I’m not convinced it’s evil — well, not all of it — but I’m getting more and more convinced that it’s dumb for some sellers.

I’ll start by saying this: I hate traffic. Now I know that everyone hates traffic — nothing is worse than bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go on a freeway — but I even hate local traffic, the kind usually created by traffic lights and made worse by construction or too many vehicles on the road.

It’s for this reason that I do my grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, which I can get to by making a right turn at just one traffic light and not hit any other traffic. It’s exactly 10 miles from my house and is the closest supermarket. But it is definitely not the cheapest. That award would likely go to (in no particular order) Walmart, Grocery Outlet, and Winco, where some of my neighbors shop. I generally do not shop there because of the traffic I have to deal with on my way there and back. I know there’s traffic because I hit traffic at 7:30 AM Thursday when I had to go to Walmart. (More on that in a moment.)

So this explains why I prefer Fred Meyer, even though I know that if it weren’t for coupons that come in the mail and digital deals on the app I would definitely be paying a premium for my groceries. (For the record, though, I don’t like the attitude of the cashiers at Winco (which also does not accept credit cards) and Grocery Outlet seems pretty skeevy sometimes.)

But I had two online shopping experiences this week that have gotten me thinking more about shopping online for things other than groceries that I can buy locally.

A Walmart Observation

Unfortunately, the only coffee I like is an east coast brand and the only place I seem able to buy it west of the Mississippi is Walmart. So every once in a while, I make the long trip up to Walmart to buy 2 big packages of Eight o’Clock coffee. While I’m there, I’d buy whatever else is on my list.

Now for a while — about year ending this week, in fact — I was using Walmart’s subscription feature to just have the damn coffee shipped to me every 2 months. I figured that if they were going to deliver that, I’d make it worth their while by having them ship me a month’s supply of the protein shakes I like, which they had at a decent price. Saves me the long drive up there and having to deal with “Walmart shoppers” (who really are a thing).

But now I’m getting ready to start traveling again. I needed to turn those subscriptions off. I also needed a package or two of ground coffee — I buy whole bean for home but won’t grind coffee in my camper or boat. I was also short on #2 coffee filters for my single cup drip coffee maker. I figured I’d just order them and have them shipped, saving me the drive.

So two large bags of coffee and four packages of #2 coffee filters. Total order was about $45 and qualified for free shipping. I paid with my credit card and went about my day.

Less than a minute later I got a text and an email saying that the coffee had been removed from my order. I’d get the refund for it within a few days (and yes, I’m still waiting). They were going to just send the $12 worth of coffee filters, with free shipping. And now I felt like an idiot because I was having 4 packages of coffee filters shipped to me from (it turns out) somewhere in Indiana when I could have just driven up to Walmart to get them.

That’s what I did Thursday. I still needed the coffee, after all. And I had to pick something up at Home Depot (more on that in a moment) which is right across the street from Walmart. I would errand-stack and get both of my north Wenatchee errands done the same day, as early as possible to beat the traffic. I left my house just after 7 AM.

It took a good 40 minutes to get there at 7:45 AM, mostly because there’s construction traffic on Mission Street, Wenatchee’s northbound major thoroughfare. (Note to self: take Wenatchee Avenue northbound until that building is done.) I hit Home Depot first, then went into Walmart for the coffee and the grocery items on my list. (I grocery shop once a week based on when I’m out of blueberries, which I eat with my breakfast every morning.) They didn’t have a single #2 filter in the store, but that’s okay because the 4 packages appeared on my doorstep yesterday afternoon, nearly a week after I’d ordered them.

Home Depot

Home Depot is also on the north end of Wenatchee, right across the road from Walmart. Although I built my house with at least $50,000 worth of Home Depot purchased building supplies, cabinets, and appliances, it’s a long drive and I rarely go up there now. Instead, we have an Ace Hardware store called Stan’s Merry Mart on the south end of Wenatchee that has most of what I might need.

This week I was prepping to set up a pair of space heaters in my garage and, instead of leaving them on all winter or trusting my house sitter to turn them on and off, I wanted to buy a couple of Thermo Cubes. These are specialized outlets that turn on power when the temperature reaches 35°F and turns it off when the temperature rises above 45°F. I was going to order online but when I realized I needed to go to Walmart to get coffee anyway, I figured I’d just pick it up.

So I did. On Thursday. I also got a smoking deal on a Ryobi 18v 1 gal portable shop vac. (I am heavily invested in the Ryobi One system and have tons of batteries and chargers.) I’d been looking at one that was $79 and thought I’d buy it in the spring for the boat. But there it was, $30 off. So I bought it. It’ll go sound with me this winter in the camper before moving to the boat in spring.

But I realized I’d forgotten that I needed a pair of 4-foot folding tables for an upcoming art show. I’ll be at Best of the Northwest in Seattle next weekend and my booth size is limited to 10 x 6 feet. After fiddling around with room layout software, I’d decided that my best setup would be one 6-foot table and two 4-foot tables. I had three four-foot tables but only one of them had adjustable height and it was pretty beat up. Home Depot had Lifetime (a great brand) tables that met my needs for just $45 each.

Did I really want to drive up there again to get them? No. I had a ton of stuff to do to prep for the show, including making more inventory, sanding and repainting all of my displays, and packing for the show. A drive up to Home Depot would take 90 minutes (at least) out of my day. But then I saw my options for getting the tables. Free delivery today? What the hell did I have to lose? I chose that option at checkout and got on with my day.

That afternoon, a car pulled into my driveway with a woman in her late 30s at the wheel. She had my tables. We chatted briefly. She had a job doing deliveries like this for Home Depot. I suddenly felt very good about having it delivered. One way or another, the distance between my house and Home Depot would have to be covered twice in a vehicle — why not let it be hers? After all, I was contributing to her income while I was saving my own time.

What I Realized

Thinking about these two stores and my experiences this week have got me thinking about shopping online as an alternative to just driving somewhere to get what I need.

First, Walmart. I realized recently that they’ve gotten as bad as Amazon when it comes to acting as middlemen for items sold and shipped by “marketplace” vendors, many of which have questionable reliability. I’ve pretty much stopped buying at Amazon. Maybe it was time to stop buying at Walmart, too.

BTW, it isn’t just Amazon and Walmart playing the “marketplace” game. I got ripped off by Sears (or some company pretending to be Sears) last winter, too. I’ve since learned not to order from a company unless that company has the item in its inventory and will ship it from its own warehouse. I’m sick of dealing with two or three separate parties to make a purchase — and you should be, too.

And let’s think about this: Walmart shipped me $12 worth of merchandise for free from Indiana. You can’t tell me they made any money on that sale. How many other sales are they losing money on by trying to compete with Amazon — which is exactly what they’re trying to do? Is this wasteful or not? Seems pretty wasteful to me.

As for Home Depot, well I can’t knock free local delivery, especially when I have no reason to go up to that end of town. I hope the woman who delivered it was paid by the mile instead of by the stop — I live way the hell out there, as the map at the top of this post makes clear.

What are your thoughts about shopping online these days? Any positive or negative stories to share? Use the comments for this post to share them!