Offline Shopping - Riding the wave back to personal interaction

Are any of you old enough to remember the time when offline shopping was the only type of shopping you could do? Okay, yes there was the telephone order catalogue and maybe TV Shopping was becoming a thing, but we are talking the days before the internet was even thought of.

Without harping on the nostalgia, do you remember that this shopping experience required a human to human interaction. This type of interaction involved asking advice, perhaps some small talk and generally making the time necessary to go shopping. Fast forward today and the ease and speed of which online shopping can be done has removed the need for humans altogether. So has this optimized and sterile evolution resulted in happier shoppers or shop owners?

Yes, one can point to how good Jeff Bezos (of Amazon fame) life must be now that he is a multi-guzillionaire. But what about the rest of us? Do you actually pause to think about the shopping experience and say it was enjoyable? Did the online interaction make you smile? Was it memorable? Is it something you tell your friends and family about?

For the record, I am actually an avid user of the internet and do purchase things online frequently. I do enjoy the buzz of researching a product and hopefully finding the best possible deal out there. When I was a big eBay user, it used to get my heart racing as the auction count down neared it's climax. I remember being over joyed at winning the item at the price I wanted. I may have even raved about it to my friends. But for the life of me, I cannot remember what the product was, who I bought it from, or what I paid for it.

With all the advancements in online interaction design and development, there will always be something that a computer cannot replace. That human interaction. That human touch. That human connection with another being.

Shopping need not be a touchy feely event each time, but does each purchase need to be an optimized exchange? I am loathe to visit my local sterile shopping chain, because the people working behind the counter have as much desire to be there as a teenager does at school. They've been so down trodden by the CEO's desires to make a profit, that they don't even want to look the customer in the eye.

My wife and I have observed this trend that serves profits over people. We have seen how we all value saving a few dollars on a purchase over how the lives of those local shop owners can be improved by spending that money locally. And this is not to mention the effects our spending habits have had on our local and federal economies.

So next time you find that perfect item online, pause to think of your local provider. Pause to think about the effects your online purchase will have. Perhaps if we all pause to think, we might be able to reverse the trend of globalization and bring back the joy and connection we used to have.