And today we're going to talk about,

well, you introduced the topic today.

- Yes, so today's topic is going to be.

one that I came up with.

It's Online Shopping.

- Online shopping. - Mm-hmm.

- Yeah, and we've made a list

of a few different topics around this

where I'm going to talk about a couple of my recent orders.

- Mm-hmm

- The a trending online shopping.

And also things like meal delivery services, too.

- Mm-hmm. - Okay.

- Before we get started too much,

I had these on but there is a little bit too much glare.

This is where the conversation came from.

These are my new glasses.

- Mm-hmm

- I ordered them online.

I just picked out the style, uploaded my subscription.

And a week later I had some glasses.

- Oh your prescription. - Mm-hmm.

Yeah, not subscription. - Yeah, yeah.

- Prescription

- So, yeah, glasses prescription is basically telling how

strong you need them.

What kind of lenses to make.

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

And I think that's an interesting place to start

because if you think back 10 years

the thought of getting glasses online.

- Yeah

- Because when online shopping started

people thought, okay, it's gonna be

for items that you don't need to try on.

- Mm-hmm.

- But companies that got around this

by allowing you to try things on for free

as long as you give them your credit card details.

So, just today, I'm going to get some new glasses.

So I've ordered five pairs

and they're going to deliver these to our house.

I'm gonna try them on, choose my favorite one,

send them all back,

and then they'll put the right lenses in.

- Mm-hmm.

- But I think that's a good example

of something that you just never thought was gonna happen.

- Yeah, no way. - Yeah.

- Yeah, all sorts of things.

Like we bought a mattress online a few years ago.

- Mm-hmm

They had an amazing refund policy.

- Uh-huh. - Do you remember?

- Yeah, so they took all the risk out,

so you could get the mattress

and then if you didn't like it, you could return it.

- Mm-hmm.

- No questions asked.

- Yeah. - Or donate it.

- No, you could donate it to charity.

- Uh-huh. - And you get your money back.

- Yep.

- I wonder if they still do that?

- I think so.

I think that's a pretty key part of their model

because you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars,

or even now a larger mattresses, a thousand.

Give or take- - Yeah.

- And not know if you'll like it.

- Yeah, so do you do a lot of online shopping?

- Do you? (chuckles)

- We both do, don't we? - Yeah.

- Yeah. - We do.

- And it's just become such a convenience now.

- Mm-hmm.

- With fast shipping times, refund policies.

I think I might've this before,

but what if my new year's resolution

for 2020 was not to go to the grocery store more

than five times a year.

- Mm-hmm.

- Because I got used to grocery shopping online

and getting it delivered.

And then the Corona virus hit.

And everyone was online shopping anyway.

And you couldn't get any times available.

- Yeah, so you were ahead of the curve, but then the curve-

- The curve did something incredible.

Yeah, so there's so many things you can get online now,

but I think we need to talk about the one website

that's really taken over here in the US.

- Mm-hmm.

- Probably I think in the UK and other parts of Europe.

- I think in the world- - In the world.

- Really.

Yeah, actually that's a great question for today.

Is amazon.com popular where you live?

And do you use this website to buy things online?

I remember they started out by just having books, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So it was an online bookstore.

- It was.

- And do you remember one of their tactics

to increase their customer base?

- I don't.

- So, I think it was the bookstore Borders.

- Uh-huh.

- Which used to be very popular.

- Yes.

- And they said to Borders,

"okay we can ship your books around the US

for a very low price if we get the customer data".

And Borders said, "yes, that sounds amazing".

And they thought, "I think this is right".

I'll leave a link to an article about this.

So you can read about it.

And Borders thought,

"yeah, this is great. We're getting a great deal"

because Amazon's taking care of all of this for us.

But little by little that customer list went to Amazon.

Amazon sent them emails, follow-ups,

then people were buying from the Amazon store.

- That makes sense, yeah.

- I'm sort of done stuff like that all the time.

But I was thinking about Amazon as well

because there's a push back

against it because it's a big store.

- Mm-hmm.

- It takes over, and it's killing independent stores,

independent bookstores.

But I was thinking about this because we also

know people who create stuff and they use Amazon

and they love Amazon.

- Mm-hmm. - To sell that items

around the country.

- Yeah.

- So it also supports people who want

to use a fully integrated logistical system.

- Mm-hmm.

- To sell stuff and deliver stuff online.

- Yeah, we have a few friends who have opened Amazon stores,

selling various things.

Some of them have broken even,

some of them have been really successful with it.

- Mm-hmm. - A few people have not,

but it is definitely a force to be reckoned with,

especially after last year.

- Yeah, oh yeah.

Last year, well, I mean,

we know people in our neighborhood and ourselves-

- Mm-hmm.

- When everyone was stuck at home,

people ordered things that maybe they didn't need,

we didn't need, but thinking if we were gonna be

at home all this time, then let's make it fun.

Let's make it exciting and have good stuff to do.

- Yeah, what was one example of that?

- Like, well, we know people who got hot tubs?

- Mm-hmm.

- Swimming pools. - Mm-hmm.

- Or, you know, we got a little paddling pool.

- I think that actually was from beforehand.

- A paddle pool. - But we did...

I did get a lot of books.

- Yeah. (chuckles)

- You got chickens in a chicken coop.

- I did, but I did not get those from Amazon.

- No, but you got it online, right?

- I did. - Yeah.

So everyone was buying things online-

- Mm-hmm.

- And then there was a shortage of certain items, too.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, Amazon is definitely taken over here,

and people have that, "ugh, I don't want to use it

because such a big company is taken over".

But the convenience seems to win out.

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

- It does.

- Yeah, online shopping.

So, in the past it used to be books.

We used to buy books online.

Also, Netflix just used to be DVDs delivery, right?

- Yes, I remember you got to order, was it five?

- Yeah.

- I think five sticks in my head as a number,

and they would come, and you could watch the DVDs,

and then return them.

- Mm-hmm, instead of going to your local store-

- Yes

- And getting the DVDs from there.

- Uh-huh.

- So, there is this move towards people buying things

at home online and they can get it delivered.

So Amazon has taken over.

I've just bought a new cap, which I'm very excited about.

(both chuckles)

- You're probably gonna get to see this cap.

Because I think once it arrives,

well, either you're gonna love it,

or you're gonna hate it.

- Yeah - But if you love it,

I don't think you're gonna take it off.

- I'm doing Instagram, or go to Fluency on Instagram.

- Uh-huh.

- And then you can see the new cap once it arrives.

- It's something else.

- It's a little bit different.

- Yeah, it's very, very style...

Bold stylishly.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- But it was something that I wanted to treat myself,

and that's the one thing...

But it was more expensive than I'm willing to spend.

But you were laughing a little bit

because in terms of, you know, the overall prices.

- Well, for how much you wanted this hat and, how...

So, can I say the price of it or-

- No. - No, okay.

- No, they'll have to go on Instagram to find out.

- To find out.

For the price of the hat,

you have been agonizing about this for weeks.

- I would say agonizing.

- I would say agonizing.

(both chuckles)

- I just won today. - I was just...

Sometimes I see you looking at your phone-

- They keep targeting me on Instagram.

- Oh, that's the other thing.

- Yes. - Instagram shopping.

- Yep, Instagram shopping has become very popular now.

- Uh-huh.

- Yeah, so this is where you get targeted

with ads for certain things.

And for example, I'll buy a shirt like this,

or look up a shirt like this,

and then suddenly every other ad is,

"hey, what about this shirt?", "what about this shirt?",

from all different companies.

Not just the company I was looking at.

- Mm-hmm, you know what I find really annoying?

- Go on.

- Have you ever been looking

for something for a really long time?

- Mm-hmm. - You finally decided

to buy it.

You pull the trigger. - Mm-hmm.

- So you actually buy it online.

- And yeah, pull the trigger, that's a good one.

- And then you keep on seeing ad, after ad,

after ad for that same thing, only better,

and less expensive - Mm-hmm.

- And better reviewed and it'll come faster and you just...

- Yeah. = It's really frustrating.

- Well, you can't win it all-

- No - Win them all.

But, yeah, I mean, it's not like we buy too much on them.

We go through phases, don't we, really?