The Pitfalls Of Internet Shopping

I guess you could say I've become lazy.  Who would have thought thirty years ago that you would be able to shop from your home and have things shipped right to your front door.  I fought it for years because I LOVE shopping!!  Macy's, Pier One, Penneys, Sees Candy (for the free samples) ... I would spend hours passing the time just looking.  Of course it was rather hard on my checkbook.

Nowadays I save money by going on-line.  Sort of!  Sometimes ..... okay, maybe not.  I'm betting the price of things may actually be cheaper in the store than on the internet.  The thing is, if you shop with your fingers, you get to see hundreds more stores with MUCH more merchandise and save fuel to boot.  Sometimes that can get me in trouble.

It works VERY well for the puppies.  They get dog food and treats on a regular basis.  If you didn't know, Chewy.com is owned by PetSmart, so they are NOT putting themselves out of business as advertised around the country.

This time I price checked everything I was going to buy, and sure enough, Chewy was a tad bit cheaper.  Buy enough .... I think it was $50 .... and shipping is free, usually within two days.  I can't believe how fast they are.  Add to that the savings of fuel at $4.00 a gallon and it's a win-win for me.  Jessie got her new bed yesterday and loves it!!  That's the GOOD part of internet shopping.

On the other hand, and there is ALWAYS an other hand, some of the things I want only come in mega size packages.  At the pie cooking class, we used small 6" tins for baking take-home pies.  How perfect for me, being the only human in my house.  I need some of those!!

I searched the internet and found exactly what I wanted.  They even had little plastic lids.  PERFECT!  They came about a week later.  Unfortunately, although I honestly DID check the size, they are tiny tiny miniature 4" pans, barely large enough for two bites.  RATS!!  It will cost me more to send them back than the cost of the pans.  Guess I'm stuck with them.

Back to searching for LARGER pans, this time I paid particular attention to the details.  They measured 6" across.  I ordered them for somewhere in the neighborhood of $15.  Wasn't I surprised when they showed up at my door and I now have FIFTY of them.  FIFTY!!!  How am I every going to use up FIFTY PIE TINS?  They will be stacked in my cupboard forever!  It couldn't get worse.

WRONG .... it really CAN get worse when you discover the many pitfalls of internet shopping.  At the same pie class, Chef used a small peel (a long narrow board) to move the pies round in the oven and to remove them without getting burned.  I NEED ONE!!  I'm tired of sticking my dirty hot pads into the food I'm removing from the oven.

I searched and searched the internet, using up gobs of pterodactyls, or whatever they are called, until I found the PERFECT one!!  It was about 4 inches wide and 18 inches long.  I hit the ORDER button.  Shipping on this one took almost two weeks.  Maybe they had to go cut down a tree and sand it to perfection.

The box finally arrived yesterday.  Hmmmm that's a HUGE box!!  I opened one end to be faced with the handle standing at waist height.  Noooooo ..... this can't be!  Sure enough, this monster is ten inches wide and over 36 inches tall.  There is absolutely no WAY I can use this half inch thick chunk of lumber to slide underneath pies in the oven.

How disappointing to be faced with the pitfalls of internet shopping.  Maybe I can donate it to my local Pizza Factory.  Oh wait .... it might make a good chunk of lumber to put under the rig for leveling!!  Next time I'll double and triple check the size of things I order.

I did forget to mention the other day, on my return trip from the town that actually has stores to shop in, I took a detour over to the big city of Hilmar ... Dairy Capital of Central California.  It's not far off the freeway and has the best place EVER to stop.  Hilmar Cheese is the name and cheese is their game.  In fact, all those commercials for Sargento?  It's Hilmar Cheese they are selling.  

At any rate, they have a great little restaurant and an amazing variety of great cheese, wine and anything appetizer-like.  Bus tours even stop here for lunch and shopping.  I had the PPG sandwich.  Piglet Pretzel Griller ... and boy was it worth every penny (maybe $10).  They even served it with an entire pear, sliced to perfection.  Who does that?  The crispest, coldest most fabulous pear I've ever eaten.  

They have plenty of parking for big rigs, so if you're in the area, stop in for a great lunch.

So it's back to Christmas shopping on the internet.  Maybe I'll just buy gift cards.  It's SO much easier ... no returns, it fits everyone and I don't have to triple check the SIZE!!