest trends in clothes gives me an adrenaline rush. The consumerist and materialistic world of shopping has been there for me in good times and bad. Although, nothing can take away from the actual physical experience of shopping, in recent years many people have completely switched gears and prefer online shopping.
Initially, I like many others was very reluctant to give into this trap, thinking it was risky to even give my credit card details to a cyber-store. Aside from this risk many of us want the full physical experience of a product before purchasing it and so prefer shopping in the conventional malls and stores. However, online shopping has evolved to the degree that it allows one to obtain a close to real experience before confirming a purchase. My friend recently told me she bought prescription glasses online and I was confused as to how she was so sure about the glasses she wanted without trying them on. I then learnt that the particular website she bought the glasses on took a picture of her face from three different angles and then produced an online photo shopped image of her wearing the glasses she wanted. This advanced technology gave her the chance to actually see what she would look like in the selected pair of glasses. It baffles me to the extent people rely on online shopping, from books, clothes, electronics, to basically anything and everything, we can have it all at our doorstep without even leaving our living rooms. Online shopping is convenient, quick and easy and has got most of us making countless purchases at the click of a button. If the following signs are true for you then you too have fallen prey to this gripping world of consumerism and online shopping:
1. When it’s real you just know…
The moment you open your web browser there is at least one tab with a full shopping cart luring you and waiting for you to hit "check out." Chances are you've kept that tab open for days on end wondering and debating whether you “really need it.” Well, if you have to think so hard you really don't need it!
2. DEALS, DEALS, DEALS.
Your day is incomplete without your regular habit of cycling through online retailers to see what’s new and what’s on sale. You've bookmarked links to your favorite stores and websites, and with reason, since promotions and new item announcements can change in the blink of an eye.
3. SALE SEASON IS MY FAVORITE SEASON!
You know your addiction is real because you get more promotional emails than real emails and your heart skips a beat when you get an email from a store announcing a sale. This email can even completely change the way your day was heading including automatically making you jump with joy.
4. Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough.
You secretly online shop at work, in class, a boring social gathering, in the waiting room and basically whenever you find the chance. The shopping spree gets even worse when all the sponsored ads are just different online stores you shop at.
5. Everybody knows ME.
You get packages in the mail that you forgot you even ordered and of course you are on a first name basis with the post office workers because you know exactly which stores have free returns and shipping!
6. Do you want to build a cardboard fort? Come on, let's go and play!
Your recycling bin is perpetually overflowing with large cardboard boxes which you use for storing stuff over breaks and have in unending numbers to lend to all your friends during move out week.
7. But I have just one more to go (tbh even you know that's a lie).
You have some gazillion different mobile apps to help you spend more money and give you the promo code you need to buy that last pending purchase on your cart.
8. It’s just me myself and I.
Your addiction is so real that you get anxious when you think of shopping in actual stores, with real people and the social necessity of making meaningless small talk with the staff in the shop.
9. But I wanted you when no one did …
Your anger levels are through the roof when the item you want is “sold out.” You are then in denial and are positive that this can't be happening to you. I mean why can’t online stores have never ending stock in every size and color, right? #tantrums
10. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days.
You’ve accidentally bought the same thing twice, but let's face it, even the best of us slip up when shopping on 10 different sites at the same time.
11. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.
You finally end up buying that dress in that open tab because, let's face it, you absolutely, most definitely, really do need it.
