Online shopaholic
This afternoon, as I sat in the office pushing pixels around in Photoshop and contemplating whether I should have yet another cup of coffee, the UPS delivery man burst through the door and deposited a nondescript cardboard box onto my desk. Before the door had closed behind him, I was already ripping savagely into the box, clawing through the packing tape with my car key until a stack of shrink-wrapped clothes slithered onto my lap and a receipt emblazoned with a guilt-inducing figure drifted lazily to the floor. The bulk of my early summer shopping was complete, and I hadn’t even set foot into a single store.
There was a time when I shunned online shopping. Maybe I was concerned that I’d end up with a pile of clothing that didn’t actually fit me, or maybe I was suffering under the delusion that traipsing through a mall looking at outfit after hideous outfit was actually enjoyable, but in any case, I vastly preferred physical stores to their online counterparts. Then something shifted. I cautiously ordered a cardigan online – I can’t remember which store it was, but it certainly didn’t have a physical presence in Victoria – after begrudgingly admitting that it just might be The Perfect Cardigan, and amazingly, it fit. It also arrived without the annoyance that comes from navigating through a crowded store and dodging overzealous sales girls, and without the self-loathing session that inevitably takes place in each and every grubby, florescent-lit change room. It was fantastic, and I was hooked.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and shopping is no different. I’ve developed an uncanny knack for knowing whether something will fit me or not by scrutinizing the images on a site and meticulously scanning through sizing charts, but there are some things I’d just prefer to see in person before I buy. Food, for example. The grocery store may not be my favourite place on the planet, but I’d rather spend half an hour dodging other peoples’ shopping carts than wait around for the delivery guy to drop off a few tomatoes and an onion or two. And while I don’t mind shopping for home decor online, there’s something so satisfying about browsing through a well-laid-out home boutique. But when it comes to stocking the closet, online shopping wins, hands-down.
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