@johnzakour… I find online shopping so much less stressful than shopping in a brick and mortar store. In the first place, I don’t like to shop, and secondly, with online shopping I don’t have to vie with a hundred others to walk down a single aisle in a store. I hate crowds.
In stores or online? I don’t really care. The crowds are a nuisance, and the parking a nightmare of which even Hieronymus Bosch had not dreamed. But I like the atmosphere. I certainly did when we had a large outdoor mall near where I grew up. It had a uniquely, 1960’s type electronic magic to a kid’s eyes. Perhaps, in retrospect, it was tacky and cheap and commercial. Didn’t look that way then. It’s long since been enclosed and gentrified, till, as the saying goes: “When you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the mall.”*****************************
By contrast: online, for all its convenience, is cold and solitary and detached. No atmosphere but what you make. I wouldn’t use the word ‘proud.’ Maybe it’s good not to contribute to the madness, but if that were truly our goal, we wouldn’t patronize those who profit financially by the holiday. We wouldn’t buy gifts at all, and would observe the day in a quieter, simpler way. Who’s ready to go that far? Who first?*******************************
People are throwing around terms like ‘brick and mortar’ as though they’re synonymous with caves. As though, with the press of an on button, we’ve gone in a blink from the Flintstones to the Jetsons.*****************************
Driving between a series of Christmas concerts in which Chris and I performed the last two weekends, we passed through a lot of rural parts of DE and MD. Farms. Woods. Long roads with little to look at, yet much to see. Our world has not yet entered cities in the sky. We are not yet in flying cars and jetpacks. There is still so much of what is traditional, old, and close to the Earth. The world is not yet all bits and bytes.****************************
Whether we shop online or stand on line, where’s the cause for pride? The world has become a weird mish-mosh of nature, and this net mankind had thrown over it. When we say ‘simplify,’ do we really mean ‘complicate in a more state of the art way?’**************************
Just choose gifts wisely. Give what will continue to mean something beyond the latest media controlled Pavlovian frenzy. Take time to get out of your house if you can, and see what’s left of simpler times. Spare a moment for that. And enjoy Christmas at a pace that doesn’t leave you worn and weary and glad it’s over. Wishing it away because it exhausts us- there’s nothing to be proud of in that.
@Thomas Scott Roberts… I live in a rural area in one of the Plains states, and for me to ‘go shopping’ for things other than everyday usage (groceries, postage, small hardware items, etc.), I need to drive a minimum of 25 miles. There are no ‘department’ stores closer (it’s a ‘mini’ store, with not much selection), and my little bitty town – population less than 700 – has one gift shop that caters mostly to craft-sy type items. You can’t buy a DVD or a game there. So, it’s online shopping for me unless I have the time to take a trip. If I need something that the ‘mini’ store doesn’t have, I have to go an additional 20 miles to get it.…I used the term ‘brick and mortar’ solely to differential the options. I use a local bank that I can walk into, as well as an online bank, and that online bank has no building within 500 miles of where I live.…I lived in cities for about 25 years, and came back to my hometown because my folks needed me (they are nearing eighty, now). It was a choice I made, and it wasn’t an easy one. I knew what I was giving up by coming back here, but the good outweighed the bad. So if I can’t just go shopping at the drop of a hat because of the time constraints, then online shopping, it is.…Yep, this is sort of a rant. But the point is that not everyone lives where they can just drive a couple of miles and find a mall or department store. There is a huge chunk of the nation where that’s not possible. …You talk about pride. My folks have run their small grocery store for more than 35 years, and my sister and I will continue to do so (we also have eight employees). We survive because we give service, not because we have the lowest prices. We cannot compete on price with the larger stores that are 45 miles away. I won’t go into the why’s and where fore’s, but the bottom line is that stuff just costs us more to get. Our store has always been about people, and what we can do for them. At least once a week people tell us that they are grateful we are still in business, since they’d have to drive 25 miles to buy groceries. Pride? You betcha.
@Thomas Scott Roberts… most people in small communities know the importance of purchasing local. My town is very good about that, and we as a community support each others’ businesses, to what extent we can (I don’t personally have a need to purchase seed corn or beans, but I can buy weed killer there). People in large metropolitan areas don’t understand that we need each other to survive. They just go somewhere else. If we did that here, all of our businesses would go the way of your friend Mike’s business. And our town would become a ghost town. And that would be sad.
geopardy over 10 years ago
CJ 1 Dana 0
Agent54 over 10 years ago
Ed is almost caught up. His TPS reports however are still 5 years behind.
Zorro1950 over 10 years ago
My"Christmas Gift" in 2016 is (hopefully) retirement on Dec. 31 of that year!
Bye bye, Federal Government!
Bye, bye DOD!
Bye, bye Un-Intelligence Community!
Gracias,
Glenn
Agent54 over 10 years ago
Retirement date:First you dieThan allow 2 to 4 weeks for HR to process the paperwork.(the check will be in the mail)After that I will be retired
johnzakour Premium Member over 10 years ago
I’ve proudly not set foot in any store for Christmas shopping. I have done all of mine online.
invertedyesterday over 10 years ago
@johnzakour… I find online shopping so much less stressful than shopping in a brick and mortar store. In the first place, I don’t like to shop, and secondly, with online shopping I don’t have to vie with a hundred others to walk down a single aisle in a store. I hate crowds.
Thomas Scott Roberts creator over 10 years ago
In stores or online? I don’t really care. The crowds are a nuisance, and the parking a nightmare of which even Hieronymus Bosch had not dreamed. But I like the atmosphere. I certainly did when we had a large outdoor mall near where I grew up. It had a uniquely, 1960’s type electronic magic to a kid’s eyes. Perhaps, in retrospect, it was tacky and cheap and commercial. Didn’t look that way then. It’s long since been enclosed and gentrified, till, as the saying goes: “When you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the mall.”*****************************
By contrast: online, for all its convenience, is cold and solitary and detached. No atmosphere but what you make. I wouldn’t use the word ‘proud.’ Maybe it’s good not to contribute to the madness, but if that were truly our goal, we wouldn’t patronize those who profit financially by the holiday. We wouldn’t buy gifts at all, and would observe the day in a quieter, simpler way. Who’s ready to go that far? Who first?*******************************
People are throwing around terms like ‘brick and mortar’ as though they’re synonymous with caves. As though, with the press of an on button, we’ve gone in a blink from the Flintstones to the Jetsons.*****************************
Driving between a series of Christmas concerts in which Chris and I performed the last two weekends, we passed through a lot of rural parts of DE and MD. Farms. Woods. Long roads with little to look at, yet much to see. Our world has not yet entered cities in the sky. We are not yet in flying cars and jetpacks. There is still so much of what is traditional, old, and close to the Earth. The world is not yet all bits and bytes.****************************
Whether we shop online or stand on line, where’s the cause for pride? The world has become a weird mish-mosh of nature, and this net mankind had thrown over it. When we say ‘simplify,’ do we really mean ‘complicate in a more state of the art way?’**************************
Just choose gifts wisely. Give what will continue to mean something beyond the latest media controlled Pavlovian frenzy. Take time to get out of your house if you can, and see what’s left of simpler times. Spare a moment for that. And enjoy Christmas at a pace that doesn’t leave you worn and weary and glad it’s over. Wishing it away because it exhausts us- there’s nothing to be proud of in that.
invertedyesterday over 10 years ago
@Thomas Scott Roberts… I live in a rural area in one of the Plains states, and for me to ‘go shopping’ for things other than everyday usage (groceries, postage, small hardware items, etc.), I need to drive a minimum of 25 miles. There are no ‘department’ stores closer (it’s a ‘mini’ store, with not much selection), and my little bitty town – population less than 700 – has one gift shop that caters mostly to craft-sy type items. You can’t buy a DVD or a game there. So, it’s online shopping for me unless I have the time to take a trip. If I need something that the ‘mini’ store doesn’t have, I have to go an additional 20 miles to get it.…I used the term ‘brick and mortar’ solely to differential the options. I use a local bank that I can walk into, as well as an online bank, and that online bank has no building within 500 miles of where I live.…I lived in cities for about 25 years, and came back to my hometown because my folks needed me (they are nearing eighty, now). It was a choice I made, and it wasn’t an easy one. I knew what I was giving up by coming back here, but the good outweighed the bad. So if I can’t just go shopping at the drop of a hat because of the time constraints, then online shopping, it is.…Yep, this is sort of a rant. But the point is that not everyone lives where they can just drive a couple of miles and find a mall or department store. There is a huge chunk of the nation where that’s not possible. …You talk about pride. My folks have run their small grocery store for more than 35 years, and my sister and I will continue to do so (we also have eight employees). We survive because we give service, not because we have the lowest prices. We cannot compete on price with the larger stores that are 45 miles away. I won’t go into the why’s and where fore’s, but the bottom line is that stuff just costs us more to get. Our store has always been about people, and what we can do for them. At least once a week people tell us that they are grateful we are still in business, since they’d have to drive 25 miles to buy groceries. Pride? You betcha.
johnzakour Premium Member over 10 years ago
Actually I go to Wegmans so much my phone thinks it’s my place of work.
invertedyesterday over 10 years ago
@Thomas Scott Roberts… most people in small communities know the importance of purchasing local. My town is very good about that, and we as a community support each others’ businesses, to what extent we can (I don’t personally have a need to purchase seed corn or beans, but I can buy weed killer there). People in large metropolitan areas don’t understand that we need each other to survive. They just go somewhere else. If we did that here, all of our businesses would go the way of your friend Mike’s business. And our town would become a ghost town. And that would be sad.