literally another aussie in london

Argos

The future of shopping is here.

It involves catalogues and little neon signs.

The shop is called Argos, and to say shopping there fucked with my rality is putting it accuratley.

It’s not a store in a conventional way, you can’t wlk around, there are no aisles of produts.

Instead there are catalogues, and you browse through them, find your product, write down the code, go the the machine with your code, put the code in the machine, see if the item is in the storeroom, pay for the item using the machine and your plastic card, the machine spits out a receipt with a special number on it,  then you sit down on plastic chairs, you wait for the neon sign to show your special number, then you go to the front counter, where there is no line, just a long counter with various people holding their little bits of paper with their special numbers that have been shown on the neon sign, you wait there for some time, until the one person behind the counter takes your receipt checks the special number with the packages behind them and either gives you your package or tells you to wait longer.

This all takes about 15-20 minutes.

And you don’t get to see the item until you have gone through all this process.

It does seem counter-intuitive.

Think of it like doing internet shopping, out of your home, with the chance to look at porn, without the huge savings, with other people around, but with a 20 minute wait, not a 5-11 day wait.

I am sure Argos would explain it as a way for them to keep their rents down and passing the savings on to you.

I got the feeling if i went to a proper store, found the department I wanted, found the tiem I wanted, went and paid for it, it probably would have been quicker.

And being that it was a toilet seat I was buying, i could have road tested it as well.

March 1, 2009 Posted by Jrod | living in london | argos, shopping | 7 Comments