Retail Therapy…

I signed up for Amazon Prime (free shipping on many items) last summer when I was helping a friend get some gear to start a home business. Amazon shopping was certainly easier than driving all around for price comparisons on a couple dozen different items. The prices were better than what we saw at a few local brick & mortar (B&M) stores. The convenience factor was out of this world. Place an order, wait a few days, open the door and SHAZAM! The goods were there.

I am in awe of American stores and love to go through them like a free trip to the museum of Conspicuous Consumption. Local grocery stores vary from practical like Safeway or QFC to the over-the-top Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) where you can buy 15 kinds of Italian seltzer but not Coca-Cola.

As a bachelor living alone it is still practical (using my logic) to shop at Costco, although that last 10 pound bag of frozen corn is going to last for at least another 6 months. There is a tremendous sense of 'food security' when they shelves are stacked with pallets of food 30 feet high. Home Depot has replaced the neighborhood hardware store of childhood memories with a 130,000 square foot (3 acres) wonderland of plumbing, lumber, appliances, tools and garden supplies.

Living by myself or with the occasional roommate in my 2-bedroom apartment, there is no need for 90-some percent of what they sell at these dollar-devouring dinosaurs, but it is nice to know if I did somehow end up with a waterfront castle in Medina that I would not have to go far to rebuild the garage and restock the rec room.

I go for a walk on Sundays about 35 times a year at Bellevue Square. While it lacks the 30 foot stacks of Costco or Home Depot, it still competes on the goods-for-sale dollar/sq-foot basis by selling more expensive smaller goods such as jewelry or $20/lb chocolate ($600/sq. ft or $126/trip for 16 million visitors per Wikipedia). There is a thrift store where I buy vases as gifts for $2 each.

The Egyptians built the pyramids, the Romans had the aqueducts and the Appian Way, the Chinese built the Great Wall, but none of them had a shopping experience to compare with what I have within a mile of my home. Admittedly, it is a 15 minute drive to the nearest Costco's to the North, East or West—thank god there is also Costco.com for those days when I need to shop and don't feel like leaving town!

Fortunately for me, I am not a very materialistic person. If I was into accumulating possessions, I would already need a bigger place for all my toys and be up to my ears in credit card debt. In this last year, I have gone a little wild for me in buying a laptop and a new TV. Last Xmas, I bought a Home Theater system—as a gift for a friend. 1000 watts of TV watching audio power is probably more than the neighbors want me to be listening to in the middle of the night since they work during the day and I don't. I did get a cool set of Sennheisen headphones last month that make for the best TV sound I have ever owned.

I have a medical disability pension that puts me at the high end of the poverty spectrum in Bellevue. It is nice to be low-income here. I love my heated apartment with hot and cold running water, appliances and DSL. In more than a few ways, I am grateful that I don't live at the high end of the rich spectrum in Bellevue. Self-moderation has never been my forte. With age and experience comes wisdom. Today I am grateful for what I have.