Where do you shop online?

by Clark Sell Posted on August 8, 2011

I think we can easily agree that eCommerce has seen an explosion over the past decade. I personally do most of my shopping and buying online. I’m pretty fearless when it comes to purchasing online and I have bought items such as tires, my desk, tv, specialty food, homeowner type stuff and so on.

“It’s actually cheaper to buy batteries online than at to go to your local drug store.” – ME

I mean that as more of a general statement but if you look at the big picture there is actually a lot of truth to it. For me there are three factors when buying something, my time, gas, and the actual cost. Today ( at least where I live ) it seems like retailers are stocking a lot less than they used to. In fact I have event been to some big name brand stores who are purposefully shrinking there overall physical footprint and pushing you to buy from their online store.

In the case of batteries, since I am an Amazon.com Prime member, I can just hit up Amazon and order it, I get free shipping and will see it in two days. Don’t’ get me wrong, that isn’t always the case so shopping around should always yield you a better process but I think you get the gist.

So no further, here is my list of places I typically shop at online.

General

Here is my list of general online shopping places.

  • Bing.com/Shopping
    • Not sure where to go, seriously hit bing. I use bing shopping all the time to find things and retailers. Right now I am in a HVAC project for my house. I am using bing to find all the HVAC parts since the local hardware stores are just too expensive. Better yet, want to get paid just for searching around, check out bing rewards.
  • Amazon.com
    • I am sure you already know what Amazon is but what about Amazon Prime? With Amazon prime you have a yearly membership but almost all shipping is 2 day for free and 1 day for $4 more. Oh yea, Prime also lets you watch their online movies too.
  • Walmart
  • Woot.com
  • buy.com
  • StickerMule
  • Moo
    • I buy my custom business cards here.
  • Moleskine
    • Paper Notebooks
  • FieldNotes
    • Paper Notebooks
  • Brenthaven
    • Best bags on earth!
  • eBay
    • Online auction.
  • Costco
    • We are Costco members and the closest store to about 30 minutes away. Having said that, Costco online sometimes has different stuff than in the store.
  • PayPal
    • While not a store but rather a bank, I use PayPal any time a retailer offers it.
  • StubHub
    • Sporting Tickets
  • Netflix
    • Movies
  • Audible
    • Audio Books
  • Zune Pass
    • Unlimited music subscription

Clothing

When it comes to clothes I am a pretty simple person. Most of my awesome wardrobe comes from Kohls.

Automotive

If you have ever meet me or read this then you know I love my cars. I work on all of my cars, and I am doing a frame off full restoration of a 1970 Camaro. When it comes to tools I have one rule of thought ( regardless of project ); if your going to use it more than twice, just buy it. Depending on how much you will use it, should depend on how much you spend on the tool. For example. A socket handle, buy the best. A rare socket size that you might only use a handful of times, don’t spend a whole lot.

  • Summit Racing
    • Auto parts
  • Jegs
    • Auto parts
  • Amazon ( again )
    • They just about sell everything.
  • TireRack
    • Mainly rims and tires but other automobile items.
  • AutoZone
    • A local auto parts store who has now has one of the best parts searching and ordering site. They make it super easy to find your parts AND the store of which has all the parts.

Tools

Yes tools. I do a lot of things myself and have a lot of tools. I have bought tools such as a Miller MIG welder online.

Geek and Gadget

  • NewEgg
    • Online computer store. The first place I shop when looking for computer related parts.
  • TigerDirect
    • Online computer store.
  • Frys
    • The Walmart of Electronics.
  • B&H
    • Camera’s, Audio, Microphones and on and on. Very big selection of electronics.
  • Worthington Distribution
    • I get my home automation stuff from these guys.
  • ThinkGeek
    • Total geeky stuff but cool.
  • MonoPrice
    • Best place ever to buy things like cables etc. You would be surprised how much less an hdmi cable costs from here than some place like BestBuy.
  • Gazelle
    • Sell back your gadgets and get a little money back.
  • Microsoft Store
    • You may think this is sill but the next time your shopping for a pc check it out. the Microsoft store sells certified pc’s without all the bloat ware on it.

Other

  • Workspaces.com
    • Yes I bought my office desk from Seattle, and no I don’t have Redmond envy. After we finished my office we needed a desk. In my mind I knew what I wanted but we were left with a custom space. I managed to find these guys and build a custom desk that quite honestly is kick ass! We worked together to with CAD drawing and scale diagrams, I got the size, shape and color I wanted all without ever leaving the house. It arrived on a semi truck and it took me a few hours to put together. I have now had the desk almost 2 years and it was an awesome purchase. These guys were great!
  • The Well Guru
    • For me this is the quintessential internet find. When we built the house we currently lived in, we had to have a water well. Not having one before I jumped online and started to do some research. Eric the founder is awesome and really knows his stuff.  Thank you Well Guru for fixing my water.
  • Angies List
    • Not an online store but an online service that allows you to find and read reviews on local services based business. Let’s say your looking for a good plumber in the area, look to Angies List to help you out. Companies cannot pay to be on the list, it’s all based on customer reviews. I even used them to review the Well Guru.

Summary

Don’t get me wrong, I still love to get out of the house at times and shop at a place like Frys. But that doesn’t happen very often and the time saved by shopping online let’s me have more time for things like my family. I didn’t try to list all of the places I have ever transferred money online but rather the ones I frequently use.  I am sure I missed a few too.

And before you ask… Yes, I know my UPS man by name.

Where do you shop? What would you add to the list?

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  • http://devhammer.net/ G. Andrew Duthie

    One place that’s great for office furniture is IKEA. Their modular stuff is very flexible in terms of how you can configure it, and it’s pretty reasonable cost-wise. I’ve got several pieces that I’ve used in a couple different offices in different configurations (currently using two desks in an L configuration), and I’ve been very happy with them.

  • Anonymous

    @Andrew, Good mention. Yea, IKEA is great, we have a store about 45 minutes away. We have purchased a few things from them in the past but I have never tried their online store.

  • Jromer

    Equipment Failures
    I have had repeated failure with the equipment used in the Well Guru’s design, more specifically the Water Way In-line Chlorinator (515-1210) and the Water Way Check Valve (600-7010). The lids on both of these products broke at the manufactured seams multiple times, having nothing to do with regular maintenance as the owner suggested. I got in contact with the manufacture Water Way Plastics and was told the products you used on my system are designed and tested for pool and spa’s use only. Furthermore, they recommend that I have a professional remove the system since the products were not tested for use on wells or county or city water services. While they stated they have no controls over how any product of theirs is used, they did confirm lack of maintenance or lack of using salt in my system would not have caused the lids on the Chlorinator or Check Valve to crack. As to the O ring being dry or needing to be inspected and or replaced, as the Well Guru claimed to have caused the failure, Water Way stated that would not have caused the lids to crack either. The Well Guru refused to consider the problem may be the design and blamed everything on maintenance. The problem with the lids cracking started soon after installation but he did not come out to see why the failures were occurring. He has slandered me and sent me an email telling me “Refund Request. No contract / no service – abuse and your shutoff” and called me a JERK. Funny, I thought I was a customer? I have removed the water purification system designed and installed at my residence by the Well Guru. I requested a full refund and in return told them they could come and get the equipment they installed. I now have a new system which is working great, water is clear not Gray (even using salt), no chlorinator which means I no longer require Chlorine which I found out is not recommended to be used in water being consumed by humans since chlorine has been linked to causing Cancer. I would not recommend their system!