Today is the 21st of December and there are only a few days left until Christmas, meaning the last minute people are starting to show up to malls and shopping centres around the world. Today, I went to get a couple of last things that I thought about and it was a complete disaster. Something as simple as going into a bookstore to pick up a couple of books as gifts turned into an extended wait in a snake-like line of people that hardly moved because the credit/debit machine wasn't working. Instead, the staff had to take manual prints of cards like all retailers had to do back in the day. The funny part was watching some of the young people in line that had never seen such a device as a manual card imprinter before because they were fascinated by the whole process.
My point here isn't about credit cards, it's more so about how much I love online shopping so that I don't really have to deal with these kinds of situations. Instead, I just give Jeff Bezos all of my money and order whatever I need, knowing it will show up at my door in a day or two. Had I had the foresight to acquire the items I purchased this morning, I would have definitely done it, but Amazon had no guarantee that my stuff would show up on time so I was left with no other choice. Instead of taking literally moments to point, click, and order, I had to head out into the wilderness and spend a couple of my precious hours dealing with the first wave of last minute people. Was it a big deal in the end? Of course not, but that doesn't change the fact that I would have much preferred to finish my shopping without having to put pants on.