About the Author: Takiyah Douglas (Creative Writing, Class of 2018) hopes to turn her love of writing into a career one day. Her best friend is food and her favorite opera is Trapped in the Closet. She can be found locked in her room creating play scripts, short stories and, very rarely, poems.

________________________________________________________________________________

Why I love and Hate Online Shopping

by Takiyah Douglas

Love: I don’t have to go anywhere. Like at all. I get to order stuff while sitting on my ass and it gets delivered to my door.

Hate: If something doesn’t fit you, you can’t try on another size until a few days later. You’re either gonna squeeze into that belly shirt or patiently wait.

Love: You can return stuff that you don’t fit! They’ll either exchange the product with something else or give you your money back all together.

Hate: I can’t stand cheap knock offs, and you really have to be careful or you’ll get one. There are a lot of sellers who put up pictures of certain products and when you get them, they’ll look totally different from the picture on the website or they won’t work.

Love: Cheap shit. There are lots of times where actual name brand products are sold at a lower price than what’s in store. You can get your favorite cologne, shoes, and bras for a good deal if you know where to look.

Hate: The risk of your information being stolen is higher when shopping online. There are computer hackers who can get your debit card number and use that to do their own online shopping! So make sure a site is legit before purchasing anything on it.

Love: One of the best things about online shopping is organizing your future purchases. If you want something for later, you can just save it. You can create categories for certain products like clothes, technology, toys for your pet, the options are endless.

Here is a list of some of my favorite sites to shop on:

Amazon: Honestly, this is my go to site for mostly everything, especially school supplies. I’ve gotten nearly all my textbooks from here, and you even have the option to rent them with free shipping once it’s time to return them. They also have services that you can use. If you need flowers delivered to your mom or someone to set up your newly bought bicycle, Amazon allows you to do that. The best feature on this site though is Amazon Prime. It gives you free two-day shipping, so your items can get here faster! It is $49 a year for college students, but they do give you a 6 month trial, so why not take advantage of that?

Ebay: This site has its pros and cons. You can find lots of products for a discounted price on here, but there are a lot of sellers on Ebay that have products that are cheaply made. The waiting period can also be a problem if you’re ordering from different countries, especially China. In my experience, items that I have ordered from China have taken a month to get delivered. That has to do with the Chinese post and going through customs once it gets to the United States. If you don’t mind waiting though, definitely go for it. I know I’ve gotten some cute ear plugs for only $3.

Forever 21: Due to the vast selection of items and sales, I love shopping for clothes on this website. I find the store too overwhelming and huge, so I like being able to go online and add whatever I like to a list. Sometimes I feel like some of their clothes can be overly priced, but they always have a decent clearance area and a sale happening.

Asian Food Grocer: I absolutely love this site. I’m a fan of Asian cuisine, so I go on this website to buy all sorts of snacks and drinks. Most of their items are sold at a cheap price, so you can really rack up on purchases and still pay an affordable amount. The only con is usually the shipping. A lot factors in the price of shipping such as the weight of all the products together and whether or not the food needs to be refrigerated. On a good note, the site is currently have a deal where the flat rate for shipping is $5 for orders $30 and more. I’d say it’s worth looking at.

Copyright © Takiyah Douglas (2017) All Rights Reserved.