Today, The mailman came up to my doorstep in the rain carrying a 22-pound package from amazon. On the kitchen table are two smaller packages.
In the big package were cnoainers of laundry detergent and fabric softener. Suddenly I realized we buy more things from Amazon than in stores. While yesterday, I went to Costco and purchased a month’s worth of fresh meat, generally, I’ve been shipping through the Internet. Some of the things I have recently purchased have been 30 pounds of dog food, a rear basket set for my bicycle, a baseball hat saying “make America sane again” and other items that I simply can’t track down in a trip to the mall. The other day I even ordered a replacement c-pap mask for half the price I’ve been paying and some dentures-like mouth guards for an obscenely low price. And with today’s delivery, I realized that the heavy liquids don’t need to be shopped for in a retail store. So I just ordered four 8-packs of Poweraid. I’ve also ordered classic Converse high top canvas sneakers—nearly impossible to find at any stores. Last time I went to Kohls and while they had them, they didn’t have them in my size.
Refunds are easy. I purchased a refurbished computer recently. It was built in 2012 when it was listed for sale as 2017. They e-mailed me a return UPS shipping label (no charge to me) and my account was credited the day after I returned it.
My companion has been doing the same. She just ordered new bed linens with matching curtains and virtually all her gifts are sent directly to the house.
Both of us have Kindles and we get daily offers for cheap books. Check out bookbub.com. I order about 4 books per week through this service for free or 99 cents. I can even have up to ten books for free from their library. When I want to order one of these books, I return another title.
Why do I do this?
First of all, the retail landscape has continued to change ov eh yeas. Sears is practically out of business and its sister company, K-Mart is gone. Macys is closing stores and I dare you to find a five and dime store. All replace by mail order. Wall-Mart and Costco’s business in trending †owards internet sales too.
But the main reason is I’m growing older. In the past year or so, I’ve become much weaker. My eyes are not good and I don’t want to drive until I get surgery. I have diabetic feet and it’s tough to walk the two miles into town. It’s also tough on my heart as I often find myself gasping for air. Amazon can be a blessing. And I suspect I will increase my orders. There are some people who are telling me that Amazon doesn’t treat it’s workers right. I have to disagree. In 2013, I headed to Campbellsville Kentucky to work at their warehouse during the holiday season.. They paid for my campground, including utilities and Internet. I was paid $12.50 an hour but had a 50 hour workweek so ten of those hours were at time-and-a-half, and got a discount on everything they sold. zIt was hard work and they had an on-duty medical staff to handle any injuries or sore muscles. The supervisors would give us coins for the vending machines and $20 gift cards from the local groceries. I walked away with more than $4,000 for about 5 weeks of work. If there was a problem, that in winter I had to leave in the dark and come home in the dark, where I was greeted by a very anxious Pup, who tore into the local woods to take care of business, So I’m not going to knock Amazon about that.
Amazpn’s prices are usually lower than retail. Although sometimes they are outrageous when you use their third-party vendors.
But the pain of getting old is relieved by Amazon and other Internet vendors. As I think about it, companies such as Sears that grew from a mail-order catalog business. It’s pretty much the same, except the catalog is electronic. So while our retail space is shrinking, in a way, we’ve gone back to the 1800s. To quote Solomon, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
