BIG DICK NIGGA
this post is a lie about my bodily proportions
Major Arlene obsessed, 100% verified freakazoid. AKA bzzrak
Posts: 2,296
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Post by BIG DICK NIGGA on May 5, 2020 7:45:47 GMT -5
Do you prefer to buy things online or offline?
I really like the charm of getting up to go somewhere. Especially in these troubled times, I take any chance to go outside gladly. I like the whole human interaction thing. Buying takes an effort and you think a million times before spending your money. However, there's one thing that really puts me off from it, and makes me embrace the online way. It's the fact that I actually don't know where do I buy anything that's not food or something basic like that. I'm literally hopeless in that aspect (yep I recently moved away from my parents, how did you know?).
The occasion that inspired me for this write-up is that I ripped my shoelaces on my pair of boots, making them pretty much unusable. Which is a shame since I got a part time job on an archaeological excavation site and I get dirty a lot. So I'm forced to wear my 8€ sneakers from Aliexpress that I ordered for the meme back in September, for fear of ruining my other (decent) footwear. Why do you care tho? Why did I write this part?? Anyway, you got my point, I needed new shoelaces. I googled up the store where I bought those shoes and apparently they don't sell shoelaces stand-alone. They don't even have a store in my current city. So, um what now?? I ended up just giving up and finding similar ones on an online store. Bleh.
There's a middle ground between the two which I personally love though: it's ordering something on a site and then picking it up at the store. That's pretty cool I think. Pretty much combines my favourite qualities of both online and offline shopping. But not all stores have a site or a system like that.
What's your experience with this stuff?
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zedonk
Doomer
Saint Zed the Heretic
Posts: 154
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Post by zedonk on May 5, 2020 8:55:53 GMT -5
I prefer buying food offline so then I can get it when I want it.
I prefer buying games online (like steam) because I find it easier to store everything digitally as things are less likely to get lost.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,536
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Post by 40oz on May 5, 2020 9:20:06 GMT -5
I'm very anti-amazon, anti-walmart, and anti-target at my house.
I like online shopping as a concept but not how Amazon has dominated the online marketplace. Online ordering for store pick up seems cool. I get annoyed sometimes that some things are very difficult to get anywhere but online. Computer parts, phone accessories, types of cables, and types of art/decorations or furniture is only available online most of the time.
I couldn't tell you how many wasted trips I spent going to retail stores just for them to tell me they only have the product I want online. Why do you even have a building then?
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BIG DICK NIGGA
this post is a lie about my bodily proportions
Major Arlene obsessed, 100% verified freakazoid. AKA bzzrak
Posts: 2,296
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Post by BIG DICK NIGGA on May 5, 2020 12:39:12 GMT -5
I'm very anti-amazon, anti-walmart, and anti-target at my house. Please elaborate on this, why? Amazon is a monopoly but it seems alright. Walmart yeah it's the famous meme where people set up meth labs in the middle of the store and shit. I don't know shit about target.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,536
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Post by 40oz on May 5, 2020 14:13:15 GMT -5
In the US, Amazon, Walmart, and Target are general retailers but because they also sell food, household supplies, and other stuff they are considered "essential businesses" so they remain open while thousands of other businesses have had to close their doors. Their lowest paid staff are "essential workers." While hundreds of thousands Americans are now unemployed due to the quarantine, Walmart, Target and Amazon recently hired a combined 200,000+ new employees. Their employees don't receive any sort of hazard pay, their health insurance options are garbage, and the paid time off plan they offer doesn't protect them if they get sick, even when they get corona while on the job, (which many have.) We have these companies calling doctors, nurses, and their retail workers "heroes" on their advertisements, but they're really just being held hostage. They can't receive unemployment, or paid sick leave. They have to work long hours exposing themselves to a highly contagious illness for pitiful wages and to keep their bottom-of-the-barrel health insurance (because health insurance is almost totally tied to whatever your employer can provide here in the US.) Sure, they could quit but because these businesses hardly pay a living wage, the employees wont be able to live on what little savings they have, they won't be eligible for unemployment benefits because they quit voluntarily, and if they have a health condition that requires regular doctor visits, they would lose their insurance and would have to suffer until they die. And the availability of work here is practically nil. The employees at these companies are striking; you wouldn't know if you weren't actively searching for it. Our media has wall-to-wall coverage of the MAGA people protesting to reopen the country as if the employee strikes dont even exist. I don't know how Target and Walmart is responding to their striking workers, but I read recently that Amazon flat-out fired their striking workers. I don't know how labor laws have enabled Amazon to do that, but it's just one of the many crazy legal loopholes Amazon has capitalized on. I don't think anyone is policing what Amazon does anymore. The beast has gotten so out of control that even their Vice President quit to talk shit about it. Talk about coronavirus ruining the economy when the circulation of massive waves of american dollars through online shopping stops at Jeff Bezos' bank account.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2020 21:04:37 GMT -5
I don't buy off Amazon. Also read: stallman.org/amazon.html . And while at it, you can also see what's bad about Google: stallman.org/google.htmlFor e-books in particular I can recommend ebooks.com - if the book is avaiable without DRM, they will tell you, and the book will be immediately avaiable once it is bought. The rest of stuff I prefer to buying offline, like Xeep-Eep said: "I really like the charm of getting up to go somewhere". I seldom buy anything online.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2020 8:38:08 GMT -5
My favorite shopping experience was going with a group of friends to music stores that carried obscure bands. Back then, the internet was still in it's infancy, and we only heard about bands primarily from word of mouth, going to shows, or through fanzines. We read the Grimoire of Exalted Deeds. I also read Lords of Chaos, when it first came out. Perhaps we would hear a song that someone played at a party. Sometimes we would just take a chance on a band, if they had a cool album cover. It was hit or miss, but that was part of the fun. I feel that sites like YouTube, because they give it to you for free, have completely eliminated that experience. I haven't bought a CD in almost 10 years. But I managed to amass a pretty awesome Metal, and Punk CD collection from my late-teens, and early twenties. Things are sometimes better, if they are exclusive, and not so excisable.
Now, anyone can be an insta-member of a sub-culture...
Back then, you actually had to make an effort to earn your stripes.
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