I am a somewhat tactile person because I like to touch products before I purchase them. I want to make sure that the product I’m purchasing will work and is free from defects. If it is clothing that I’m buying, I have to try them on to be sure that they’ll fit when I get them to my abode. I’ve never had problems purchasing electronics online because they are designed to fit together, but all clothing products are not created equally.
With the holidays coming up and birthdays for the children, too, I have started to look at items online. I can’t really look at the catalogs or flyers that are sent out in the mail anymore because the inks bother my asthma. (I used to enjoy reading magazines but I have troubles with them now, too. Even some books cause me to have troubles breathing, so I tend to buy used books or just get the electronic versions.)
Not to mention that the holidays are when going to the stores is the most difficult for anyone, let alone people who suffer with MCS. I do not think I can manage going this year. The thought of holiday shopping in the stores is really stressful for me. There are more cars, more people, more fragrances, smokers, oh, gosh, food being prepared… everything. All of that on top of the drive to and from the shopping centers and I’m in for a really bad series of chemical reactions!
I am pretty good at picking up items here and there throughout the year so that when holidays come up I won’t have to rush to the stores to buy everything at once. Nonetheless, I still find myself needing to purchase items and not being able to go to the stores myself.
The biggest problem I’m noticing between online retail shopping and in-store retail shopping is that the prices and promotions are vastly different for the same store. That’s quite frustrating. It’s also hard for me to tell the quality of certain products with the pictures the stores provide online. This is why I like to hold the item in my hands before purchasing.
I have much better luck using E-Bay, of all things. I only purchase items from sellers who have good photos. I have known about the ability to electronically bay items online for years now, but I’ve always been apprehensive about using it. I decided to give it a go and see if I could find what I needed there and avoid a shopping trip. I actually have had wonderful E-Baying experiences. The only problem is when I buy used clothing products from others I will have to wash them numerous times to get out the chemical detergents that were used. Most people are good about posting whether they have animals or smoke in their homes. That really helps me to figure out what to purchase and I do not purchase items from smoker’s homes.
A big bonus to online shopping is that I can compare products and prices for multiple stores at the same time. It is a time saver that should work for anyone! This is true for both the online stores and E-Bay items. I even have the ability to compare the E-Bay items price with the cost if I purchased that item or something similar from the store itself.
All-in-all, I still enjoy going to the stores on occasion because I do like the tactile aspects of shopping. I also really enjoy being out of my house when I can get out because I am pretty much home all the time due to my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. However, online shopping is also a very viable option and should be used by anyone with difficulties getting to the stores during the holidays or any other time of year. There are no lines, no parking lots, sales by the big stores online, no one taking items out of your hands, well, you get the idea. I’m really glad I decided to give online shopping a try!
In A Sea of Chemicals 