To Market to Market

In the lead up to Christmas, I have been hitting the shopping centres in the quest to find the perfect presents for my children, husband and other loved ones. Now I consider myself a pretty good shopper but this Christmas season I have not been able to find what I am after....

Could it be that my 4 year old isn’t a great shopper and I have to stop every 2 minutes to give him snacks and every other minute to entertain him with spot the colour games, watch him climb all over the trolley, pick him up off the floor when he spots a new toy that he really must have. All the while trying to spot the item I went shopping for in the first place.

Now is it because the centres are so full of people all searching for that elusive perfect present that I wanting to avoid a large group of people (I don’t need all that extra advice on how to control/entertain or restrain the 4 year old) am also missing the presents and bargains.

The other thing I have noticed is that so many of the stores have exactly the same products – there is nothing unique or that little bit different in the shops in the shopping centres – same products, similar price, same old tired service.

You know even when I do find something that I am after – trying to physically lay-by or purchase the item is such a task that I have been known to leave stuff in the trolley and walk out. I am sure most businesses have forgotten what customer service is, they have definitely forgotten how to deliver it. Now that makes me sound really old but I have to say that customer service is the most important area – if you don’t appreciate your customer then why would make that customer want to return to your shop.

So I made a conscience decision to stop going to the shopping centres and head to the markets. Perfect they are mostly on weekends so hubby can look after the shopping hater 4 year old and I can be free to find the perfect gifts.
Off I go to market, to market to find my great prize – problem for me is that most markets start really early in the morning and I am SO NOT a morning person that I turn up to watch the market stalls being packed up and although I have seen some amazing Gift Stalls at markets –t hey are predominately food & plants, so I normally do not return home with a jiggety jig.

A friend recently pointed me in the direction of Internet shopping – so like any novice, I searched and found a multitude of internet shopping sites. So how do you narrow your search? Well I decided to minimise the search to include only sites from my home country (Australia) – still a lot of sites. So then I narrowed the search again by specifically typing the type of gift I was after. As it turns out it was handmade gifts. So I just searched “handmade gifts au”. There were still a lot of sites that come up but I no longer had to go through every site to find a handmade product, I just had to search to find the right handmade gift. Much much easier.

Not only was I in the comfort of my own home, but my shopping hater 4 year old was entertained with his building blocks and racing cars. Best of all the customer service was friendly and efficient. And the icing on the cake no crowd of people to push through and no impossible car park to try and navigate.

How convenient, I now have the gift, a (reasonably) happy 4 year old and it was a stress free shopping experience. The online gift shop just posted me my purchases, all within a couple of days of my order.

So from now on, no more shopping centres, no more hustle and bustle of crowds, no more tantrums ( well it just might come true) from my 4 year old. I will just search the wonderful World Wide Web to find the perfect presents for my nearest and dearest. Happy Christmas.