Saturday was Christmas shopping day up Norwich, not one of my favourite chores. I decided to get ahead of the game this year, rather than leaving everything to the last minute as usual. Norwich is widely recognised for being one of the best cities in England for shopping and there’s no shortage of shops to trawl around.
One of my main purchases was to be an Apple iPod Touch for our eldest daughter. Initially concerned when she asked for one for Christmas, I’ve realised that she always pinching my iPhone for watching TV, playing games and listening to music. So I have little doubt she’ll make very good use of it. Plus, the parental control settings should avoid any potential problems in that department. But, at £160, she won’t be getting too many others presents!
You can buy them from the Apple Store in Chapelfield (or their website) for £169 but I noticed from a TV advert that Currys are selling them £10 cheaper, with a free speaker dock thrown in.
So, first of all we marched into Currys on Gentlemans Walk, confident in being able to pick one up with minimal fuss. After all, it was a done deal.
But, it was hopeless. After finding the iPod (with no ticket underneath to show the price), we waited ages for an assistant to help us, only to be told that it was such a good offer, it had sold out. He checked and found that there were 8 units available at their Riverside store, down by the train station.
Off my daughter and I trotted down to Riverside, quite a distance from the centre of Norwich. Having traipsed around the city for most of the day already, it was an effort…
But then once we arrived at their Riverside store, my heart sank. The store was in disarray. There were customers wandering about all over the shop desperate to be served. There was a huge queue of customers trying to pay for goods. All in all, it was pretty rubbish…
Finally, an assistant was available to help us. We explained how we hoped they hadn’t sold the 8 units yet. And guess what? They never even had them! She explained that because it was such a great offer they’d sold out long ago. She couldn’t explain why we had been told there was stock down in their store…
If we wanted to we could ring in on a Tuesday (delivery day) and they could reserve us one for collection. What a bore…
Instead, back at home we ended up buying it on the Currys website. Within 10 minutes I found the item on their website, set up an account and ordered it online. Shipping was free but i paid £1.99 to choose the delivery day.
So as I said before, thank goodness for online shopping. If you live up here in the wilds of north Norfolk, it’s a blessing!
I think I’ll do most of my Christmas Shopping online from now on. It’s cheaper, easier and there isn’t the risk of being tempted to buy everything else in the shop! It’s still nice to have the experience of the city at Christmas but from now on, the bulk of my buying will be online and I’ll reserve my Norwich visits for more sociable activities with the family.