98501064 Rita Professor Michael Cheng Writing and Reading (II) Online shopping V.S.

. Shopping in-store Shopping is an indispensable activity in our daily life. Unlike our ancestors thousands years ago who swapped their belongings for the things they wanted, for instance, they may exchanged two goats for one cow with others, nowadays we seldom use the same method to get the things we need. In fact, we go to stores and do shopping. However, with the developments of the new inventions such as TV and radio, there begin a new way of shopping people can just sit at home watching products selling channels or listing to broadcast programs that sell goods, they can buy things instead of going to real stores. With the prevalence of the Internet, online shopping may be the most successful way which does not requires people to shop in real stores. When it comes to the way we procure the things we use in our life, is buying online more beneficial to our life or buying in real stores? Buying in real stores takes extra amounts of time and money because people have to get themselves to the stores either by walking or by vehicles such as cars and motorcycles. Additionally, people not only spend extra money and time on transporting but also creating more carbon dioxide. According to the research conducted by Logistics Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University in March 2009, an average trip to the shops by car produces 4,274g carbon dioxide and 1,265g carbon dioxide for an average bus passenger. Delivery of the products ordered online will create carbon dioxide too. However, a typical van-based drop produced only 181g carbon dioxide. The research suggested that although neither home delivery nor conventional shopping has an absolute CO2 advantage, on average, the home delivery operation is likely to generate less CO2 than the typical shopping trip (Edwards,

McKinnon, & Cullinane,2009). Buying in real stores sometimes compel customers to buy things more than they need. Why? It is because customers will be influenced by supermarket sales and offers which makes them buy more stuff than they planned to especially when they bring their children with them. Children can be easily enchanted by the various candies, toys and cookies and then beg their parents to buy whatever they want. So customers end up buying more things that are not on their original list. Shopping online can save time. The stores are never closed. Therefore, people can shop whenever they want. This is one of the attractiveness for people to shop online particularly for those busy people who can hardly make time from their busy schedules to go for a shopping. It is very convenient for customers to buy things within several clicks. Shopping online does not require people to go for a shop personally. That means that online buyers leave small carbon footprint compared with people driving to real stores. However, according to the previous research, between 25-30% of all non-food goods bought online are returned compared with just 6-10% of goods purchased by traditional shopping methods, although this varies widely among product groups (Nairn, 2003; Fernie & McKinnon, 2009). It means that sometimes online buying will create extra carbon dioxide because of the return of goods. Also it will cost extra money. It is because people have to send the original products back. For most cases, restocking and shipping costs are often charged on returns (Montaldo). Therefore, online shoppers have to be very carefully when buying something that lacks of proper information or something that needs to be physically checked out before purchasing. Onine shopping provides a noiseless environment to shop without the sellers rattling all the time or trying to persuade customers to buy more things that are no necessary. In this case, online shoppers are less likely to be influenced by the talkative salespersons and can go buy the original shopping list.

Shopping online and shopping in-stores share some similarities and differences. There is no absolutely correct answer of which one is better. It depends on various situations. Shopping online is better for those who live in the suburbs or have to drive several miles each way to go shopping. On the other hand, shopping in-store is better for those who can get what they need at a location that a few steps away. So, for many of us, a combination of both online shopping and in-store shopping will produce the greenest results.

Reference Corter, R. (2010,May 15.) Why Online Shopping Is More Favorable Than Shopping In Real Stores. Retrieved from http://www.plastics.com/content/articles/40077 /1/Why-Shopping-Online-is-More-Convenient-Than-Shopping-in-RealStores/Page1.html Edwards, J.B., McKinnon, A.C. & Cullinane, S.L.(2009). Carbon Auditing the Last Mile:Modelling the Environmental Impactsof Conventional and Online Nonfood Shopping. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/32859412/ Online-Conventional-Comparison-Heriot-Watt?query=4274 Montaldo, D, L. (n.d.). The Pros and Cons of Online Shopping. Retrieved from http://couponing.about.com/od/bargainshop/a/hiddencosts.htm