“Women who shop by telephone do not know what the pleasures of buying are.”
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen.
It is true that people who shop by telephone or as it stands now, by internet miss the communication that shopping in person allows.
When buying fabric one touches and feels the textures. When buying food, one smells the sweetness, the sourness or sees the freshness of a melon or a peach.
The actual act of choosing and putting back a purchase is in itself a satisfying action of the soul. It gives the buyer the right to pick and choose what they buy, making it satisfying to their senses.
A persimmon in a picture is beautiful. But, it will not be the same persimmon delivered to your door if you are not there to pick it. Children and adults go to pumpkin farms to pick their own pumpkin right out of the ground. The pumpkins are there on the dirt they grew out of and get chosen to be taken home by a child. There is almost an act of love in that choice.
The actual interaction between buyer and seller is lost in the telephone and internet shopping venture. There is direct human contact with the act of giving and receiving, in buying and selling. Money has to be exchanged. Trust has to be built. Smiles are exchanged. A feeling of wholeness and well being as you walk away with your purchases having been satisfied by the interaction.
Money seems removed from people who are wealthy. In that, they do not use actual currency. Very few carry cash. In this day and age of computers and automation, it makes no sense. Everything is delivered, from merchant to laborer. Even money in the form of credit cards, is delivered from the bank to the credit card company without involvement of the buyer.
Things are moving forward and that is good and wonderful. We have to progress and move along with the times. Yet, just a reminder, be careful how much you automate your life, be careful how much you separate yourself and be aware of the consequences of isolation.