Yesterday there was a much trumpeted sale on Amazon. Not needing anything, but seduced by the endless facebook ads/comments about it, I went on line to browse. It’s almost impossible for me to browse on line. I can search for specific things I want and research them, but just mindlessly going into a page full of products, just because they are discounted, well that didn’t quite work for me.
So I found something I kinda, sorta, maybe wanted. I scrolled to the bottom to read the reviews as I usually do, and by the time I got back to the top they told me there was none left, but I could go on the waitlist. I didn’t even need it, but I clicked waitlist. Then a minute later it was now available and I put it in my cart, off to ‘browse’ some more but now there was a clock counting down saying I had 10 minutes to check out or it would disappear (presumably it had disappeared from someone else’s cart to be available for mine.) So I went to the checkout page and paid for it. But it was a weirdly demanding and unpleasant experience, I felt crowded and jostled, even though I was sitting alone at home. Everything I was looking at was suddenly 98% gone (and all I was looking at was pet toys!) and by the time I clicked on the page, it was waitlist only. Amazon wanted me to buy more, but one item in this circumstance was enough, I logged off!
And it got me thinking about sales. Some people love this vigorous atmosphere, shopping as a competitive sport. But I found it way too aggressive and stressful. I never go to Black Friday sales, and clearly even cyber sales are too much for me.
I'm really past the point of buying things because they are cheap. I really only want to own things that I really want...
