1.4. Why Shop Online

If you have never shopped online before, or if you have only dabbled, you're probably wondering what all the hype is about. You figure that except for those folks who live hundreds of miles from the nearest store, shopping online is a convenience, not a necessity. So how convenient could it be?

What could be easier than hopping in your car and driving to the mall ... and fighting for a parking space, and walking from store to store and aisle to aisle looking for the items you want, and waiting in the check-out line, and carrying those bags out to the car through a drenching rain storm, and driving home through the traffic as the rain turns to ice beneath your wheels?

You have choices and will continue to have them. At least in your lifetime, Congress is not likely to outlaw physical stores.

In many instances, shopping over the Internet is a quick and easy alternative. Sometimes it enables you to do things that otherwise would be impossible for you, or can save you trouble and money -- lots of it. When that isn't the case, just shop the way you always have.

You should shop on the Internet when:

• You know exactly what you want, and you want to get it over with -- with a minimum of hassle and time.
  
• You don't want to spend an hour or more driving to a physical store and going through the usual routine there; and, if the item is out of stock at the first store you go to, you don't want to have to trek to another and another, or wait weeks for delivery.
  
• You know what kind of thing you want to buy, but not specifically which one -- which book or CD or video. Also, you don't want to waste your money buying something you won't like and waste your time figuring out that you made a mistake.
  
• You know what you want to buy, but it's rare -- very few stores would ever carry such a thing.
  
• You need to buy something that is very expensive (a car or a house). You have to comparison shop because you aren't fabulously wealthy. But you'd like to do it as quickly and effectively as possible.
  
• You're curious. You don't have time to indulge your curiosity in the physical world where it takes so long and costs so much to go from one place to another. On the Internet you can go from one side of the world to another with just a click of your mouse.
  
• You want to buy something, but don't want to be seen buying it. Perhaps it's a gift that you want to keep secret before you give it, and being seen going into the store by family or friends would blow the surprise. Or perhaps it's something you'd be embarrassed to buy in person -- cosmetics you don't want people to know that you use, or sex-related products.
  
• You are a bargain hunter by nature. You get a charge out of buying things at lower prices than your friends and neighbors. Saving money is nice, but not nearly as good as flexing your smart-buyer muscles.
  
• You can't get to the store for any reason, such as illness or taking care of a sick kid or age or bad weather or lack of transportation or lack of time or alien abduction. (Reportedly, most UFOs have Internet connections).
  

Let's face it, we sleepwalk most of the time, operating on automatic pilot, doing things the way we always have, without considering alternatives. The role of this ebook, is to wake you up to the ease of doing your shopping a new way -- the "lazy way."

There are no macho techie points for doing everything online. The objective is to find and buy what you want with the greatest of ease. You are aiming for what Chinese philosophers called "wu-wei" or "perfect action nothingness." That's the effortlessness that comes from being in harmony with nature. You are learning the right way of living. You are becoming a sage. And you thought you were just shopping?