Shopping Online
A hundred years ago the world was introduced to shopping at home with the invention of the catalogue. After a long day of beating laundry on a river rock and slaughtering dinner, our Great Grandmother`s could thumb through a nice fat book listing every item imaginable to them at their leisure and in the privacy of their own log cabins. Goods were ordered by filling out a form and mailing it off with payment enclosed. Depending upon her financial situation and the frequency of local mail delivery, she could have the latest thing in French corsets or a case of dynamite in as little as 90 to 120 days.
THAT was progress!
Twenty years ago television saw the inception of Home Shopping Networks. After starting the electric dishwasher and tossing a frozen meal into the microwave, our Mothers could lounge on the sofa with a telephone in one hand and a credit card in the other. The sparkling world of cubic zirconia was at, and often on, her fingertips. It filled jewelry boxes and found its way into every gift we received between 1984 and the new millennium.
The internet has introduced us to yet another method of gathering stuff. I`m not talking about your everyday run-of-the-mill shopping website. I order my gourmet coffee and vitamins that way for sheer convenience. The vendor has a full stock. I type in my Visa or MasterCard number and the product is shipped to my front door. There`s no trick to it; no skill required. I`m talking about the new and exciting way to shop online; the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of the €śkill.€ť EBay, and other online auctions, have brought a new event into our homes and offices.
Whether you`re looking for a vintage PEZ dispenser, which incidentally is the reason EBay was started in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, or trying to sell your velvet Elvis, you will find a market on the information super highway. The best part about these auction sites, aside from the fact that they attract people who actually want your Abba 8-tracks or a used casket pillows (a true listed item), is the level of excitement they offer. Bidding on items you may or may not get is a form of gambling. Where there`s gambling, there`s usually a system to beat the odds. You no longer have to stay glued to the computer and watch the status of your bids
Comments