"Window Shopping" From Home

Ironically, although my blogs host ads, I've never purchased anything online. I'm a kinesthetic shopper and "people person." I have to touch, feel, see up close whatever I'm buying. I don't trust the pictures. I'm too suspicious. Nothing is the same f2f. In addition, I like getting to know the salespeople and pop in to my favorite stores, just to say "Hello."

There were times when I worked in sales, as an advertising agent, wandering from place to place trying to close a deal. I even sold bagel sandwiches, pastries, salads and drinks from coolers on trays I wheeled from office to office in Jerusalem's Har Chotzvim, high tech industrial zone over twelve years ago. And I also worked in a couple of stores as a saleswoman. The personal connection has always been important to me.

I'm not your primary potential customer when it comes to internet shopping.

But last night, a neighbor's daughter came over, because I had promised to help her pick out a digital camera. At first I thought that I'd just go with her to Jerusalem, but then I realized that all the preparation is best done online.

She had already gone to CAMERA (formerly Photo Nissim,) where I had purchased mine almost three years ago. I decided that the most efficient and effective way of camera pre-shopping was online, as my sons had told me. But now, after close to three years of experience using a digital camera, I actually understand something about them.

So we went onto the CAMERA site, which is in Hebrew (there are pictures and model names/numbers in English,) and parallel to that, then we went into the international English customer reviews for the cameras which suited her budget.

I like the CAMERA store, because it has a repair lab on the spot, and the staff has been extremely helpful and courteous each time I've gone in for questions and "repairs." I put the word, "repairs," in quotation marks, because in the end, nothing has ever been broken. I just didn't know and still don't know how to adjust all the menu/function options. I doubt if I ever will.

Some of the cameras we checked out had reviewers complain bitterly that the cameras needed constant battery changes or took much too long between shots. And the store offers different lengths of time for the guarantees, from one to five years. I explained to the young teen what points to look for and the importance of the service contract.

It was great to be able to switch from "window to window" checking it all out from the comfort of my own home. That is the way to prepare for purchasing a camera and other sorts of appliances.

I admit that I've never before done it, but now I understand the how and why's (wise) of it.