Online Pre-Shopping

It’s a rare occasion that I make a trip to the MALL, but I recently made the trek to the Streets at Southpoint in Durham, NC.

It’s worth the hour-long drive, but I still had to make the most of my time there. I had my teenage son with me, and hanging out at the mall with Mom isn’t on his list of favorite activities. Needless to say my time was short.

My shopping actually started way before we got in the car. It started on my computer.

I collected all my e-mail coupons, two gift cards and made a list of the stores I needed to visit. I checked each of the store web sites to identify the items I planned to purchase as well as check for any special offers.

I was in the mall for exactly one hour and a half. In that time I returned two pairs of shoes at Nordstrom, bought a sweater and a pair of jeans (both on sale, a tip from an online promotion) at Banana Republic, used a store credit at Aveda and purchased a pair of shoes for my son at The Gap. I had two coupons for The Gap.

What a great day, my trip was productive. I couldn't have done it without the online pre-shopping.