Shopping

I’m a single dad and my work week is busy. I meal prep a week ahead just so I’m not racing at dinner time or buying pizzas. I love pizza, so I have to fight that urge a lot. I currently get my groceries delivered for $29 / year plus a gratuity for the driver. A couple weeks ago I was running low on everything and stressing about it. I took a 15 minute break from work and racked up a quick grocery order on my phone. The groceries were there when I got home. That helped me a lot. I also ordered all the school supplies for the year online and had them sent right to my door. No stress.

I try to do my best and shop locally to support the people and businesses in my city. I bought a pack of Bandaids from my local pharmacy and they cost me $10.69 . I got home and realized that I didn't have enough, so I looked the same item up on Amazon and it was $6.39 . I can have the same item delivered right to my door at a significantly discounted price. As someone trying to support local business I still think that is too much of a premium. I can look out my window and see this neighbourhood pharmacy. I still don't want to pay $4 more for an item.

I know that these doing these things is destroying the local business in my area. There are currently zero large businesses to shop for retail clothing in my small city. Walmart and Winners are the only ones hanging on. I am complicit in chipping away at my local economy and I don’t really know what to do about that.

Unfortunately Amazon is an American nightmare that’s mired in full enshittification. There’s so much garbage on the platform that it’s hard to find what I need sometimes. Everyone knows it, but we are already trapped. I ordered some parts for my robot vacuum from Temu recently and that experience wasn’t that bad. At least Temu doesn’t pretend to be something that it’s not. The garish display was very apparent and I thought it was fun. I didn’t feel trapped into having to consume.

I’m not a real consumer and I don’t shop that much. When I do shop I set notifications for sales and hunt for the one quality item that is going to last a long time. I’m at a loss for the daily stuff though. I keep delivery drivers and personal shoppers employed in low paying jobs. I realize that’s not fair, but once again I don’t know what to do about it. This is where the world is going and I pay for the convenience.

Until something major changes in the world this is where I am. I want to shop local, but it costs too much. I want people in all walks of life to have decent jobs, but I don’t employ them. I keep them in low paying jobs by paying for the convenience of delivery so I can make it through my own hectic work week. We’re all on a hamster wheel.