You just left it too late to buy from them as you said.

On top of that many people have absolutely atrocious experience in meatspace shops and prefer the experience and convince of online shopping.

But if it's questionable that I'll actually get what I ordered, that pretty much all goes out the window.

So I paid for Express delivery to assure it will get to the recipient on time. Some of us small business folks (I'm on etsy) will go out of our way to make sure you are well taken care of.

brick and mortar stores to shop in. But you've obviously forgotten how you do it there: When you can't find one thing, you sigh and choose something that IS in stock. Like the good old days.

I have my own story, about 15 minutes old. I was thrilled to find just the right linens and such for my daughter's almost-finished kitchen at a craft fair and just learned that she's changed her mind totally about bringing color into her beautiful new white and gray happy place. Even the island's now gray instead of blackish-brown like the floors.

So I'll keep the rather exquisitely designed and sewn Japanese-pattern black, red, and gold hot pads, etc. (since they'll go SO well with my own white, orange, yellow and blue), relax in my armchair, get on Amazon, and send her this.

?w=300&h=225

So gorgeous a book inside and out that I wish I could fondle it before sending. It's color coordinated to her kitchen so she can accessorize the marble with it, and so classy and artistic that that cover doesn't even wrap around the binding side. (That's why it looks weird -- it's supposed to be that way.) And since she really does enjoy and do a lot of cooking, the recipes are reportedly good too.

This, and living 20+ miles from the nearest mall, is why I love on-line shopping. A nice gift our temporarily possessed daughter will like within our tight budget this year, decided on after the last minute while I sip a glass of wine. It'll be there on the 24th without paying for faster shipping, but if it's not that's her fault.

Happy holidays to you and yours. BTW, how nice that you really care that your mom's book arrives on time. That's sweet.

Hopefully it will arrive by Thursday. But it's still annoying.

I understand the place and need for online shopping and I don't refuse to use it, but it just frustrates me to no end at times.

Locally, we choose, purchase, wrap, give. "If you want it done right do it yourself" isn't possible with on-line shopping.

If it was no one would use it

the one time I had something delivered to the wrong place - wrong state - by Amazon, I called and they over-nighted a new one. So at least try that.

Good luck.

gifts meant for the other cop's 2-year-old daughter. When she discovered the boxes didn't contain anything she wanted, she returned them, opened, to the other family's porch. It is all on videotape:




http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2015/12/8/stolen_packages_wife.html

"Sheriff: Video shows cop's wife stealing packages, gifts from neighbor"

I so SO hate shopping in B&M stores. Can't STAND it.

On the other hand, I love Amazon despite its shortcomings (such as their labor practices which have been discussed here on DU in the past). If I could buy Costco stuff online that I can buy in the store, I'd never darken their doorstep, but since you can't get the same stuff or deals online, I'll continue to hit their retail locations.

I love online shopping and I am lucky because I live in a managed building so we have a concierge who receives our packages for us and logs them in. It's so convenient. I kind of have a problem w/ Amazon, but Amazon prime is so convenient since Boston is kind of a PITA to navigate when you just want basic items at a discount.

New York was a lot easier in that way, but here you have to run all over the city just for the basics.

Down the block, around the corner, whatever. Even in the Midtown business district, you've got several Jack's, various 99 cent stores, and so forth. Though with the explosion of real estate values, those discount options are becoming a bit harder to find.

street vendors. I could usually knock out all my errands within 10 blocks or so. Here in Boston I need to go in one direction for one thing and in an entire another direction for another. There just isn't the variety or the ubiquitiousness of services here. In NYC there was a drugstore/dry cleaner/bodega/nail salon/hardware store/etc. practically every 5-10 blocks. It was so much easier!

I hate shopping, especially around this time.

The parking, everyone in a bad mood, the traffic, the merchandise tossed around and disorganized, everything you might want sold out or misplaced.

Ugh! No thanks!!

Even if I get up on a day when I'm feeling like, 'okay, I'm in a good mood and maybe I can handle the crowds today,' turns out, nope, the good feeling doesn't last once I step out of the car or even out of the house.

3 hrs online and my Christmas shopping is DONE, and I don't feel like anyone needs to die.

and used to hate going to libraries, etc.

I know computers in general and the internet have hurt a lot of people, particularly impacting jobs. We are going to have to figure out a way to deal with that. But, I like shopping on internet for things I don't need to try on. Heck, I can even get around that with free returns on items.

To me, Amazon Prime is worth it. You have to watch the prices, but free two day shipping is a real benefit. Plus, some items are deliverable the same day.

Hope OP gets their book.

Online shopping is one of the best developments of my lifetime, I think. Between L.A. traffic and hating crowds/being around noise..

I even bought my washer & dryer online from a place in Brooklyn NY..free shipping..right to my doorstep..and I paid almost $1k less than our son & DIL paid for their pair like ours..

Online shopping is the best... comparing features & prices is a snap and I never have to go to our wretched mall

I'm no youngster and live alone on the third floor of a security building. Pedestal fan breaks? Amazon has the exact fan that I want for the exact same price as at Home Depot and, instead of having to park and go in (what's the weather like?) and find the fan, drag it to the register, load and unload it in the car and haul it upstairs, with Prime it's just sitting in front of my door when I get home from work two days later.

Had one close family member that I just got mental block on for a Christmas gift this year. Don't like to just "get something to get something" and in a lot of instances, I think gift cards are a lazy cop out. Finally the lightbulb went on last Friday night and I knew what I wanted to get. Found the perfect item on AZ and it was delivered to my door on Sunday. Can't beat it.

gives me a much better idea of what I am buying and from whom

Where for the same price, albeit with just a little more effort, you'd have a new fan later that afternoon.

Just saying.

to a store, looking at stuff, comparing, buying, and having it in your hot little hands that same day. I buy online only for very specific items that I can't find easily in stores.

I suppose if all you want to buy are the same things from the same stores everybody else in a 30 mile radius shops AND you have full mobility AND all the time in the world to shop AND the patience to deal with customers who cannot park, then staff who cannot stock shelves, do not know their own store and cannot check out efficiently AND no problem wasting gas doing the rounds of all those stores then B&M shopping may work out great for you.

One huge issue for me is anything even vaguely unusual. This thread inspired me to check my recent purchases. They include magnetic hang tags for my disabled parking placards (my new state has tiny slots for the mirror hanger and like most modern cars mine is too thick. These things make it easy to just slap the placard onto the magnet and pull it off, saving the only other alternative of having to stretch to place and retrieve from the dash which again typically of modern cars is deep and sloped), a few pairs of elastic lock laces (try tying shoes with one workinghand) large front access screw top stackable dog food tubs, a cheap 10 pack of 16gb USB drives, a couple of pool noodles (make great door protectors for narrow garages), and a transparent lunch bag so I don't have to go through the security kabuki of opening my bag at the security station at work.

Could I find all those things in local shopping? Possible perhaps but both doubtful and hard to find. Where would you go for magnetic handicapped placard holders in a town of 30000? How many stores would you have to go to to get all those things? It took me maybe 1 minute each and no steps or miles, plus for the planet the microscopic amount of fuel a UPS truck already passing needs to make one more stop rather than however many miles I would have needed to go.

While I hate online shopping, for certain items I'm forced to buy online simply because the lack of availability at a store.

But that doesn't make me hate the process and the uncertainty any less.

How much greater is it than that of mislabeled store inventory for example?

My shopping for non-food is conservatively 75 - 80% online and has been for years from trinkets and geegaws to clothes to major electronics hell even to my last car, even before my injury made it necessary. In those years I have had thousands of items delivered. I've had a dozen or so come a day later than initially projected (again a delivery provider issue) and one, literally one (a prescription even not an Amazon purchase) delivered to the incorrect address resulting in a whole 3 day delay for USPS rerouting, and that included the weekend.

I have no idea how bad Amazon is to work for compared to other large parcel delivery warehouses, none of which are rose gardens, but from a customer POV their systems and processes are as flawless as anything I've come across in both timeliness and effectiveness, and I'm on my third decade of professional experience improving those very things in large companies.

I also remember the bad old days where as a fan of art music I would have to wait until I travelled to a major city with specialty stores to get anything past the core Beethoven/Bach/Mozart repertoire, and even then you had to be lucky to find what you wanted, guess at which recording was best if more than one was available, and pay swingeing sums of money. Online retail came along and now it's easy to compare recordings of Alkan's minor key etudes or Maria Szymanowska's Preludes and get the best bang for the buck from the comfort of your armchair.

Hell even if ten times the number of deliveries were delayed I'd take that option in a heartbeat.

Online shopping is a double edged sword. Yes, you have what seems like a limitless stock of available items out there, and that's not something a physical store can necessarily offer you. But it all falls apart on the execution.

I only buy online when I know I can't easily obtain what I want at a store. Because side-by-side, it's a no-brainer. If I go to a store, I can pick up what I want from the shelves, manually inspect it, and walk out of the store that very day. Most likely it's not broken or mislabeled, but if it is, I can do a swap-out.

Whereas if I order something online, I have to hope that the picture of what I am ordering from the computer screen matches the physical product I receive in the mail. If it's not, or if it's damaged, I have to send back that item for a swap out, which will take several days to send and several more days to be received. And that's if I actually get the package in time.

I perfectly understand the logic of ordering online for rare, specialty items, but for items that I can easily get at a nearby store, I wouldn't dream of ordering online simply because it requires me to get off my tukhus.

And even when you are dealing with ordering rare, specialty items, the fact that they are much easier available online still doesn't eliminate the inherent problems that come with online ordering and delivery of those rare, specialty items. Those will still exist independently of the matter of availability.

because again Amazon's batting 1.000 over thousands of deliveries for me, and have return/credit/complaint policies that are frankly massively biased towards the buyer. But they could fuck up the next 50 things I order and still be on the sunny side of saving me the huge amount of wasted hours (days probably cumulatively speaking) and miles and gallons (ok for me KWh for the last few years, but hey) spent traipsing around dozens of different stores hoping they might have what I want, especially in my size in a decent color for example.

To get off every liberal's favorite whipping boy of Amazon, the shoe sites amaze me, and not just the now-Amazon-owned Zappos. Any size, most colors, thousands and thousands of styles dozens of brands shipped next day free/included return next day free if they don't work. All in a deeply tactile and aesthetic market space with competition in every mall. Sure they wasted a bunch in shipping for me to work out I need to buy 0.5 sizes up in Puma and 2.5 sizes down in Propet (no kidding they make great shoes but they must use clowns as size models) but can buy Skechers and Nike and Merrell and Rockport in "my" size but now I don't have to gimp my way down those anorexic teen-sized aisles and reach up to move all the size 14s and 7s out of the way to find my normal size is out of stock in the normal colors, then find somne substitue and line up 6 deep while the silly security tags are removed and the hapless minimum wage cashier has to search each box like we could be smuggling uranium then check each price with the manager because there are ten different sale tags on each box. I just click and the next day exactly what I want shows up.

No can do on that one.

I love the customer reviews of both the products and the vendors themselves. I love being able to correspond with the vendors. Customer reviews are invaluable.

It took me several years to put my collection together, and with only one exception the vendors were booklovers like myself who bent over backwards to make sure I got what I wanted. My main focus was a British author, so I've used both Amazon.com and Amazon.UK.

.......where did you find the magnetic hang tag for the parking placard and what are they called? That's something that my sister could use and I'd love to pick one up for her.

Thanks bunches.

The chain dangly kind is a bit fiddly to install but I was worried the plastic coat hanger style (this will make sense when you look for them!) wouldn't go round my mirror post.


The magnets themselves are very simple and effective both on and off. I have no right hand function and I can slap them on and off from the driver's seat without looking. The tag holders themselves are sturdy and clear. Remember to get the long ones if you/she are in NC or NJ.

Fine product all round. Would have never found at B&M stores most likely!

Always happy to find things that will make life easier. Already ordered from Amazon so they'll get here in time to give to her when I see her on Christmas.

I can see where that little chain could be a little tricky to attach. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll do that part for her. I think I'll also pick up some self-adhesive magnets at the craft store so when she takes it off the mirror, she can hang it somewhere convenient where it will stay put.

Thanks again, and Merry, Merry Christmas to you!!

They (in my opinion) way overstock on some high volume items so the shelves look full but the variety and the slower moving stuff is no longer there. I'll be happy to drive to a place to have what I want in my hands right away but I'm tired of hitting 4 or 5 stores hunting lucklessly for what I want.
And don't get me started on seasonal stock. I shop for stuff when I need it, not 3 months ahead of time.

I'd like to think that in the world of items like books (traditionally sold at brick and mortar until recent years) if online sales were not a juggernaut, those stores would have larger, more varied stocks. But I have no idea if that's actually the case or not.

I hate shopping at Walmart and I hate shopping online. But sometimes I have no other options. And that doesn't make those options suck any less. In fact, it probably makes them suck more.

store and the drug store.

But yeah if you don't it kind of sucks.

I prefer brick and mortar

I prefer it too. I can't say "never" on-line because that wouldn't be true, but pretty rare.

My made my sister sign up, click on the items and pay with her credit card.

I gave her the cash when the shipment arrived.

Has his mom, or another friend of ours do it.

The only thing I hate with regards to online shopping, is when the vendor uses Fedex. They are somewhat unreliable in my experience (my experience with the USPS has been far more positive).

I love Amazon, though. Their delivery is usually fast and efficient. Their return policy is great. And if an item you bought goes on sale within 7 days, you can e-mail them and they will refund you the difference. I recently sent Christmas gifts to my goddaughter and her 2 new adopted sisters, who live with their mom on the other side of the country. It was convenient to simply order the gifts from Amazon and have it shipped directly towards their house. For me, in the midst of end-of-the-semester business, it was a matter of a few clicks. Sure beats going to a store, having a far more limited choice (a particular issue in this case, because finding black dolls is surprisingly difficult, but Amazon had a good variety), and then going to the post office and paying another $20 to ship the items.

What will they think of next?

Household items, cleaning supplies and a whole bunch of stuff. The only stuff I get at the store now is veggies, meats and dairy. I have only had one problem out of hundreds.

but we have thought about Amazon Prime.

Does anyone have thoughts about this decision?

I can get a ton of stuff no brick and mortar store has in stock and I get it in 2 days. We also get a bunch of commercial free tv and movies.

Yeah, amazon sucks, but what company doesn't today, except for very few.

If you don't buy a lot the shipping benefits alone likely won't add up to 99 per year. For us we get our money's worth on that alone.

But Prime also gives you a decent but not great streaming TV channel (you can watch on a PC or phone if you don't have Roku or a smart TV) which has some good series including originals and a fair selection of movies, a music streaming and downloading service that again is decent but not quite top notch (for "classical" stuff that is. Other genres may be better or worse), a Kindle book borrowing dervice (again can use on a PC or phone app if you, like me, have a different e-reader or none) and a free unlimited photo storage option, not that that's too rare.

If you want or would use those other benefits it's very worth it, as it's cheaper than Netflix alone. Prime is probably not as good as Netflix unless you have unusual tastes, but it comes with everything else too.

When I'm think of buying an item, I add it to my Amazon online shopping list; then I order batches of items totaling $35 or more and select Super-saver Free Shipping on checkout. Yes, the shipping takes longer, but I don't mind planning ahead. And, yes, I miss out on some freebies like cheaper videos and e-books, but they are not usually items I would like anyway.

This works well for me but clearly YMMV.

Love online shopping, have had no problems with deliveries, but clearly some parts of the country do have a theft problem with deliveries.

They were $30 each in a brick and morter store, 2/$50 on Amazon. The interesting thing is that the final delivery was made by the USPS. (Even though there would be little chance of theft of packages in our neighborhood. Last summer we went away on a three-day weekend. A family member, not to be named (but not me) not only did not lock our front door, but did not even close the door. We do have a storm door (screen door) so our home was unlocked, but not exposed to the elements. At a previous home, a neighbor had their house burgled (is that a word?) in the middle of the day. They broke into a back door, opened the garage door, pulled into the garage, and filled their minivan with loot. A neighbor saw the minivan go into the garage, it was the same make and model as the one the neighbors' owned. Talk about planning.

I kind of like the idea of the video that comes with Amazon Prime, however, we really don't need to watch even more television.

I have done as you suggested and bundled some purchases.

Edit to add:

I already missplaced my flashlight. The other was a gift for my father. I have not looked too much for it however. I think I need another flashlight for a thorough search of the house.

Barnes and Noble didn't have it online? You couldn't ask them to order it for you from the store?

However, after thinking out my options from home, I figured Amazon would get it to me quickly and I went to my computer and the rest was history.

And given that this wasn't my first mix-up with Amazon, shame on me.

While I do most all my non-electronic book shopping at Powell's main brick-and-mortar location (the world's largest!) here in Portland, their online services are very good. This is particularly the case if you're looking for something rare; their "finder" service is superb.

And if you're ever in Portland, Oregon, do visit the store. An entire city block...four stories...need I say more?

I went to b&n and asked for a book based on a link on Amazon. The link showed the book as not in stock so special order would have to be done.

I told him the link was Amazon and he said the same world be true if we ordered from b&n.

which is a good option for someone that doesn't like online ordering.

Then, if there's a shipping delay they can drive back to that box store and yell at some poor minimum wage clerk.

Bip, bip, bip, done. And I go back to what I was doing.

from your porch.

Although unless said thief is a fan of books regarding modern day Eastern European politics, he or she will ultimately be disappointed.

We've had a rash of boxes being taken from porches here in the Detroit area.

Every time I order from them they screw it up. I have no idea why.

on amazon. And their return policy is amazing.

All those cars driving around the mall parking lot spewing pollution while searching for a spot, and in traffic on the way home, compared to one UPS truck driving through a neighborhood and delivering a bunch of Amazon packages.

We started having that problem in our neighborhood (after decades of quietness) a couple of years ago, after the string of daytime home burglaries. I finally got a locking mailbox like my next door neighbor's: it features a panel the owner can slip out so that mail and parcels fall straight through to the bottom at ground level. After searching locally and seeing nothing but fancy $300+ models, I went online and found one like his for $100.

I almost never had any trouble with Amazon, and just about all I order from them is books. Anything that comes from their vendors by USPS goes in that mailbox, but the other delivery services have to leave things on the doorstep.

I'm really sorry for your loss, but thieves are probably the culprit if Amazon's records show they delivered.

I buy almost everything online, but happened to go into Best Buy last week. First question: where are the Bluetooth speakers? An online store doesn't entail wandering around for 5-10 minutes looking for the product I want, I just type it in the search box! Then when I find what I'm looking for, how the heck do I know which ones are good? There are no reviews displayed! So I go on my Amazon app, scan the barcodes to look up the products and read the reviews. I find a good one and guess what? It's $10 cheaper on Amazon and I can get it delivered free with Prime in 2 days! So I can skip the long, long line to check out, and if I need to return it I won't need to go back to the mall! So obviously I click to buy it on Amazon and stroll out of the store bypassing the line.

I just bought some nice used shoes for cheap.

then people can buy what they want.

All this consumeristic bullshit surrounding chri$tma$ is revolting.

It just automatically goes to my general fund for bills, taxes, etc. Plus, I don't know what I want. Surprise me. At the very least give a gift card.

No thinking about what someone might, or considering if it would delight them; no surprising someone with the perfect gift...here, I didn't want to bother with all of that, take some cash. Oh, and where's my cash? Seriously, why not just agree to spend $X on yourself and message a picture of what you bought.

I never forgot that. Back in the early 90's, I'd order boutique coffee from Torrefazzione Italy - they were later bought out, but they had the most delicious coffee - batches roasted to order; pricey but worth it. Intoxicating aroma, like catnip, but I think that's how one of my neighbors must have realized what the package was, because I was expecting a package and it wasn't there in the lobby by the mailboxes, even though it had been delivered according to the delivery service.

I have absolutely no desire to go and buy shit in person. Zero.

At the moment I'm in awe of a company in Kentucky that sells Whirlpool range parts. I ordered a part last night about 6:30 and I arrived home this morning at 11 and it was on my front porch . . . in New Hampshire. I didn't even request fast service and this is the fastest shipping I've ever gotten from any company in my long history of online shopping.

If you think ordering from Amazon is sketchy you have no idea at all, trying to get exact answers to important technical questions from Chinese vendors is breathtakingly difficult. I ordered several hundred dollars worth of lithium batteries for a project the other day and it took me about half a dozen back and forth emails with the vendor to be comfortable enough that I'm going to get exactly what the site seems to state.

Amazon is absolute heaven comparatively speaking.

So you don't actually shop in brick-and-mortar stores, except WalMart??

Damn, dude. Sad for you. Where do you live?

There is no way I would put up with that.

He said he does shop there and does oeder from Amazon.

But, it's not easy in this world. He's in a gift-giving situation that btick-and mortar stores were lacking.

My post actually says I prefer to do all my shopping if possible at brick and mortar stores. Of which there are plenty in my bland suburban surroundings.

The only time I shop at either Walmart or go online is when I can't find what I want at a brick and mortar. Those two are my venues of last resort.

brick and mortar stores..., especially this time of year.