"Closing Our Browsers" (on the impending death of browsing)

[Luke]

....... online is for convenience not experiential pleasure.

THIS is the essence of the whole conversation (at least what I think it should be).

I don't think anyone would be so foolhardy as to think the world is better off without online merchants.

And the point of the post (and the article, I think) is not "oh, the poor, little shopkeeper....however will he survive?". To me the whole point is that we (the collective we......the shoppers) have become so numbed and brow-beaten, and lazy, that we have forgotten (or maybe misplaced) the joy of browsing.

And the internet is quite terrible at replicating the experience.

I know because ever since our local video shop closed a couple years ago, my enjoyment of watching movies at home has REALLY suffered. I don't know how to discover new films anymore. Netflix's recommendation system feeds my wife and I nothing but duds. I really long for walking along the aisles of box art and flipping the box over to read the blub on back. If I was unsure, I could bring a few to the front counter and ask the geeky cinemaphile his opinion. He could even put a filter on his response if he told him that I liked indie arthouse pics and my wife wanted a mainstream RomCom....which should I get.

As much as many of you seem to LOVE clicking on your virtual shopping cart,m take a short trip to a small, well-curated shop.....whatever they are selling. A general store, a record shop, even a bakery.....they all offer an experience that can not be duplicated online.

 

[drd1135]

I have Amazon Prime and watch the instant videos. I read the blurbs online and sometimes look up reviews in rotten tomatoes. Doesn't Netflix let you do something like that?

 

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I too always go to a person to buy things every time I can. Convenient or cheap for you means somebody else goes hungry.

A major goal of technology and innovation is to eliminate labour. Yet the population of the earth is well over 7 billion headed for at least nine billion. Everybody is expected to work to earn their way. Doing what? Innovation will never ever fill the void.

Sooner or later the immovable object has to meet the irresistible force and I bet it will be bloody.

-Ed-

 

[Luke]

I have Amazon Prime and watch the instant videos. I read the blurbs online and sometimes look up reviews in rotten tomatoes. Doesn't Netflix let you do something like that?

kinda like viewing artwork online vs. seeing it in a gallery, I think.

I'm not just trying to be "anti-scren-time", but I think viewing tangible 3 dimensional objects at a destination is preferable to staring at a screen at home or at work.

When I browse for movies (or books or music), I am looking through an organized, curated collection (and yet one where randomness is still expected). When I browse on Amazon (or Netflix or somewhere with "things others have bought who bought this" kind of algorithms making disjointed suggestions on what I may like) it is not as fluid.

Maybe it's just one of those things where the experience means different things to different people. A friend of mine really enjoys painting.....not painting as a creative outlet. He enjoys the empty, mind-clearing repititiveness of just painting a square room. I got a taste of it one time when I painted WITH him. I understood why he liked it......but it wasn't for me. I didn't feel it the same way. Maybe some people just don't "get" the shopping experience. We're all wired so differently, maybe I should stop trying to rewire others....LOL.

 

[Ray Sachs]

I shop online for almost everything other than food. I just hate the shopping experience and find "browsing" online every bit as rewarding as browsing in person (more, usually) - a different experience but an equally effective and enjoyable one. Just go in and read product reviews and people will point you to other competing products (sometimes I'm sure it's bots doing the pointing but also real honest people with an opinion and experience). And the selection is infinite. I remember the old days of doing copious research to find out something about some new product and then hunting it down - took all manner of letter writing, magazine scouring, calls and letters, etc, and then as often as not being disappointed when I got it in my grubby little hands. Now the whole process takes five minutes, the research is better, delivery usually only takes a day or two, the quality tends to be better, and on the rare occasion it's not, I return it. I opt for door number TWO Monty Monty Monty (an obscure American reference to Monty Hall of "The PRICE is Right")!

I just never enjoyed the process of shopping very much. I greatly prefer it in the shops of my town than in a shopping mall, but today that just means far fewer and more specialized shops, with the primary retailers having moved out a long time ago. Mostly, my town is bars and restaurants and beauty/barber shops and nail salons, etc. Just a handful selling real and actual products and mostly just a couple of pharmacies and high end boutiques at that. I use the bars and restaurants a lot, the pharmacies some (although my insurance is forcing me online there too), and everything else barely at all (well, the gourmet olive oil store every now and then - that place is sublime!, but I guess that falls under food, which I still buy in person).

But I fully recognize that as much as I like guys like Luke and hope he can keep it going for as long as he wants to, I'm his absolute worst nightmare! I've gone from buying records and then tapes and then CDs in stores (great little U-District hole in the wall called "hot rocks" growing up in Tucson - that's where I got my music NEWS too!), to buying mp3 music online to now using a paid streaming service for all but the most obscure stuff. I'm aware of the human cost, but I'd have given at least my right nut for this kind of access and convenience back when I was heavily into music and I'm enjoying it immensely now. If I'm in a Coltrane mood, instead of just wearing out the half dozen albums I personally owned, I can delve waaaaaaay into his catalog and find gems from every era and just immerse myself for a week or two or month or whatever. Or take someone like Linda Ronstadt who's hits I never much cared for back in the day but who's "filler" I tended to like a lot and damned if she doesn't have a handful of just amazing but obscure small selling albums that I'd never have bought but have fallen absolutely in love with and listen to a lot. Or explore an artist like Beck who I totally missed the first time around and quite like it turns out. I spend about the same amount on music I used to, the musicians tend to make less on each "sale" than they used to, but I'm guessing over time they'll make it up on volume - I spend less on any individual song or album but "consume" far more of them than before...

And, for all of the human cost of losing those production and retail and distribution jobs and facilities, there are the saved environmental costs of just moving electrons around rather than tons of paper and plastic and cardboard. I basically never bring words or films or music into my home any other way than electronically now. Except in the case of the VERY occasional coffee-table book, which just doesn't work in any other format..... YET!

I'm the customer. According to legend, that means I'm always right. So given all of the tradeoffs between the new and old ways, I'm basically unapologetic. I guess I've lost something but gained something as well - according to my calculations I've gained a lot more than I've lost. As I said, I'm Luke's worst nightmare. Fortunately not everyone is like me and I hope businesses like Luke's stay open as long as folks like Luke want to keep them open. But we're well into a transition (when are we not?) into a way of conducting business that nobody 30 years ago could have even dreamed about, with the possible exception of a few computer and networking visionaries, and I doubt even them. It's not easy, it's not victimless (what change ever was?), but it's working and will work better in time.

I'm all in...

-Ray

 

[Lightmancer]

The first department stores were the "Internet" of their era. They offered transaction speed, quality, instant gratification through comprehensive stock holding and "everything" under one roof. They were dreadnoughts of retail, carving swaths through local shops. Many, many fell by the wayside but many survived, by adapting to the new now. They did so by three key strategies; penetration (becoming "stores within stores") affiliation (achieving economies of scale by partnering and merging, like Co-ops and chain stores) and by occupying niches unaccessible to or uneconomic for the big stores. Towns changed, the high street changed, but businesses adapted and thrived, with the most successful forming a hinterland around the department stores, operating in successful symbiosis.

We are now in the first quartile of the next transition wave. Big out-of-town superstores are dying on their feet, and will be followed in time by mega shopping centres. High streets are currently dominated by charity shops which are agile and attract low rents and taxes, but will shortly see a revitalisation with a higher proportion of properties being returned to residential and non-retail use and the smaller retail outlets that remain focussing upon "lifestyle" offerings and superlative customer experience ("CX").

 

[Boid]

I came across a brilliant counterpoint to Luke's article, especially as it relates to the music industry. The business of music has never been healthier. The artists are finally able to directly retail to their audience, targeting smaller niches that were poorly served by big music labels. One can set up a decent recording studio in ones home, something that used to be prohibitively expensive a decade ago. This ties into a larger conversation of who controls retail and the macro economics of buying stuff. I am probably Luke's worst nightmare client as well. I hate shopping and love buying. I don't like browsing in shops, I can't smoke, sip a glass of wine, sit in my jammies if I so choose, while at a shop. It's certainly not a pleasurable experience for me, and I design shops (amongst other things) for a living! Ha!

Anyways, if anyone's interested in a detailed look at the state of the music industry today, give this a read (or watch the keynote address). I found it quite illuminating - Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry – in full

 

[Ray Sachs]

I came across a brilliant counterpoint to Luke's article, especially as it relates to the music industry. The business of music has never been healthier. The artists are finally able to directly retail to their audience, targeting smaller niches that were poorly served by big music labels. One can set up a decent recording studio in ones home, something that used to be prohibitively expensive a decade ago. This ties into a larger conversation of who controls retail and the macro economics of buying stuff. I am probably Luke's worst nightmare client as well. I hate shopping and love buying. I don't like browsing in shops, I can't smoke, sip a glass of wine, sit in my jammies if I so choose, while at a shop. It's certainly not a pleasurable experience for me, and I design shops (amongst other things) for a living! Ha!

Anyways, if anyone's interested in a detailed look at the state of the music industry today, give this a read (or watch the keynote address). I found it quite illuminating - Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry – in full

Brilliant speech/article. The only part of the music business that's getting killed are the labels. Music stores too, but just because the physical medium is now a niche, rather than mainstream (or ONLY) form of distribution. To the extent that only ultra-niche stores like Lukes selling used goods and maybe new vinyl (?) are getting by at all. Tower Records and Blockbuster are gone and I don't miss 'em! Music, OTOH, is doing just fine, both musicians and audience.

I'm well beyond my years as a rabidly enthusiastic music fan (and part time terrible musician!), so I don't get the FULL benefit of the new order like people in their teens, 20's, and 30's do. But even for a geezer like me, I find it highly preferable as a listener and consumer. And if the artists can get my penny per listen (rather than the labels getting a nickel for my listen and still paying the artist a penny - but to much fewer artists!), so much the better. Of course the labels don't like it - they had a ridiculously cushy situation and now they're barely needed at all.

I thought I found one inaccuracy though - and that just ended up showing me how bad my memory is. He said that in 1979 albums cost about $7. And I thought I remembered It was around 1980 or 1981 when Tom Petty had to threaten to name his "Hard Promised" album "$13.98" to shame the record company (Columbia IIRC) to lower the price to the more reasonable prevailing standard, which I guessed was a dollar or two lower. Well, I just looked it up and he actually threatened to name it "$9.98" which he found an outrageous affront to his fans, not the $13.98 I'd imagined. So maybe the prevailing price was still about $7-8 with a few albums creeping up a bit from there. All of which took me about 10 seconds of "browsing" to figure out! I LOVE the internet!

-Ray

 

[tennjed]

Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am a person who has a very caustic view of government intrusion into private matters. But, I am somewhat behind the recent effort, or at least the examination, by U.S. government in the area of "net neutrality." My hope is that the threat of government scrutiny/action will prompt the web giants toward greater neutrality in web search results; possibly allowing users more control over search results.

I see the web as a surrogate for roads/highways. If the road or highway is always constructed in such a manner that you are directed to one or two particular places, e.g, Amazon, #&@ Photo, etc., you will likely go to one of those places to do your shopping. Not to mention the fact that those few retailers have control over virtually all the billboards that exist along the highway. It has happened in the past: many good small businesses have gone out of existence because a new major highway went around town, rather than through it. However, some of those businesses accepted the fact of the new highway, examined its influence, adjusted, and continued to thrive.

If I am looking for a specific item and I go to the web- as I frequently do - Amazon is generally the first place listed in the search results; sometimes it is the only legitimate or familiar place listed in the first page or two of search results. Of course I am going to consider using Amazon. In my experience I have the choice of buying from Amazon, with the assurance that the item is available and will be delivered, or jumping in my car, fighting traffic, burning gas, and going to the local camera shop, only to discover the item is not available. The main problem is that my local camera store, not the one referenced later in this post, does not prioritize their web page and it frequently does not represent what they have on hand. I love talking to their staff.....But their web page is pretty much worthless.

The problem for local shops is twofold: 1) the web is not neutral; local retailers are not only fighting the big web retailers, they are also hampered by the fact the roads, i.e. web search giants, are all toll roads that do not lead to their stores, and 2) in many cases the local retailers are not able or willing to use the web to their greatest advantage.

Suppose the web was not so tightly controlled by others who have an absolute financial stake in directing- essentially forcing- me to direct my attention toward specific retailers- and away from other retailers..... Suppose I could direct my web search to list results per my preference, i.e. geographic location of product source.......Suppose my local camera store made the effort to keep their web page current..... In such an environment, the local retailers- if they chose to make the effort- could inform me they have the product for my immediate examination and purchase....In effect, they could bring to my attention an opportunity to scratch my itch even faster than the prominent web retailers. Of course I would jump in my car and visit the local retailer. But, for now, the web/new highway exists as it is; for now, local retailers will have to adjust.


Supine indolence reigns supreme in the human condition: give people a chance to sit on their butts, and the majority will. They will stay on the highway and hit the drive-through, rather than pull into town and get a good meal....Especially if they are not even aware that an alternative exists. The fact is, the good meal is better, and some customers- generally better informed, and thus better customers- will appreciate its advantages, and make the effort to get it......If the business owner makes the effort to get the sign on the highway.

A local camera store in Indianapolis serves as an example, and does offer some glimmer of hope to small local retailers. I have shopped at this camera store for the last ten years. In the beginning, there was no outward sign that this store was any different from any other threatened local retailer. It was just a another small operation with a main shop downtown, and a second location north of Indianapolis. Something, I do not know what or how, has happened in the past few years; this camera store is starting to show up on web pages and internet searches. Recently they opened a new location in Indianapolis; surprisingly, it is not a step down, but rather, two or three steps up from the old place. I cannot imagine that this camera store's retail environment (Indianapolis) offers any advantages that do not exist in other mid-size cities.

 

[Steve Noel]

I support buying local when possible. I even shun the drive to the larger cities, 40-90 miles away to get the better price, and or product. But....

In my forced retirement (health), I am an internet "junkie". I watch the few TV programs, that I care for on the net, all without the interruptions of advertising. I also search for and watch movies on the net. I do research/comparison, prices, etc, and buy several things that are not readily available, or too expensive locally. But, for the "shopping experience", we have in our small town, the Peddler's Mall. A large building, where folks rent a space, and display their wares, new and used, unattended. Find something you want, take it to the checkout at the front, and the cashier takes the booth # and price from the tag, and you check out. Multitudes of products from antiques, to Asian imports and all in between. My wife and I regularly take a stroll through, just looking for that "something". A free pleasure!

This discussion does point out the changing culture of the world community. What's happening in Greece, Mexico or South America, is no longer a world away, and of no interest or affect to me. A relative of mine, at a Christmas, family gathering, made a comment, about the plunging gas prices ($1.98 this morning). She and others believe that it's just the Government and Oil companies messing with us. I said, "when crude oil drops from over $1.00 a barrel, to less than $0.60, it affects the finished products that we consume. What's happening in your world, is suddenly in my living room on my computer screen, within minutes or hours. What a time in history, to live in!

 

[alex66]

With things like Pledge Music artists are now avoiding the compromises that record companies are putting on music, self distribution is the way to go I think and some artists do a name your price model and it turns out ok for them as in some cases (David Rovics) people actually pay them a lot lot more than the cost of the album. I think that a lot of bands etc actually prefer not having to deal with record companies that want you to do it this way or that, can understand them when they have built a large following from touring and having a sound that they know the following likes too. Remember 'downloading isn't killing music, s*** bands are killing music'

Brilliant speech/article. The only part of the music business that's getting killed are the labels. Music stores too, but just because the physical medium is now a niche, rather than mainstream (or ONLY) form of distribution. To the extent that only ultra-niche stores like Lukes selling used goods and maybe new vinyl (?) are getting by at all. Tower Records and Blockbuster are gone and I don't miss 'em! Music, OTOH, is doing just fine, both musicians and audience.

I'm well beyond my years as a rabidly enthusiastic music fan (and part time terrible musician!), so I don't get the FULL benefit of the new order like people in their teens, 20's, and 30's do. But even for a geezer like me, I find it highly preferable as a listener and consumer. And if the artists can get my penny per listen (rather than the labels getting a nickel for my listen and still paying the artist a penny - but to much fewer artists!), so much the better. Of course the labels don't like it - they had a ridiculously cushy situation and now they're barely needed at all.

I thought I found one inaccuracy though - and that just ended up showing me how bad my memory is. He said that in 1979 albums cost about $7. And I thought I remembered It was around 1980 or 1981 when Tom Petty had to threaten to name his "Hard Promised" album "$13.98" to shame the record company (Columbia IIRC) to lower the price to the more reasonable prevailing standard, which I guessed was a dollar or two lower. Well, I just looked it up and he actually threatened to name it "$9.98" which he found an outrageous affront to his fans, not the $13.98 I'd imagined. So maybe the prevailing price was still about $7-8 with a few albums creeping up a bit from there. All of which took me about 10 seconds of "browsing" to figure out! I LOVE the internet!

-Ray

 

[Lawrence A.]

When I moved to Albuquerque 22 years ago, it was a treasure trove of independently owned used book stores. Most of them are gone, one of the best, the Book Stop, having closed for good just last week, after having been chased from one location to another because of rising rents. So I end up browsing the monthly Friends of the Library sale. The big stores, like Barnes and Noble, told their hires when they first opened that their job was to put a couple of independents out of business. They succeeded, and I won't even buy a cup of coffee in the place. They are quite as bad as Amazon for local independent business.

Amazon sucks up everything. It owns AbeBooks.com, and now anyone, like my bookseller partner, who has books on Abe and wants them on Amazon has to list them directly to Amazon. So please be aware that there are a lot of independent book sellers, forced to close their local stores, who depend on online sales to survive. And Amazon has made it impossible for them to survive without listing there, no matter how much they hate the place.

We still have a couple of good record stores, Charlies, and We Buy Music, though with a couple of thousand LP"s still looking for shelving space, I've slowed down my record acquistions. Borders, Warehous Music, etc. have all closed and I'm pretty much driven to finding anything new online -- like the Schneider Quartet records of Haydn, which you just can't find locally.. [url]http://vinylfatigue.blogspot.com/2014/12/schneider-quartet-haydn-now-available.html [/URL] I used to get my monthly Monde Diplomatique from the newsstand across from the University of NM, but that bit the dust a couple of years ago, and I now subscribe directly to their electronic edition.

When I was growing up in the suburbs of Boston, every neighborhood had its Mum and Pop grocery store, and those gradually went out of business, leaving nothing but 7-11's and other chains, usually a drive instead of a walk away. I'm afraid most local shops are doomed to the same fate, and I'm sorry about it. I try to support my local camera stores, but they don't carry new Olympus gear, and my main shooter is an E-M5, and I cannot afford to pay twice what B&H is asking for a roll of black and white film for the film cameras I still shoot. Economic realities hit my pocket book just like they hit local businesses. And they no longer carry the chemicals or paper I use. When I was working out of my home, contracting for darkroom work, I had an account at t local store and used it. But when darkroom purchases are all cost and no profit, I just cannot do it unless I find some unexpectedly well paying work to lift me out of my unchosen retirement.

Luke: If I lived where you do, I'd be in your store every week. Browsing record stores is how I spend most of my Saturdays for years -- the reason there are thousands of unshelved LP's in boxes on my living room floor.

 

[Boid]

Luke. the more I think about your store, the more I feel that you shouldn't rally against the online selling space. In fact I think that it's the best thing to happen to your store. Instead of targeting more customers, you should probably recognize that you're operating in a niche "luxury" market now. The traditional cd/ld superstores have gone belly up. You're it. The problem that you should be looking at addressing right now is how best to communicate to your users/clients that they are operating in a "luxury" space as well. I deal a lot in my work with perceptions of luxury, and mostly what it takes is a smart operator creating an authentic experience around a space/product. You correctly identify the factors that make much of buying music online "soul less" and "dead". This is a fantastic realization. You now know exactly what you don't want to be. Many companies spend a lot of money in trying to understand the limitations of their business, and you already have that clarity.

I can't give you any advice on how to run your store, but a few pointers that I have found helpful when I advise my clients, is to carefully identify patterns and touch points in the retail experience. What exactly does your client do when in the store? Will a coffee help keep him/her in longer? A comfortable pair of headphones? Do you need to get him to take his shoes off and give him a comfy pair of cloth slippers? (I kid, but only just). How do you make his experience completely unlike a cold/impersonal buying experience over the net? Maybe in the evenings you light the store using candle light, lighting a hundred candles every day. Browsing by candle light, how beautifully romantic.

People will constantly surprise you by recognizing the effort that you put in, and you will have to fight your instinct to say "f*ck it, it's not worth it, no one will give a damn". Well, you will be wrong in that assessment. People are desperate for an experience. I just got sent this image by an ex-colleague today, visiting a project I did a few years ago (

https://imgur.com/Q9lUDQz

) and yep, that's candle light. And it's not about lighting candles, that's just an example. The idea is to take that effort and make it visceral for the end user. Maybe it could be a perfect cup of coffee from a Domobar Junior. It's about creating multiple layers of experiences, not just a hit and run.

For all I know you may have already tried all this and I might be way off in my suggestions. My apologies if that's the case! I just wish you the very best for your store going forward. PM me if you want to brainstorm about your retail space, I'd be happy to help.

 

[Lawrence A.]

Hi Boid: I'm probably in the minority, so I speak only for my cranky self, but all the retail bells and whistles you mentioned just annoy me. If I want a perfect cup of coffee, I either make it or go to one of the locally owned cafés. What I want from a bookstore is a great selection of books without a lot of come-ons. They tend to make me feel the same way that on-commission sales people do - irritated and wanting to leave. A comfortable chair is welcome, but to browse through an interesting book, not to sit down with refreshments while I decide if I really want to be in a bookstore, a restaurant, or a massage parlor.

As for record stores, again, I want lots of recordings, and preferably a whole bunch of LP's, which I've always found more "browsable" than CD's. What I don't want is total all-body experience. I'm old enough to think that people who want to kick around in their slippers should stay home and do that. I'm not interested in my local record store owner playing proxy Mum and offering me chicken soup for my sniffles. I just want records.

It is certainly not your fault, but I find what passes for the modern "total" shopping experience in many boutiques stores that try to offer all the comforts of home to be demeaning, condescending, and, frankly, infuriating.

However, I do congratulate you on your quotation from Voltaire, which reflects a truth that should be engraved on every school and every church, mosque, or synagogue, since it does not seem to be held close in the hearts of humans.

 

[Luke]

Thanks Rajiv for your insights....as well as yours Larry.

My shop will be the very last record store standing. I'm not really concerned about myself. The point of the post was to suggest to those who may have forgotten (and that's not Rajiv or Ray who both clearly love the "online experience") how enjoyable a good "real life" browse can be and how different it is from the online one. (and if you don't like to shop in person.....I understand that...we all lie different things. I sit in front of a screen too much as it is....I like getting away from it and getting out)

I couldn't care less how well or poorly the online retailers fare. I offer something they can not match.

Irrespective of my own shop though, I do have a very real fear if a majority of brick and mortar stores fail. where do people buy stuff when they actually need it on the same day. Or what does everyone do for a living that used to work in those shops? Or who will pick up the slack on the property tax collected when all the malls are empty?

 

[Ray Sachs]

Just to be clear, and to sound defensive because why not, there have been a couple of comments about not wanting to go out to the stores being related to laziness or not minding having too much screen time. I know they weren't aimed at anyone in particular, but just to clarify, I LOVE to go out and when circumstances allow, I'd MUCH rather be out doing something rather than sitting at a screen. That said, shopping just isn't one of those things I've ever seen as anything but a necessary evil. Or at least not in a very VERY long time. So the less time and energy I can devote to it, the more time and energy I have for doing other things I either enjoy more or find a more productive use of my time.

The whole idea behind personal use of computers isn't to make our lives easier per se - it's to let the computer handle the menial tasks so you can spend more time on the creative side of things. To me, shopping is a menial task at best, one devoid of pleasure. So to the extent I can minimize the time and energy needed to do it, the more time and energy I have for things I'd rather be doing and/or find more useful.

Shopping online isn't because I'm too lazy to hit the shops! One of my favorite activities is walking around cities all day, so I'm out there doing stuff, generally walking past about a zillion shops. I'd just rather not stop into any more of those shops than absolutely necessary...

Personal preference and allocation of time and energy - that's all...

-Ray

 

[stillshunter]

Nice clarification Ray. Just to pick up on one small point of both agreement and departure:

I'd MUCH rather be out doing something rather than sitting at a screen. That said, shopping just isn't one of those things I've ever seen as anything but a necessary evil. Or at least not in a very VERY long time. So the less time and energy I can devote to it, the more time and energy I have for doing other things I either enjoy more or find a more productive use of my time.

I'm with you on, what I consider, the necessities such as grocery and clothes shopping, but for things I enjoy spending my time with (a.k.a. my little evils) I make the exception. Scouting for something like books, music, or camera equipment is an absolute pleasure. It's the thrill of the chase, the hunt for these things that I get a real buzz from. For those things I am passionate about, I confess to often enjoying the chase more than the consumption. ...and even the thrill of winning a lowball on eBay pales in comparison to finding a diamond in rough on clearance or at a charity store or a car boot sale. Maybe it has something more to do with the process, who knows, but then again that's oddball me we're talking about here.

 

[Luke]

Yeah, I'd love to never set foot in a grocery store again. I find the repetitive nature of buying the same groceries week after week to be literally soul-crushing. If I ever decide to end it all, it might very well be in the frozen goods section.

 

[stillshunter]

Man I had forgotten the beauty of those Lukenian turns of phrase:

If I ever decide to end it all, it might very well be in the frozen goods section.

Classic!!! How I have missed this place.
I suppose this demonstrates a clear positive of the internets - namely the merits of stumbling on sites such as Serious Compacts during my browsings. Then again I reckon I'd find conversation over a beer or eight with Luke just as engaging. Pfffttt, yeah right, it'd be a hoot. Unless he clams up in real life and we resort to Tapatalking each other across the table for laughs...

 

[Djarum]

I used to enjoy browsing for electronics. TVs, Cameras, and audio equipment. Now I browse forums like these to "buy" what I want. The browsing experience for me is now going to forums to figure out what I need or what I might like based on other users experiences. Part of the problem for me is that browsing is high pressure in many stores. Or browsing is just too limited. For example, I remember walking in to a Circuit city 15 years ago and listening to some floor standing speakers. Nothing high end. I even brought a CD to listen to. It was no big deal. Walking into BB and doing that is near impossible. All I can listen to is whatever they have piped into their receiver and into the speakers. I can't play with settings or anything like that. Demoing a product was just that, a real demo. If I can't really demo a product, I might as well buy it online. Heck, a store manager wouldn't even let me play with the color settings on a TV that was obviously set way too cool of a color temperature.