What Is With the Shopping Obsession? (acre, home, coastal, buy)

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by RogueMom

I'm with you. If I enjoyed being surrounded by strip malls, big box stores and mega-grocery stores, I wouldn't be living in a rural area. Those are the types of things I was glad to get away from after growing up in suburbia.

Also, many chains do not come to rural areas because the economics don't support it. This is not where people with lots of discretionary income tend to live. Most people around here are not all that into "status" brands, or able (or willing) to spend hundreds of dollars on a handbag.

We have a Super Walmart, Lowes, Ingles, Food Lion, and a Marshalls, and of course a few dollar stores. If you want more than that, the next big town has all the chains, (an all the congestion and traffic too). I find what I need and want here, and my "entertainment" shopping is mostly yard sales and flea markets!

Some stores I have rarely, or never been in and could care less:

Old Navy
American Eagle
Publix
Whole Foods
Target
Costco
Trader Joes
Sam's Club
Aeropostale
Any of the "high-end" stores such as Under Armour, Michael Kors, Coach, blah, blah.

But I understand what the OP is saying. Some people on these threads act as though something vital will be missing from their lives if they don't have easy access to all of these places. To me, quality of life has nothing to do with what stores I shop in.

Most of that is available in Asheville. The thing about having such limited grocery options is that prices go up. I live in Kingsport over the border in east TN, and groceries here are MUCH higher here than in Indianapolis and selection is often poor. I like turkey sausage for breakfast - it's just not available here. There are a lot of things like that have to be adjusted to.

[Romaneats]

The only shopping I splurge on is food and groceries.
The least type of shopping I do is clothes (I love my $1 deals for certain brand new camo long sleeves at end of the seasons.. so even when I shop, is off seasons stuff)

I am cheap.. yes not frugal but cheap (happy to be known that way) most da time and dun like paying retail.
Will splurge only when my family comes to visit.

Eg.. 5 days of $1 per person dinner meals (I sometimes splurge for lunch, cheaper than dinners).. weekends of $40 - $100 meals. A nice balance.

[Scooby Snacks]

Originally Posted by mishigas73

I was actually responding more to the idea that one can get whatever they want/need online.

Certainly, people can do whatever they want to do, and live however they want to live, but I disagree that buying things online is, across the board, "just as good" as actually seeing, in person, what one is about to purchase.

This. I find that buying things online is appropriate for some items and not others. Online shopping is not a replacement for brick and mortar shopping; it is a supplement. I don't buy clothes online unless absolutely necessary. They invariably don't fit and I hate doing returns only to likely have to return them again. It really irks me the way stores like Kohl's and JC Penney offer me this and that clothing item, but only if I order online. If I must purchase it online, they don't make a sale. The color may be off, the size may be off, it might be ugly, it could be wrong in so many ways. It's too risky.

Grocery shopping online is too expensive for what you get, especially liquids. I do order dog food online because it's always the same and I get truly free shipping through Chewy, along with dog toys and supplies. I get used books online, hygiene things, anything that ships with reasonable ship costs and doesn't have a lot of individual variability within the products.

[gemmom24]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I keep seeing shopping come up in threads about moving to rural areas. Maybe I'm too set in my ways, but I rarely need anything I can't find at the supermarket, NAPA or the Farmer's Co-op.

You're obviously a guy. Most guys hate shopping in the first place.

I like clothes and prefer to try them on vs buy online. Same with shoes. Last time I checked, groceries, NAPA and Farmer's Co-ops didn't sell clothes. I also like browsing through bookstores, going to sports events, coffee shops and eating out -- which is why I don't live in a rural area. I think I would go crazy.

That's what great about America. We get to choose!

[PAhippo]

Actually there are quite a few women (myself being one) who hate to shop. If I were moving, a grocery store within 12 miles or so would be mandatory. Also gas station and pharmacy.

Wouldn't want a mall with a minimum of 20 miles.

Which pretty much describes where I live.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I keep seeing shopping come up in threads about moving to rural areas. Maybe I'm too set in my ways, but I rarely need anything I can't find at the supermarket, NAPA or the Farmer's Co-op. There's a Wal-Mart about 20 miles away. I was in it about 5 years ago, but my local membership discount store started stocking 5 quart jugs of motor oil, which was the only thing I bought there. Costco is just a little farther, but I let my membership lapse after I bought hearing aids and glasses the last time. I also bought about 20 LED light bulbs there. My local big box supermarket has prices as good as Costco with a better selection, so I'm not tempted to buy pallet loads of toilet paper. If I can't find something in town, I just buy it on the internet. I bought a tractor 12 years ago. How many tractors do you need?

Is shopping really so important to people that they have to seek out places to spend money?

Well, a thing or two or three.

First of all, an observation about being thrifty. To me, it seems with a lot of people when it comes to money in hand, they think what can they spend it on. Myself, I tend not to think like that.

Secondly, a good support to that comes in all the grand ideas I might have for doing something but then along comes, "I'm too tired, I'll buy that "tomorrow""......in short, I'm lazy!

Finally, there is in me the tendency to try to do it with what I have in hand.

Add to all this that right now I am moving again and I am rather dismayed at all the stuff I have....and have to move.

BUT.....you mention the internet, of just buying it on that, and the internet can be "dangerous" for in how our laziness might stop us, so might the ease of the net might enable us.

I might also caution that out in the country we might be driven to having massive stores of this or that, be compelled to stockpile. Further, the necessary infrastructure can be a rather long list of things. Right now, for instance, I have a 12 foot ladder in my den for putting books on the top most shelf. That ladder will also double, maybe, for climbing atop my 2800 gallon well tank when I need to make a visual check of levels. I learned the hard way when I was living in apartments to never have a locked door between myself and a tool kit, so now I have numerous kits all around the place. We have our freezers, perhaps our dehydrators, our emergency generators, my builder told me I need to get pneumatic tools, etc, etc, etc..

It may not be shopping but we tend to need a lot of stuff.

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

ROFL! Around here, the old guys meet up at Karen's Coffee Cup or The Sportsman, two family owned restaurants where you can still get free refills on your coffee. A table full of old guys in work shirts, suspenders and worn boots at 6 AM can easily represent 8 or 9 digits worth of property and resources...........

We-ll, to me, that's being a marine biologist in Texas. Being in a restaurant like that, with simple tables and stackable chairs, at the crack of dawn before going out to do field work on the barrier islands, and then being back there in the evening for one's gumbo.

Originally Posted by marino760

Some people make shopping a hobby. It's a reason to get out of the house and walk around a mall or big box store for several hours. I think people like this aren't really shopping, their just bored. Look at the retirement thread and see how many people won't move anywhere unless there's an upscale mall within 15 minutes.

Now that is something I have started is making a daily list of things needed, to take with me when I leave the house. When it is 30 minutes into town (and 30 minutes back), it is not help to waste trips. I use to just shop depending on my memory to tell me, as I went down row after row, telling me what I needed. I don't think I can shop like that anymore.

Originally Posted by Woodrow LI

Because we only go "Shopping" about once a month for most of the year and not at all during the Winter months we do stock up on both the necessities and the trivial. My wife and I try to keep a minimum of 3 months of necessities on hand at all times. We also make certain we always have at least 2 vehicles on hand and never let them have less than half a tank of gas.

Here one can never know when the utilities will be down or for how long or when the roads may be impassable. We always anticipate that there will be times we will not be able to even get out of the driveway for up to 4 months.

So yes when we go shopping it does look like we are on a major spending spree. Our nearest discount store is a Wal-Mart 42 miles away. The Closest Costco is over 100 miles away. We hit Wal-mart every other month and our shopping tab is nearly always over $500. We get to Costco about twice a year and have yet to get out spending less than $1000. So yes when we shop it does look like we are spending money like it is going out of style.

It spite of the inconveniences we still moved from one rural area to an area that is even more rural. I guess we kind of get a kick at the look on the cashiers face when we buy 100 loaves of bread at a time. (Yes we have more than one freezer.)

Reminds me of when I am buying day old bread for campouts, oodles and ooldes of loaves. Even once had someone say to me, when I showed up, "What did you do? Knock over Mrs. Bard?".

Two days ago or so, I bought two more bags of kitty litter and two more 50 bags of tortillas, two items I seem to go through rapidly enough. The tortillas are the first occupants of my new chest freezer in the garage. The buying of day old bread and then putting it in the freezer, however, is something I learned from Mom.

I've started the practice of refueling every 2nd day for the car in use. Yesterday with the Forester, that was 2.3 gallons into its 16 gallon tank. Today when I am using the F-250, it is bound to be a bit more.

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I do the same with once a month shopping, but don't freeze bread. Instead, I bought a bread machine and just make bread when we need some.

Well, there you go, to each their own. My bread machine is a mixing bowl and a bread pan, for now. Eventually, I might build a bread oven.

.........I like to keep fresh milk on hand, and it will last 2 or 3 weeks in the fridge, but if I'm out I just mix canned cow with powdered milk.

I'm an Army brat and switched to only doing powdered milk in the mid 90s; hence, one is likely to find 2 or 3 huge boxes of the stuff in the pantry.

I don't have anything against grocery shopping more often, but going to town is such a nuisance. My wife and I will spend half a day making a shopping list of everything we need, then stop at 3 or 4 stores to get everything......

Well, as I said a few lines up about making a list. Further, my life is still about making, at least M-F, daily trips into town, in cars with large cargo bays, so it can come down to "targets of opportunities". This approach also reflects the lives I have lived and a degree of romanticism. Coming alongside the oiler for resupply, finding one's self in the unplanned port and seeing what's there that they use, things like that.

Originally Posted by cattalk1

.......
I agree with you. As many of the products from Dollar General are of inferior quality anyway, except for the consumables like cleaning stuff, food and toiletries; see no point to browse around even. Same with Walmart, the housewares are so cheap, don't even want to bother. Makes more sense to purchase all very infrequently on city shopping trips or order from online catalog. Most of the better housewares obtained at Kohls+ will last MUCH longer than discount store goods. If handled by line drying & cold wash, lasts even longer.

A number of things. The Dollar Store is one of my target of opportunities places. When I happen to be in that neighborhood, I stop by to see what is available in the canned meat section. I tend to know what the related costs at HEB, so if I can buy cheaper at 8 to 50 cents, I'll stock up a shopping back with $20-30 worth. It is not so much essential foods as it is supplementing supplies in the pantry.

Last weekend as I was heading across country for dance workshops, I found at home my gas stove wouldn't turn on. Certainly something I need to get looked at but for the time being, it meant buying more Pyrex for microwave cooking. So when I was in the distant town, I stopped by a Wally World and bought some more. Of course, we have Wally Worlds around here, but it was just a more efficient use of time I had around there in the place where I was at.

Finally, the Forester is a versatile little car. It can go through several loadings for this or that tasking, before it has to be demissioned (emptied) to start again.

Originally Posted by ss20ts

Well not everyone has a supermarket, NAPA, or a Farmer's Co-op! Many towns don't have a Wal-Mart. Some grocery stores in really small towns are TINY and don't carry much. They tend to be expensive as well. ........

This reminds me when Dad retired and moved to north of Austin before it's Silicon boom. I was still going to school up in Killeen and every so often, coolers would be put in the Volarie and I'd be given a list to stock them with from items at the commissary. T'was a way of life.

Originally Posted by GunnerTHB

As has been mentioned here: Non-Rural people moving to a Rural area. I don't get it either.

Well, maybe part of that issue is that many think of only two kinds of people, hick or city slicker. I remember reading a joke book as a child when I was living on Clark AFB and I was trying to figure out where my kind of life fit into that.

I got an interesting comment the other day as they put the landline in on my house. "A local city to the country move; we don't see much of that around here. Usually, new people to the country come from far, far away.".

What can I say? I have my childhood as an Army Brat. I have my past from living on ships. I have my nature life by being a Texas marine biologist. I see things more from a generalist approach than that of a specialist (in brief, instead of saying "That's not my job!" it is everyone pitches in).

I came to the country because I wanted room to do algae studies, perhaps to develop colonization techniques.

It is not just that we are either black or white.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

..........The only disadvantage of online shopping I can think of, is that I have to wait four or five days for it to arrive. It's not as instant as shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, but I think the convenience makes up for that.

Round two!

I suppose it depends on the person.

Whether due to reality or romanticism, I can be patient to waiting for things to arrive. I can tell Amazon, for instance, sure, 5 business days or more is okay and give me the credit.

I may have been raised on Bugs Bunny and the Acme delivery service, but I don't expect life to be like that.

Originally Posted by boxus

I am a rural person who moved to an urban area.

I love the variety and options to shop, the fifty different kinds of bread, the unique approach from numerous small companies to simple things like taco sauce, the ability to just go out of my house and be within 15 minutes walking distance of so many things, the whole scene of people hussling going here and there, etc, etc.

HOW CURIOUS because for me, it was the opposite way around.

When I was living in the apartments in a town that has since become a small city, I loved that I was within 15 minutes in three directions of being able to cycle on a country road.

The online world has made a lot of this available to rural living now days, .......

My joke of this week is that we are finally joining the modern world; we now have phones, like from a telephone pole, out there!

[Nattering Heights]

Shopping is the modern substitute for gathering and hunting. It's an instinct that gets channeled into a habit and skillset that become less useful outside of sub/urban life.

[Rolancaster01]

[quote]I'm also a believer in bulk buying, so if I need something I can't find locally it's not a big deal, just make a big trip out and buy in bulk/QUOTE]

I was born and raised in a big-little town. I moved to Santa Fe for school a few years back and it didn't take me too long to see that it was another big-little town. By big-little town I mean a town that has national and some international interest and recognition but not unusual to be stuck behind a tractor or smell horse stables and manure : great smell huh? 😀

Santa fe has a significant new-age and liberal community, but not without its fair share of personalities on the other side of the political spectrum; regardless of where you stand, there is a good sense of respect for self-reliance approaches to life and do-it-yourself adittudes - even if the solution is positing a big-box store.

There are plenty of Walmart and a sams club available , Costco - the Las two which cater to bulk buying. But eve noticed that plenty of people that come out here are from out of state - from big cities looking for small town or rural lifestyle (ever off-the-grid) - and as mentioned by op are concerned shopping, yet they refuse to buy bulk because they are against Walmart, Sams club Costco and such.

[PastTense01]

Originally Posted by Woodrow LI

I guess we kind of get a kick at the look on the cashiers face when we buy 100 loaves of bread at a time. (Yes we have more than one freezer.)

There are better alternatives than buying 100 loaves of bread at a time--buy them online. Look up Google Express:
https://express.google.com/


There are about 40 stores there which provide free shipping with a minimum $35 or so order. One of them is Costco. They offer about 20 different types of bread. Others selling breads are Whole Foods (a higher priced organic, etc supermarket) and in this area Treasure Island (a higher priced Chicago supermarket).