Online shopping, shopping malls etc

cc you can set up an email alert on the M&S site if your item is out of stock.

Being elderly with a shape that confirms that, I have looked in all the available shops I have in my vicinity. No luck for a summer dress as styles just don’t work for me. I have had much better luck on line. Time and time again I can’t find things locally but Amazon produces just what I want. I have always enjoyed shopping and yes I would prefer to try things on but can’t if they are not available. When needing fridge freezers, washing machine, dishwasher I have gone to JL and ordered from there or online later when I get home. However recently my microwave went kaput so looked on Amazon, read up on product details and reviews, pressed a couple of buttons and one arrived next day like a miracle on the shoulder of a cheery young Amazon man who offered to put it where most convenient. As we no longer drive and couldn’t just go and pick one up it was great.

nanna8

He, there was an item on the radio today saying there is a trend away from online shopping here and people are going back to the shops. Interesting.

I'm not sure if I believe them! There are so few good non-food shops left now. Even our local big shopping mall is fairly quiet except at weekends.
There's a pretty good sized M&S on a small trading estate near us and only the food part is ever bustling. Also there are usually people there returning unwanted online purchases as it is simpler to park there than trying to get to a Post Office.
It's all on one floor so you can see everyting and there are times when you can be the only person looking at clothes or homeware.

Jaxjacky

cc you can set up an email alert on the M&S site if your item is out of stock.

Yes, I've tried that when the box was showing, but I have NEVER had them get back to me! I suspect that once clothing has sold out that is it.

I used to like the M and S website but it seems to have gone off a bit. They separate out what we can get from what is available in the uk, put the price up and think we will ‘wear’ it, excuse the pun! People are not stupid and just look at the cheaper prices of what we can’t get and it’s goodbye.

Comment on the business pages yesterday on M&S annual results - sales up, especially in food and clothing - described the company in an aside, 'as already owning the fashion market for the 'over 55s'

Reading this thread and many others on GN, I cannot imagine where the commentator got this impression. Running a cursory eye over my wardrobe - and I am well over 55 - and I have a couple of items from M&S, but no individual brand is central to my wardrobe.

I was interested to read nanna8 s comments about a move away from online shopping, I think she is in Australia. We have just returned from holiday at a familiar destination in France and noticed how many new dress shops had sprung up in the local high street in the last year.

Te intersting thing is that they are all indpendent shops, not chain stores, and seemed to be quite busy.

nanna8

He, there was an item on the radio today saying there is a trend away from online shopping here and people are going back to the shops. Interesting.

That’s in Australia I take it nanna. Wonder if it will happen here in UK

I dislike shops intensely. I probably do 90% of my shopping online now. I can browse comfortably, at my leisure, at a time that suits me (which is often 2 or 3 in the morning, because I don't sleep well), and it's often less expensive, to boot. Win/win in my opinion. Even before the pandemic I was an avid online shopper, but it's definitely increased since then, due to the fact that, out of sheer necessity I found many more online shops that I like, so I've stuck with them. I can't remember the last time I visited my local town centre, but it's definitely pre-pandemic. My son visited from Australia last year and he popped over there to visit some old friends and do some shopping, and he told me then that it was dead as a dodo. 60% of the shops were closed and it felt like a ghost town, he said. I wasn't too surprised, to be honest.

I heard somewhere recently that there is talk of an online shopping tax being introduced to help the High Street. I think that would be very wrong - if people are happy to buy online it is nobody’s business to try to change that.

I agree with you, Doodledog and what a cheek! Who would the money go to? Bet my bottom dollar it would be the politicians and they would probably not use it in the best interest of shoppers, either.

there is talk of an online shopping tax being introduced to help the High Street

Platforms like Ebay in the USA now charge a tax to many of their buyers based upon their home state location. Taxes vary considerably from one state to another. I buy a lot in the USA so I was careful to choose a US based shipper in a tax free state. The money generated (which is paid by buyers) has to be paid to the appropriate state authority and this is arranged by the online platforms themselves. There is no accountability about what is done with the money. It does not seem to have put people in the USA off buying online.

Fortunately we dont have multiple states in this country but I can see this happening in the foreseeable future. The greedy politicos in westminster lose no opportunity to find new ways to fleece people while lining their own pockets.

biglouis

*there is talk of an online shopping tax being introduced to help the High Street*

Platforms like Ebay in the USA now charge a tax to many of their buyers based upon their home state location. Taxes vary considerably from one state to another. I buy a lot in the USA so I was careful to choose a US based shipper in a tax free state. The money generated (which is paid by buyers) has to be paid to the appropriate state authority and this is arranged by the online platforms themselves. There is no accountability about what is done with the money. It does not seem to have put people in the USA off buying online.

Fortunately we dont have multiple states in this country but I can see this happening in the foreseeable future. The greedy politicos in westminster lose no opportunity to find new ways to fleece people while lining their own pockets.

The US have always had extra tax on their goods, which vary state to state. The price you see on the ticket, isn't the price you'll pay at the till, because they add differing amounts of tax to it. I think it's just that now they're aligning their online sales to match.

i shop online now as i have to use a walker outside and i don't drive, i buy from poundland online and get about 3 months of cleaning and laundry products, i get tops from wish, and other things from primark when my son takes me out. my food shopping is because i don't have a choice now, i have a morrisons 5 mins away that i can buy small items.

Grantanow

Our small Somerset market town is thriving and thankfully - unlike Bruton and Frome - free of celebs, London journalists and discarded politicians.

same here, my small market town too and also in somerset.

Free parking helps as do central and clean toilets. It does get quiet on saturday afternoons but that was the norm wrt local shops in Liverpool in the old days. I try to buy local when possible and love the chats with strangers and also love the many benches all over the place