I purchased a new garden sprayer online from the big orange and black shed in Liffiton St the other day. Marvellous.
Just about everything anyone needs is available online somewhere nowadays. How times have changed?
I often wonder how we coped before the internet.
Remember the weekly or fortnightly visit uptown to pay the bills, lining up to get cash out of the bank or Post Office, enough to tide you over until next pay.
Then the hole in the wall arrived which made things bit quicker and easier, but one still had to line up sometimes, some distance away from the person on the machine, out of politeness.
Actually lining up to get paid at work, the small brown envelopes stuffed with notes and a few coins, individually prepared by an accounts clerk or an employer based on the hours worked with the timesheet inserted in the envelope with the money.
Having to pay the bills in cash and perhaps physically deposit some money in the bank account for a rainy day. It all involved going uptown.
When we were there we would usually also do the grocery shopping, buy the vegetables and meat from the greengrocer and butcher, do as much as possible in one trip to save time, impulse buy.
Now it’s all out there on the internet, buying locally, nationally and internationally, no need to leave home much at all or rush around during work hours and lunch breaks trying to get everything done. All done from the thing I’m typing this on.
We even buy our wet fish online. I still trot out for the fish and chips though. We have not quite got our heads around having them delivered, although we know it’s possible.
So if others are doing what we do, and I am certain they are, what effect does that have on our society, let alone on the small retail outlets that do not do online selling?
I guess clothes shops will still attract regular clientele in person. Many like their clothes to fit and that is always a raffle buying online.
I’m a humble XL, sturdy unit, but there are many varieties of XL, sadly mostly smaller than I am comfortable with so buying XL online is interesting.
I could bite the bullet and go to 2XL but knowing my luck the items will then all be too big for me. First-world problems.
There will always be niche shops but not all of them do online ranges.
The internet must have impacted many businesses as society has changed its way of operating.
We still have face-to-face contact with many business owners, the dairy, the hairdresser, the bookshop guy, the pie shop owner, smaller supermarkets for those odd items you forgot in your grocery order.
I still call the service station every few weeks for a tank up and take the car to the franchise holder for its service twice a year therefore some effort is still required on my behalf to get out and about.
If we ever purchase an EV those service station visits will be a thing of the past too.
Doing all this stuff at a distance must have an impact on our interactions with each other though.
Bumping into old friends uptown does not happen as much anymore.
We do not really need to get to know many shop staff like we used to, knowing which ones were friendly and helpful and which would do a good deal. We lose that personal touch.
I guess it all goes with the fact that society is now, in my opinion, more anonymous than ever.
We don’t go to the pub much anymore, it being, quite rightly, socially unacceptable to drink and drive nowadays.
I know there are taxis and sober drivers but it’s all just a hassle. It’s just easier to stay home in warmth and comfort with others, family and perhaps friends who live within walking distance.
But at the end of the day, you have to admit the internet has changed our world completely.
