Day Off

I didn't eat for a while prior to going to bed, maybe 9-10 hours, and then I slept for 7-8 hours. After waking up with a migraine approaching due to the lack of food and water, I decided to take the day off and relax for a bit. I thought it reasonable after writing so much the last couple of weeks.

I drank a nice glass of orange juice as well as a 5 hour energy. Not that I needed energy, but I have find that the vitamin boost can be a decent preventative measure if taken at the right time. It worked, I managed to stave off the headache.

In the middle of the night, I decided to do a little shopping. No stores were open but fortunately drugstore.com is open 24 hours a day. I've never actually ordered household items online before, but I've run out of Brita water filters and decided it was time to do something about it. Of course, I decide these things in the middle of the night and can't do anything about it right away. So I figured as long as it was my day off, I'd check to see what prices I could find online.

I managed to find a 10 pack on sale at a price that one could find at Walmart or Target and any orders over $50 get free shipping so it seemed reasonable to go ahead and order it. I found that my variety of toothpaste was also on sale, if I bought 2 tubes, and since I brush my teeth once or twice a day. I figured what the heck. I threw it onto the order and sent it off.

Later it occurred to me that I could probably use some more razor blades. I don't think about them that often. In fact, I probably shave about once for every 30 to 40 times I brush my teeth, but I decided to look into it anyway. Lo and Behold! They were on the best sale yet! Nearly 40% off! And since I buy one of the more expensive razors on the market, it meant they were probably regular price.

Alas! I had already sent in my order and I couldn't get free shipping on just a simple order of razor blades. One of the most annoying things about ordering online, and this has happened to me at least a half dozen times, is that there is no obvious way to add to an already executed order. It's really quite annoying. Most places it can be done, but you have to call customer service and if there is one thing every American consumer knows is that the customer service is not there to serve the customers. At least not willingly.

For whatever reason I went back to review my order to longingly lament its lack of razor blades when once again, Lo and Behold! There was an option to edit my order. In fact, I could cancel it outright since it hadn't been processed yet. I was amazed! I have never seen this before in online purchasing and it is wonderful to see that websites are finally giving customers some control. I now have razor blades on the way.

It may seem like a trivial comment, but it really shows that online shopping is getting better. It is unfortunate that ten years ago, so many people were suckered into believing that online shopping would change the world overnight. I still remember those tech commercials touting those companies who dump money into their online presence would earn it back five fold by the end of the year. (They ran that ad for a couple of years so I'm not sure which year they were talking about.)

They should have told them the truth, namely that the companies would earn their money back within a decade. I guess it was like gold fever; people just weren't thinking rationally. Hey, look on the bright side. At least it bolstered and over inflated the economy for a few years and spawned great ideas like the Underpants Gnomes.