12 Christmas Gifts Not To Buy Online

nsingapu writes "While online shopping is booming this Christmas, niche products like "two turtle doves" purchased on the Internet are becoming increasingly more expensive then their non e-tailed counterparts. PNC bank has updated their annual tongue-in-cheek economic analysis, based on the cost of goods and services purchased by the True Love in the holiday classic, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The analysis compares the cost of traditional goods against their cost thoughout the past 20 years and against the price when purchased online. PNC concludes that most items are more expensive to buy over the Internet, primarily due to the cost of shipping, and that the abundance of cheaper labor in countries such as India and China has resulted in pressure on U.S. manufacturers to outsource."

The Internet's Just Mirroring the Real World...

[mishmash]

Increasingly the internet is mirroring the range of retail offerings that are available in the offline world - and much more.

Saying that online shopping is more expensive than the high street doesn't make sense - one thing's for sure there's a lot more choice online..

Internet more expensive?

[bigtallmofo]

The sad thing is that some people are going to read this tongue-in-cheek analysis and really think that the Internet is more expensive because of shipping. From an economic perspective, purchasing commodity items on the Internet is more efficient than slogging around from store to store to find the cheaper price. On the Internet, you have nearly infinite choices. I guess if you compare purchasing an item in Best Buy to purchasing an item on bestbuy.com, you might come to the conclusion that purchasing things in the store is cheaper because of shipping costs. But if you compare the cost of purchasing an item in Best Buy to the cheapest listed cost of buying the same item on pricegrabber.com, pricewatch.com or any of the other thousands of sites that show the cheapest price, provide coupons for purchasing on the Internet, etc... The Internet will win every time.

Just like every where else, you have to shop smart

[usurper_ii]

Whether it is at SAMS club, where everything isn't always a good deal, or online, you just have to be smart about what you buy. And as far as shipping, it is even possible to avoid that. For instance, if I want something from Amazon.com that cost 15.00, with their free shipping for orders over 25.00, you can pick something else out that costs 10.00...and get free shipping. I was able to get a couple of DVDs from Amazon for about the same price I could have gotten them at Wal-Mart...with the exception that Wal-Mart has a limited selection of DVDs and Amazon has a huge selection.

I do agree though, even ordering stuff off of Ebay, some people really try and stick it to you on shipping.

Usurper_ii

Re:Offshoring & Boycotting Chinese Products

[Otter]

If you see a product that is "Made in China" or "Made in India", simply do not buy it.

You are aware that China and India are two different countries, right? We're not talking about confusing Nauru or Tuvalu with Vanuatu -- you seem unable to distinguish between the two biggest countries in the world.

Regarding the grandparent's point: I'm concerned about the dollar policy as well but it's worth keeping in mind that "China and India are stealing our jobs!!!!" and "The falling dollar is making imports too expensive! Our lifestyles will be destroyed!!!" are mutually incompatible manifestations of hysteria. You can't have imports and not have imports.

Re:India and China are one? ROFLMAO...

[WIAKywbfatw]

No, he just gave a list of reasons why you shouldn't trade with China, most prominently its occupation of Tibet and its poor treatment of the Tibetan people, then proceeded to say that those were reasons not to trade with China and India.

That's like me making a list of reasons why you shouldn't buy, say, Cuban goods and then concluding that those are good reasons not to buy from Cuba or from the US.

Now, if he had mentioned any reasons why trading with India was bad, such as the loss of tech jobs there (as if that's not the fault of greedy US employers rather than the fault of skilled Indian technicians), then perhaps you might have a point. But he didn't give a single such reason and just tarred India with the broad brush that he'd used to tar China with. And, as I've pointed out, India isn't China and it isn't guilty of brutalising Tibet or any of the other things that the AC did deign to mention, so mentioning India in the same breath as China was entirely inappropriate.

Boy, I bet that the irony of you mentioning Indian worker and environment protections in the same week as the 20th anniversary of Union Carbide's Bhophal disaster, which it still hasn't cleaned up or properly compensated the victims of, just passes over your head.

Re:Merry Mercantilism.

[imuffin]

I'd be a lot more inclined to laugh if this weren't so serious. The financial security of our country is at serious risk given the astonishing rate of decline in the dollar since the election. With the Chinese selling off dollars like hotcakes, costs of toys made in the Orient, such as DVD players, PDAs, and iPods, will be just a little higher this year and the trend will only continue.

Wow, that would be great. All the crap Americans buy from China would be expensive. Over time, this would make manufacturing our goods in China look less profitable. Factories would move back to the USA. Joe Factoryworker could go back to work making the ipods his friends buy their children. Once again the American blue-collar worker would have a chance!
Oh, wait. I forgot, China's Yuan is directly linked to the US Dollar [x-rates.com] and doesn't fluctuate relative to our currency. So the dollar can tank as much as it wants, and Chinese goods remain a bargain. Damn.

Re:Time and transportation are free?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try taking public transportation, it not only minimizes your costs (assuming you're not some dick who thinks every second of your life is money), is better for the environment (since you save on burning energy for your car or the delivery van), and is better for your health (since you need to walk to and from the bus stops).

Actually, for the above reasons, ordering through the internet is worse for the environment and your health.

This is all actually true if you're buying smaller items, tongue-in-cheek if you're buying an antique armoir or a 78" tv.

Re:Offshoring & Boycotting Chinese Products

[Jeremi]

Umm, sure, but what business of yours is it what the Chinese or Indians do with their environment?

Mainly it's our business because it's also our environment -- we do all live on the same planet, you know. Of course, this argument works both ways, and so it's a difficult argument for the US to make these days, given the Bush Administration's "fuck you" posture on Kyoto, global warming, mercury emissions, etc.

Re:Offshoring may our way out of Economic Ruin.

[NoOneInParticular]

LOL! The dollar has quite a bit to go before American labour prices are comparable to Chinese and Indian. Think about an order, maybe two: 10 or 100 dollars for a single euro (given that Europe doesn't budge). Before such a thing happens, hell has indeed frozen over in the US on a scale in which the depression of the 30's will seem like a holiday in the sun.

No, the falling dollar is a cheap trick to finance the national debt, at the risk of losing the dollar as the world currency. It's a risky bet, as a lost reputation will be ever so hard to regain.

And for all those...

[glitch23]

Who want to generalize Christmas and just call it a "holiday" we have to be politically correct and alienate the Christians by renaming the song "The 12 days of Holiday". Which holiday you ask? Well, ask all those who want to generalize it. Maybe they mean the 12 days of Labor Day.

Re:Merry Mercantilism.

[GoofyBoy]

>Wal-Mart and Sam's Club are actually causing many governmental indexes of inflation to appear lower than they are.

I don't get this.

The US inflation index is based on what prices are in the US. Wal-Mart is in the US. Why do you need to excude them from inflation?

Its like finding out how much beef Americans eat, minus the beef they ate that originated from Texas.

I don't see what the point is exculding the largest retailer from calcuating retail prices.

Quote from Sermon

[mrs clear plastic]

I heard this very appropriate phraise during a church service once.

" Are the gifts you bear to you families and
loved ones created by hands guilded by the
creativity generated by the spirit of true
love; or are they put together by hands
driven by the fear of the point of a gun
held by a slave driver obsessed with profits
from a holiday season raped by the money
changers? "

I make all of my gifts for my families. I have
been making my own holiday gifts for the past
six years. For those of you curious to see the
kinds of gifts that I make (and the kinds of
gifts that any of you out there can make), go
to www.clearplastic.com or www.allyn.com.

Re:I meant to do that!

[CheersFromNY]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u= /ap/20041205/ap_on_bi_ge/disappointing_jobs Can you provide any links to back up your diatribe or do you just enjoy hearing yourself talk? 11 states all came to the same conclusion, that "Gay Marriage" shouldn't be. Deal with it. Your liberal elitist attitude is typical of the Democrats as a whole and is why you soundedly lost both the Presidential election but also in the House and Senate. Your views are OUT OF TOUCH with mainstream America. But is that really surprising when you have liars like Michael Moore sitting next to Jimmy Carter at your DNC Convention? The blue states are becoming fewer despite the population rise in minority groups which typically voted Dem in the past. Given the inroads that W and the GOP have made with the Hispanic and even the Black community the "race card" doesn't hold the power it once did. As someone who has lived below the poverty line for much of his adult life and much of the time he spent growing up i am anything but a "bourgeois sycophant." Actually you don't know me or anything about me. That doesn't stop you from sterotyping and name calling obviously. So preach on Mr Chicken Little. Enjoy your overwhelmingly NEGATIVE attitude when reality is quite a bit different. It is a free country after all.