With my granddaughter’s 10th birthday coming up very soon, I had been waiting patiently for my daughter-in-law to tell me what to buy for the occasion.  With just a few days to go, Kelly sent me a phone message via WhatsApp giving a link for me to buy a Lego Fire Dragon’s Lava Cave from Argos.

I hadn’t planned to go into town the next day, but with time running out I decided a visit to the Argos shop was therefore necessary.  I sent a message to Kelly asking what I should get if the shop was out of stock.  The generation gap appeared just at that moment, as Kelly replied with a big LOL and told me to buy it directly from the link.

Buy something using my phone?  I must say I hadn’t even considered it.  I’ve bought things online (mainly books) using my PC, but never by phone as I prefer a bigger reading area.  It was 9 o’clock at night and the computer was turned off.  I couldn’t be bothered to boot it up again, and so did the teenager thing and stared down at my phone whilst Sam paused the film we had been watching.

It was remarkably easy to set up an Argos account, order the item and pay.  I even had the option of when I wanted the Lego delivered.  I chose between 10 – 11am the next day.

Exactly on the dot of 10am the following morning there was a knock on my front door and there stood a jovial delivery driver with my granddaughter’s present.  I hadn’t used any petrol to drive the 12 miles into town, or had to traipse from the car park to the main shop and hope they had it in stock.  How’s that for efficiency?  Just 13 hours had passed since I’d ordered it.  Well done Argos on-line! It’s sad, but no wonder the high street stores are slowly disappearing and being replaced with phone and coffee shops!

Just as an aside, I do like visiting the town centre when I need to buy something.  Usually, apart from buying e-books for my Kindle, I always prefer to visit a shop and see what I’m buying.  However, it’s becoming patently clear that the general trend is moving towards on-line shopping, with the resultant death knell being sounded for the high street.  Sign of the times I suppose.