Fun & Famous
SHOP BUT NEVER DROP
by Maddy Stolk
It is one of my favorite hobbies, and also my most pointless. I know I'm not the only one, so I wonder: why do people do this? And by people, I mean myself for convenience.
The most pointless hobby of all time goes like this: with great care and attention, I browse online stores. Not so long ago, I moved, so it was perfectly legitimate to take a little stroll between work. In webshop number 1, I drag a new couch into my digital shopping cart, in webshop number 2 a great painting for my pristine white wall, and along the way, I inevitably come across a few earrings that – oh hallelujah – are the missing link in my collection. Throughout the day, there are at least six tabs open with well-filled shopping carts; in some webshops, I only have to click ‘checkout’, I've even already filled in my address and other details.
And then, just before I close my laptop, I buy – and here it comes – nothing. In most webshops, they automatically empty the cart if you don't respond for 60 minutes, in others it remains there after a week, even if you've logged out and back in. Those are quite confronting, because what seemed indispensable last week looks a lot less essential a week later.
“I didn't order anything, did I? Did I?”
That brings me back to today's question: why do I do this? Time and time again – I fill entire evenings with this nonsense. It's probably something as primal as hunting. But then the variant where you don't have to go into the wilderness with a spear and danger to your own life. The hunting is fun, the searching, the finding, but after that, it doesn't really need to happen anymore. I believe I gain more insight into the male psyche on the spot – that part that prefers to hunt rather than catch, at least.
If a box is delivered at home again, I always think: surely for the neighbors, because I didn't order anything, did I? Did I?
Oh wait, I did.
And come on, then it's just like I'm receiving a gift. From myself, for myself – those are usually the best gifts anyway.
All that browsing on the worldwide web has nevertheless yielded me a few really nice addresses. Sharing is caring, so voilà:
tops and dresses where it is always summer
subtle jewelry
cool reinvented, with a nice site and Insta
in their gift shop you never leave empty-handed
kick-ass rings, ear cuffs, and more
101 top-notch brands
from couch to tea mug, you want everything in your home
French je-ne-sais-quoi
