Ever mention to someone that you’re going to buy something online? Doubt it — and even if you do, I doubt there will be much magic. But tell someone that you’re going shopping and their eyes light up.
Why is that? (I won’t answer that one)
The Context
Over the past year (okay… maybe more), I haven’t had much time for myself or for friends — with a little ambition, work, and 5 part-time courses (which really just means a full-time course load), life generally becomes pretty routine and highly scheduled. I’d often schedule a weekly meet-up with some core friends to stay in touch while I’d sort of disappear from the face of the planet for a lot of other friends.
Thanks to a couple of people, a little inspiration, a change of heart, and a very odd sequence of events — 2009 is to become much different. I’ll explain in a very concise manner why that is the case.
The Reason
New job (Yes … sadly, I am leaving the publishing industry in a week). No more courses. Much shorter commute to work.
For the time being anyways … maybe for the year depending on how I feel.
So now that I’ve provided some context to the likely most bewildering thing that I am actually shopping offline, allow me to explain why.
Simple: I have time now. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I needed to buy something soon.
The Action
So I drive myself to a few local shopping destinations including the infamous Fairview Mall where finding parking can be as treacherous as hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
This brilliant photograph is by Melita
The Reaction and Response
Wow. Crowded. Have I mentioned how much I hate crowds? It’s one of the reasons why I enjoy the experience of purchasing online so much.
First stop: I had to drop by the local Coles (owned by Chapters Indigo, and also the only bookstore in my suburban subdivision aside from the hulking Chapters at the Bayview Village Shopping Centre).
Enjoyed looking at different covers. Saw a lot of books. Some sucked. A few intrigued. Want to test my recollection memory?
1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (I knew about it before I dropped by)
2. Looked around for my current company’s books. Difficult time finding them — ran across some good Agatha Christie book covers.
3. Strolled over to the History aisle, some interesting books. Only one I can recall is Penguins History of Canada. I was curious what can I say?
4. Saw the Dangerous Book for Boys. Very cool. Inclined to buy it and then I saw the price. Stepped back to check prices elsewhere.
5. Walk out after attempting to read some extremely long winded back cover copy on some literary fiction novel. I only picked it up because the cover design was actually quite good but I think I blocked it from my mind after I nearly fell asleep reading the back cover copy.
Consequence
Now why didn’t I get anything? I wanted to know what other people thought — I wanted to go online and search for reviews and other prices.
Second Stop: I strolled out from Coles and looked around with a slight distaste for the crowds and headed over to HMV. I hadn’t actually walked into a DVD or Music store in a long long time. I’ve just ordered online.
1. Right off the bat I can see that sales are likely hurting. Why on earth were there aisle after aisle of $6 or $9 DVDs? Granted … they weren’t the newest releases but I am guessing the previously-viewed DVDs selling from Blockbuster has been causing a dent in HMV sales.
2. I looked around. Nothing special caught my eye, but I was reminded of a movie that I wanted to watch. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to search for it. I guess I could have said,
“Hi there, can I use your computer to Google something about this historical prison in Wyoming? I want to find out the name of this really infamous criminal. There’s a movie made about him but I can’t remember the name.”
The movie I was looking for was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I was not able to get it because there was no way for me to search for it.
3. Feeling somewhat disappointed, I do pick up a $6 copy of The Great Escape. The cashier asks me if I found everything I was looking for but I don’t feel like explaining my dilemma. I just wanted to search online so that I could establish the link in my mind to what I couldn’t remember at the moment.
Consequence
Now I did purchase something — a mere $6 spent. Could I have purchased more? Sure — if they allowed me some method to go online and search freely to establish context.
Third and Final Stop: I was hoping to pick up a rubix cube as I felt the inkling to tackle this rather popular and iconic puzzle. So I walk into f.g. bradleys, a nice little games store.
1. I just picked up some form of the Rubix cube puzzle. There were… a lot of variations so I picked up the least expensive one since apparently the original puzzle costs $15. I question how that hunk of plastic with movable parts that has been around for probably two decades can cost this much at a time like this. Thus I didn’t buy it.
2. I did see some board games that were very fascinating. Unfortunately the description at the back of the box just didn’t entice me enough. I wanted to know more about it and read the opinions of others.
Consequence
I was inclined and interested in purchasing certain board games but I decided not to because I wanted to find out more about them online.
The Solution
It’s pretty simple. The internet is all around us now and with so much information — deny it or not — we need to be connected to it or at least have a way to access that information at different times — especially from my opinion, if shopping offline.
We know mobile phones have the capability to utilize search engines and the internet. Everyone can identify the iPhone. But what about people who don’t have a cell phone? There are still many people who don’t own one.
There are however, a growing number of people who own the ipod touch. Especially after this holiday. This means you’ve got a large number of people who have the ability to access WiFi internet at any point in time as long as WiFi is available.
This access whether through a workstation or WiFi (although I think WiFi is the way to go), would have been extremely helpful while I was going through all three stores to either make my purchase, or find out whether or not I wanted to make the purchase.
We know the chances of a customer purchasing a product is highest whenever a person is closest by proximity to that product, just as it is highest when they are on a website or in the store. Without the information that I wanted, I just left — and whether or not I’ll be back is very uncertain.
