Whether it was shopping at Rita's [long closed] brick-and-mortar bookstore where even the science fiction was alphabetized! or going to Barnett Books [OMG I can't believe THEY are closing!] and running into Amee, unplanned, every time, there was nothing like the thrill of finding a long-desired treasure that no one wanted, for pennies! I'd leave Rita's and then go onto amazon.com and run all the ISBNs and see how much I saved. Best, I think, was $125?

I've been shopping online since I first used Webcrawler in the early 1990s. [First purchase may have been those Emergency! VHS episodes I watched at Meen's...] Rather than reselling books, mainly because I'm too lazy, I either keep them or, more recently, donate them to be resold for charity.

This article really hit some sensitive spots, not unlike fibromyalgia trigger points. I'll blog this but, for anyone who hasn't added my blog to her RSS feed... Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It

By DAVID STREITFELD

On top of the murders in Mumbai, which "could NEVER happen here," in the good ol' USA, sadness [maybe - there are those who don't give a damn] is being felt over here. I'm not sure which is worse: murder for political beliefs or murder based on greed.

[This post was typed, and then mostly used as a comment is a - rightly - disgusted blogger from the UK. and people think that Americans have a bad reputation ... no wonder.]

i'm no longer feeling "superior" for doing my shopping online, for creating hand-made gifts. i'm as bad as every other consumer who thinks that gifts are the most important part of a holiday. my friend Sam will get a few things for her child but will focus the holiday on the importance of their religion and not on STUFF.

Walmart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors

AP video on Youtube.

1. my sister went to a local Hellmart [after 5am... with a 4 year old, who can sleep out?] and said that it was bait and switch. She left everything and called the corporate office.

2. Hellmart offered Free Shipping on Black Friday, for online shoppers. Even the most greedy could have avoided murdering that temporary worker [note: as a temp, he probably got minimum wage and no health insurance... based only on my own experiences and not reported or documented for this man, at this time].

3. The mob was so bad, so thick [shoppers pretty much banged over the rescue workers, too] that the footage on the store cameras, according to police, will make it hard if not impossible for any charges to be filed.

4. At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries.

We're not all disgusting, and many of us are disgusted. this is why i generally hate people.

We need to shop - for essentials like groceries, for nonessentials like entertainment, and for the occasional gift. Gasoline prices go up and up, with no end in sight. Our money is finite. Do we purchase fewer goods because so much of our money is going directly into our gas tanks... or do we take advantage of the ever-improving Internet, and shop online?

I've been shopping online since the early 1990s. Finding an item could literally take hours. Where was ShopWiki when I needed it?

ShopWiki is here now.