Online vrs Face to Face Shopping

Closet Content Analysis: Buying Choices

Online - NO THANKS; Face to Face - NICE 

Consider NEED 

I'm not a fan of online shopping. Call me old-fashioned, call me a luddite but I would rather shop face to face for my clothing. 

NEED: My shopping has evolved over the years and there are many "office" or "work" clothing pieces I don't NEED anymore. I still occasionally "work" outside the home but for the most part my NEEDS are different. "The suit" is one of my major no longer NEED items; although I still like the look but can achieve it with a blazer as easily. I always have a NEEDS list and shop based on those identified items and am aware of sale times more so now than ever before. At least I try - to be honest, I guess I didn't NEED two pairs of skinny pants. Sigh.

NICE: Shopping as a "tourist" activity: When I'm in another city or in another country, shopping takes me to places and neighbourhoods that can be as interesting or even more so than the required tourist attractions. I also have a point of reference so that when someone asks me, "where did you get that", I can say at Printemps in Paris, 2009 or Rome where I lived temporarily while on a study tour or Vancouver in March when I went to get my French visa or here at home at the Bay or . . . What can I say? Some people collect souvenir spoons.

NOTE-WORTHY: I do use online references for my "shopping" research especially when it comes to prices and trends. But to actually order anything is still in my future? Perhaps? My experiences with sizes is particularly disconcerting so that unless I already have the brand and know the size ranges and the fit, I am hesitant to buy without actually trying on the item. Of course, many online shopping venues have good return policies but the annoyance of having to pack it and send it back overrides the convenience of it coming to my door. I have not returned much in my lifetime in clothing shopping. 

NICE: In analysis of my shopping history, my mother has been the greatest influence. Two influences for my mother were that she worked in a clothing factory sewing first and then checking product quality. Later when she moved from the city to a smaller community, she often waited to do her clothing shopping in "the city". When I was little, I remember that she disliked "catalogue" shopping thereby setting me up for the same dislike of online shopping. Checking out the seams, the zipper, the button holes, the fabric, the flaws or lack of flaws, just checking out the item before I buy was something my mother taught me and is now a hard habit to break. You might be able to empathize with me if you ordered a pair of the recalled Lululemon "see-through" yoga pants online or bought them without trying them on.

For me, "buyer beware" red flags need to be acknowledged no matter where you are buying, I just feel I have more control when I go to the vendor. It will take some convincing to get me to become an online shopper.