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My personal idea of hell- relying on the Internet for everything that I want and need in my life.
With that said, I'm also not going to complain that the stores that I want to go to are not around the corner anymore. I made the choice to live in the boonies- so I live with it.
You live with it. Many who move to rural areas don't want to. They left somewhere to get away from whatever and then turn around and want to bring it to their new place.
You live with it. Many who move to rural areas don't want to. They left somewhere to get away from whatever and then turn around and want to bring it to their new place.
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.
Is shopping really so important to people that they have to seek out places to spend money?
Yes. City people revere shopping the same way they do going out to the movie theater or visiting a museum. It is a hobby, cathartic, and relaxing. Plus adrenaline junkies love finding a great deal.
When I clicked on this thread I honestly thought that it was going to be about clothing shopping.
Yes, I do think that is what CD posters mean when they ask about the shopping in different towns. This thread highlights the difference between very urbanized and very rural people. The regular posters think people mean groceries, but urban people mean shopping for fun.
Personally, I don't like shopping "for fun." I don't have a lot of money and I don't want to go look at things I can't buy. I still don't think I would, even if I could afford shopping all the time. I would rather see a need, think about it for awhile, then go shopping for that particular item.
That said, I do like "big trips" to the larger city. It makes it more of an outing and I don't feel like I'm wasting money, because I'm getting it all done at once.
Lots of the females have a 'piece of meat' coping strategy for low-mood or stressing times. With the objectification of females considered 'normal', many do feel obsessive about packaging up their prettiness in something different too frequently with expensive salon treatments, fake nails and lots of mall shopping for clothing/shoes. Some of the city males will even call a female an ugly for skipping makeup or wearing older clothing so...is ugly way of showing wealth too by dressing up the house Frau and prance around the community.
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.
Low moods are better handled by exercising outside in daylight. Can get same buzz and relief from melancholy or stressed times from just walking or jogging around. Can work in yard or do projects for more sense of accomplishing something if half-way fit. Exercise, is cheapest way to handle boredom too.
Rest of us just wear the thrift store clothing or clearance rack at mall stores for best value. The discount store clothing is such a bad investment, can be completely sheer without being able to tell even with a dressing room visit, last a year max if put in dryer and necklines so low it isn't okay for work. Nothing really fits a shorter female even sometimes with the skin-tight look so popular right now. Lots is just unflattering clothing look for females lots of times and really impractical. Rest of us who have to dress in business casual clothing at work wear clearanced stuff/thrift and just keep quiet about all the 'money issues'. Hang dry the female clothing to avoid ruining anything as it is very cheaply made anyway. Keeping quiet about where/what you bought and costs is best way to 'blend' in with the wealthies or broke ones and stick to 'working-class' income reality.
After moving a few times on short notice or in distress, one understands the relief of minimal belongings and just a few house decorations. 'Decorated' home is a huge burden after a couple moves and bad economic situations STILL in some areas.
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 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. Not everyone eats what you eat. Not everyone wears what you wear. Not everyone drives what you drive. No one else is you. What works for you, works for you. What works for you, may work for someone else and it may not work work someone else. Why worry about it?
For people from less rural areas, shopping is not necessarily about buying things, but about browsing. It's a social thing. I'm from Jersey - it rains a lot there. When my two best friends and I couldn't go out on a hike because of rain/mud, we'd go to our local mall. We'd rarely buy anything, but we'd stroll the mall and chat with each other, grab lunch and maybe see a movie. I'm in Colorado now, and the mall culture is fairly limited. Fortunately, I have other interests, but I do miss having multiple friends that would be up for window shopping.
Also, when I have to do Christmas shopping, Jersey's malls were great for that. I could knock my list out in a day. Here.... meh, not so much.
You know; I used to be a confirmed shopaholic. I even called it "Retail Therapy".
I was doing a lot of home research regarding women's health issues & the topics started somewhat snowballing for me:
I found some very disturbing statistical manipulations & thought "WHY?" (I have since learned; that anytime something does not make sense: Follow The Money).
That. ..was not what I "signed up for". I'm not much into politics. Or agendas. Or definitley not conspiracy theories. All I knew was that something that was supposed to be a great option for birth control made me very sick. And reversing the procedure made me well.
And that whole experience made me really pi***d.
Why (and yes; please stay with me here. this has everything to do with OP's topic)?
The answer lay at the end of a very loooong paper trail that led me through the topics of World Population policies from the late 60's to early 1970's here in the US.
As many of the original documents had been declassified starting in the late 1980's I was able to feed my appetite for information fairly easily.
I am now very disgusted at what I found to be intentional targeting of American farmers & rural people. The thought process was that Farmers typically had large families; they were tatgeted as "least likely" to limit their fertility rates due to needing "extra-hands" on the farm. The US government actually saw the strong & prosperous "family farm" to be a threat to their main agenda: Control of Natural Resources via Population Control.
Some of these documents had very clear "Plans Of Action" (thats what they were literally called) designed to use propoganda as a way to discourage rural Americans from self-sufficiency & Agriculture.
Take people off the farms. Put them in cities (city "folk" have lower fertility rates). Encourage mass consumerism vs self-sufficiency as a way of life. Gain control of the resources.
Elementary school textbooks began to "morph" American History. Farmers were portrayed as dirty, sad looking people living in dugouts. Enter popular television programs like "Beverly Hillbillies" & "Hee Haw" portraying country dwellers as laughable & stupid.
Any "Plan of Action" that was effective in rural America was then considered legitimate to be implimented in the countries that were in the "real" crosshairs of this agenda; Africa, India & South America.
I realize as I proofread what I'm writing that I sound like a "loon". I sound like a gloom & doom crazy lady.
I have always been a "city girl". I personally have no dog in this fight. And I found MY answer to MY question anyway.
But when I read a query as to why the consumerism (shopping) that may be noticed in rural America; I really can't resist. If you want to read for yourself how this "Plan of Action" came into existence; here is a link to the National Security Study Memorandum 200. Issued in 1974, declassified in 1980:
I was just a kid when Willie Nelson started his "Farm Aid" efforts but it looks to me like he never had a chance.
Personally; this turned me off of my "Shop till You Drop" lifestyle. I don't like feeling like such a tool.
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