The Greatest Invention Since. Well. Sliced Bread, I Guess.

Do you like clothes and shoes and make-up and jewelry? No? Then what are you doing reading this blog? Wait. That's a little rude. It's OK if you don't like that stuff. But you might not get terribly excited about this post. Although. I guess you can pretty much shop for anything at Wal-Mart, so, yeah, disregard that. And keep reading.

I have discovered the MOST fabulous new thing. You know I found that Wal-Mart has some really cute tops and darling shoes but I have stumbled on something even better. When I went to the Wal-Mart web site to see if they had just one more of the darling striped sweaters I wanted and needed with every beat of my heart, once I put the sweater in my online cart (they only had one color in my size - oh, the pain) it popped up with a message that said the item qualified for free shipping with "Site to Store". Well, I am all about the free shipping, so I read the fine print and, apparently, they just ship all your stuff to your local store and you stroll on down there and pick it up.

Huh. Well, that sounded pretty easy and pretty cool, so I clicked on it, sat back and waited for an email from them. Once I received my notification, I went to the store, stood in line at Customer Service for 10 minutes because I had not actually READ the email which said to go to the "Site to Store" desk, went to the correct location and PICKED UP MY PACKAGE. Well. That is just pretty fabulous.

Of course, I got home and some stuff did not work for one reason or another (the striped sweater was perfect) and all I had to do was TAKE IT BACK TO THE STORE. I didn't have to fill out a return slip, pack it back up, pay shipping, then wait for my refund. I went to Customer Service (yes, you go there for a return) and got my money back. Instantly. So supremely cool.

When I told my mom about this, she said "Oh, so it's kind of like ordering from the Penney's catalog and picking it up at the store?" Like people have been doing since 1963.

Oh. Well. Yeah, I guess. But this is, like, TOTALLY DIFFERENT. OK, not really. But sort of. I actually went to the Penney's site to check and, although they do ship, they don't offer to ship to the store. But they ship to your house. Which is TECHNICALLY even more convenient. But does not reinforce the theme of this post, so disregard that.

The advantage to shipping to your home is the convenience of walking out to your mailbox to get your new items but, as far as I'm concerned, that is outweighed by the advantage of being able to return things to the store because I invariably order something that does not work for one reason or another. And then I have to package it up, pay to mail it and send it back. Now, I can just take it to the store.

So, check it out and let me know what you think.