NAS v OSS

Top: Sarah buys fresh fish in Hong Kong - OSS
Bottom: Thumper buys lettuce over the internat - NAS

FEATURE BY: Sander Den Haring
New Age Shopping, or ‘shopping on line’ is fast becoming the norm. I shall call this by the TLA* acronym NAS. Conventional shops obviously still exist for what I shall call ‘Old School Shopping’ or OSS. We still enjoy spending hours on end wandering from shop to shop, social interactions, getting the right size, advice and some things just cannot be found.
* Three letter acronym

Most of us have purchased an item online and have had mixed feeling from enjoyment, boredom, hatred, doubts, elation or many other emotional feelings. Let's face it though, isn’t that what all shopping is all about?

Of course you can mix NAS and OSS. One tactic that works well is requesting advice about the various items from shops and once all the information has been gathered, and your decision made, you then surf the net and explore the different prices offered. This is getting the best of both worlds but it is fair on the shops? Well the the shops offer a service and. if this is good enough, they will survive. If not, sadly, they will not; I, and I suspect you, will not be treating them as a charity.

There is an abundance of stock to be purchased from the internet and http://www.google.com/ will most likely lead you in the right direction but here are some of my own favourite sites that I pass on to those brave enough to venture into the electronic shopping mall.

http://www.7dayshop.com/ : Very useful link for electronic/computer accessories such as batteries (rechargeable and not), flash memory, cameras, camera memory, ink cartridges and toners, writeable media (cd’s, dvd’s etc).

http://www.mx2.com/: Similar to 7dayshop but more for ink cartridges, digital cameras, mp3 players.

http://www.play.com/ : If dvd movies, books, games or music is your hobby then visit this e-shop you must.

http://www.amazon.com/ This e-shop is very well known for its books but you find a variety of other items for sale as well. The thing about the books I like is that they will also give you the choice between a new book and a second hand book (if available). One can also sell books through this website.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ : The very well known e-auction they also have similar sites in different countries. You need it, they got it. Also if you wish to clear out your loft, house garage, don’t throw it away, rather, take a photo, place it on ebay and get money for it!

The next three sites all deal with printing digital photos (also develop and print negatives and even slides). However, they all have a multitude of sales and good deals.
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/
http://www.dlab7.com/ : cheapest prints I’ve found thus far
http://www.photobox.co.uk/: allows you to set up a user account and share your pics with anyone who cares to look at them and print them. Only need to upload pics once and continually print then from there. Also a wide variety of other photo things available (pic on mug, custom made calendar, posters etc…)

There are a multitude of other e-shops in the worldwide mall and we would all like to learn your favorite stores. Please send Thumper the addresses and let’s shop till we drop …..or until the batteries in our laptops die, or the internet connection is lost, or until our bosses disconnect us from the internet.