The Perils of Online Shopping

Aside from buying my textbooks and a ukulele in college, I never did much online shopping in general. But when I got to Big Bend, where I would never venture to the modern convenient department stores that usually supplied all my needs, I would start to order things online.

It began with my granola... a staple of my diet, at about $5.50 a box in Terlingua I realized that I needed to find a cheaper way to supply my needs or change my diet. I chose the former and became a member of the Amazon Subscribe & Save community, receiving monthly shipments of a soon-to-be favorite granola with a large quantity and a low sugar level. That was only the beginning - toilet paper, henna, and other odds and ends would make their way to my P.O. box over the next several weeks, all with incredible good luck - things tasted good, they fit right, and I was generally pleased.

But when I got to Bodie, it would seem that my luck with online shopping had run out. It all began when Amazon Subscribe & Save stopped offering my flavor of granola, forcing me to purchase a flavor with a lesser quantity and a greater sugar level. I ordered shoes for work, but found out that they didn't fit well, so I returned them and ordered another - only to find that instead of the advertised brown they were actually a rather radiant PURPLE. Wow. Most recently, I ordered a gently used and highly discounted bike rack. But when I went to install it, I opened the box and found that it was not the "Fork Lift" I had ordered, but a set of 48" round bars with 4 Q Towers. AAHH! Luckily these things are going to be returned and refunded at no cost to me.

I've cancelled my Amazon Subscribe and Save, and will be switching over to Vitacost at the recommendation of Alyssa - hopefully with better luck, since they still offer my now-favored granola brand and flavor at a reasonable cost. I've got another pair of shoes coming, and one more that I'll try out if these don't work, and the company I bought the roof rack from is looking to see if they have the article I actually ordered so that I don't have to go looking for one on some other site.

I suppose I now know firsthand the perils of online shopping. But isolation necessitates its use, and I don't think I've been discouraged much overall.

Until next time!