Had a talk with my mail carrier that made me rethink my whole online shopping habit

Last Tuesday I was grabbing packages off my porch and my mail carrier Tina was walking up. She said "You get more boxes than the whole cul-de-sac combined." I laughed but then she told me how many returns she picks up from my house every month. Like 8 to 10 boxes. That hit different because I never thought about the extra work for her or the environmental cost. I just click buy without thinking twice. She said she sees people order clothes in 3 sizes just to try them on and send 2 back. Now I feel kinda bad. Has anyone else had a similar wake up call from a service worker about their habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.gavin6d ago

Started measuring my own shopping after a similar talk with our UPS driver. I realized I was ordering stuff on impulse just because it was easy, so I made a rule to wait 24 hours before buying anything that isn't food or soap. That cut my boxes down by like half in the first month. Also started keeping a list of things I actually need versus things that just look cool on a screen. For clothes I forced myself to only buy from stores that do free in store returns so I have to physically bring them back if they don't fit. Honestly just slowing down a little before clicking buy made the biggest difference for me.

park.tara6d ago

Did you read that study about how waiting 24 hours cuts impulse buys by a ton? @davis.gavin tried it, and looks it works.