If you are anything like me, which you hopefully are not because I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, then you really enjoy spending way too much money doing some online shopping. Whether you get your fix via Amazon, Kijiji, or the given obscure site of your choice, you probably have a number of concerns or Fears during the online shopping process. For example, you might worry that you won’t be able to find the item you are looking for because you completely forget it was your mother’s birthday. More complicated than that, you might find that item only to discover that there are numerous sellers that you can choose to purchase from. To add even more complexity to the situation, you may learn that there are multiple websites that offer the same product for different price points or offer deals or rewards. Online shopping is possibly the most nerve-wracking experience known to man. Or it’s really simplistic and I just always seem to find the negative in everything.
One-Click Away From a Fear of Online Shopping
Having a Fear of Online Shopping is tough. Your plan was simple: Log on to the computer, go to a website and click “add to cart” when you find the replacement cover for your phone. Suddenly you are overwhelmed by pictures and flashing lights that don’t interest you, yet you can’t look away. You had only the most noble of intentions. You just wanted to pay $15 of fake, internet money and carry on with your life. But as fate would have it, buying online is never that easy. If you can manage to navigate your way through the gauntlet of pop-up ads of girls in your area that want to meet you, you just might find yourself surrounded by dozens of items that you really have no use for. Do you really need a third toaster? Probably not. But think of the savings! Do you have any use for a pair of waterproof binoculars? Yes, but now is not the right time for that impending straining order.
For the sake of argument, let’s pretend you have found the single, practical item that you had originally sought out to purchase. You’ve made it all the way to the “checkout”. Now here comes the interesting part. All you have to do is submit your choice because your credit card and shipping information is already saved from the last time you bought something. A terrifying thought, but we’ll just ignore that for now because I want to focus on the really scary part of the whole process. When you make the purchase, you don’t physically lose any money. You won’t even notice any money is missing until you get your credit card bill in the mail three weeks later. That’s when you realize you spent over $600. On what? Well, you purchased 9 copies of The Blue Man Group’s Greatest Hits. Then you elected to buy a pair of ironic headphones. After that you went on a tube socks binge. That’s when things got weird…You bought some pre-owned lipstick (because saying “used” would be gross), an autographed pair of roller skates from no one famous, and an extremely large aquarium for the pets you don’t actually have. Plus you can do all of this from your phone.
Fear of Online Shopping From the Comfort of Your Home
Online Shopping may or may not be the devil. When you consider how easy it is to lose money on frivolous things like Things I Fear books or subscriptions to services you don’t realize you need until you’ve seen their offers, online shopping can be dangerous. Bankruptcy is no joke but at least you can save big on cardboard boxes to make a new home with when you buy 5 or more. With features like “save my credit card information” readily available on most websites, you barely have to do anything more than click a button to have any item show up at your front door with next-day delivery so it doesn’t really seem like you’ve spent anything at all. Ah the price we pay for convenience. Also you should go buy one of the Things I Fear books.
