- Tom and Sam Andrews’ Store, Oysterville 1915
Born to shop I was not. In fact, I find shopping these days a distinct pain in the tush. Too many choices. Too many decisions.
First, there’s the where – the mom & pop, the big box, the mall, the outlets? Then there’s the how – catalog, internet, shop-till-you-drop? And then comes the hardest part of all – which item should I choose?
Take the simple matter of deodorant, for instance. In my mind, that should be a no-brainer. But I find that in reality, it is like everything else – bewildering, frustrating, and usually drives me to the point of wanting to give up buying it completely. (If I didn’t have a strong social conscience, I probably would do exactly that!)
First of all, they have changed the packaging and maybe even the logo on the brand I like. Among the myriad choices, I can see nothing familiar. Eventually, when I find the right brand (which has been moved to a totally different area of the deodorant section and the section, itself, has been enlarged and moved to the next aisle over) I find that they have apparently discontinued “mine.” With so many to choose from, it should be easy to find another. Not! First I need to choose whether I want spray, roll-on, roll-on dry (whatever that is) or stick. Then there’s unscented, original, new-and-improved, scented (ten different flavors), hypo-allergenic. Not to mention small, medium, large, or the 10% larger (than what?) choice.
Even paying is more work than it should be. Self scanning? Debit card? Credit card? Store credit card? Coupons? Check? Cash? And, by the way, paper or plastic, your own or ours, box or not?
And to think that there was a time when my grandmother could just pick up the phone, tell Tom Andrews what she needed and he would put her order in a box, bring it around later in the day, and add the charges to her bill. Now that I could handle!
I agree with you Sydney about there being too many choices as to products and shopping. One of my favorite places is Jack’s in Ocean Park. If Jack’s doesn’t have it, they will get it. If Jack’s can’t get it, you may not need it. Recently I bought several yards of oil cloth there, something you can’t find very many places. I got an organic chicken while I was at it. Where else can you do that?