With the exception of groceries and a few last-minute or must-have-now items, I do most of my shopping online and have for several years now. After the holidays, however, I did benefit from what a conventional brick and mortar store had to offer. For Christmas, Deb received an item that she was pretty sure she was not going to use. While the item was clearly new and returnable, the gift came from someone who lives out of town and we had no idea where the gift was purchased. Even if we did and it happened to have come from an online seller, we had no way of returning it because a gift receipt was not included. However, we did know of at least one local store that possibly carried the item, so I decided I would try my luck there. My goal was to hopefully return the item for store credit, or at least an exchange for a different item. I was pretty sure a full refund was out of the question as I didn't have a receipt. After waiting a few moments in line for the cashier to finish with her customer, another gentleman approached the counter and invited me over. Before I was even halfway through my carefully planned out speech he finished my thought by confirming that I wanted to return the item without a receipt. As it turned out, he was one of the managers and when he saw me in line with a bag that was not from their store he assumed this was the case and came over to assist. He was very pleasant and helpful, explained my options, and I ended up making an exchange for a different item. During the course of our conversation, I felt comfortable enough to admit that I was not sure where the item was originally purchased and it could have possibly been an online seller. This didn't phase him and he told me that as long as they carried the item it could, at worse, be returned to the distributor for full credit. This simply would not have been possible with an online seller. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I was to try and contact Amazon to return an item from an unknown seller, nor do I believe the online retailer would even accommodate such an exchange. (I should say that I have returned several items to Amazon in the past and for the most part have been pleased with the service. However, on occasion, when a return didn't fit precisely within their policy they weren't willing to budge or allow any exceptions.) I really felt the store I visited went out of their way to serve me even though I wasn't bringing in any "new money." I appreciate that and while this experience might make me consider recommending or using them in the future, I can't say that it will have any effect on my preference for online shopping. Shopping online has so many more advantages. First of all, selection. You are not limited to just what is on the shelf. You literally have access to nearly any product or brand in the world. Next is price. If you look hard enough you can typically find something at the same price online, and more often than not even cheaper (even after shipping costs) than you can in the local store. And speaking of shipping, with all the incentives and programs online you can usually find free shipping within a variety of delivery times: slow boat from China (literally), two-day, one-day, even two-hours! Even if a particular retailer requires you to pay for this service, when you consider the money and time saved over running from store to store during the course of a year, the savings more than balance out. Some people cry that online sales are hurting jobs or the local small business. I say that we tend to adapt. I would suspect that the milk and ice deliverymen were concerned when in-home refrigeration became more and more commonplace. And what do you think the pony express rider thought when he saw the first mail truck come rolling into town? (Okay, maybe that didn't exactly happen that way, but you get the idea.) Today, no one misses the milkman or the pony express, and I doubt anyone is homeless and on the streets solely because there's no market for daily ice delivery. Old businesses die off and new ones pop up. Telecommunication companies used to mainly deal with phones and/or television. Now they employee thousands of people to install, maintain and service internet systems. Newspapers used to be concerned with getting out one physical issue each morning. Now they are creating online content around the clock. Shop owners who used to run the local stores can start up online businesses where they have the opportunity to reach not only the citizens within their town but the whole world. Which leads me to jobs. Yes, if brick and mortar business close or downsize, people will lose those specific jobs. However, with the growth of online sales, there is a whole slew of different jobs with different skills being created. I've written before about how I've personally seen an increase in delivery trucks in my neighborhood: USPS, UPS, Fed Ex, even Amazon. More people are needed to load and drive those trucks. I have a local Amazon distribution center near where I live. People are needed to make sure that runs efficiently. And those new online businesses I mentioned, if they grow, might need people to fill orders, handle customer service and maintain the website. Now I’m not implying this is some sort of Utopia. Not everything works out the way we hope. There will be stores that won’t be able to make the transition. There will be people who will be out of work and have a hard time replacing that income. But as I hinted at earlier, this is nothing new and is not specific to just online shopping or the twenty-teens. I do believe we will always have brick and mortar stores. There are immediate needs and services that just can't be met online, not to mention many people who have an inherent desire to "go out and shop!" (Though I have no idea why.) That being said, online shopping is here to stay and you know what? I'm okay with that.