Times have changed! I Hate Shopping Now!

There are certain items I don’t want to buy online!

Image by gonghuimin468 from Pixabay

With our recent move to living in a rural area, gone are the days when I would run to Kohl’s or Target or Michaels for something I needed or just to get out of the house.

I’ve never been a huge shopper but did like to go and browse occasionally or have the freedom to go when I wanted to. Now, the nearest shopping for the type of stores I mentioned above is an hour’s drive away. That, coupled with the price of gas, has stopped my trips based on whimsy or a need to dismiss some “cabin” fever. Now, we plan to go “shopping.”

Menard’s lumber yard. © Carol Labuzzetta, 2022

Yesterday, we needed construction-grade lumber for a shed my husband is building. Home improvement stores, such as Home Depot and Menards, which were both only a ten-minute drive away from our previous residence, now also take an hour's drive. We now plan when we go.

The problem is that one is not always “in the mood” to go when the trip has been planned. And, then, once you arrive you are tired from the drive. To compound matters, it’s tougher than ever to not find the items you are looking for on a particular trip. Because it means another long trip back on another day.

Since the pandemic, my shopping patterns have changed. However, the items available in stores have also changed. Let’s take shoes for instance. We have a wedding coming up in a couple of weeks and as I threw out a lot of my shoes when we moved (they were old) I thought I’d look for a new pair. Kohl’s online had a ton of shoes. So I thought I would look there. In the store, there were very few shoes available. I wanted dress shoes. There were only a few to choose from — none of them to my liking. But who wants to buy shoes online?

I certainly don’t! A shoe needs to be tried on and walked in to determine fit. Ordering online and receiving shoes in the mail is a very chancy business in my opinion.

And what if you were looking for a shoe in a particular shade of blue? Ordinarily, I’d take the dress or outfit to the store to color match the shoes to the clothes. That’s not…