The truth, all the truth, on shopping: in boutiques, online, at the market … all the pros and cons

There were once only and only i shopsin which you entered, bought and thanked: the end of the experience shoppingsatisfied or reimbursed. Ever since too The social Tiktok platform has announced the way to purchases directly in the app – precisely, from 31 March – 22.8 million users in Italy have had the opportunity to experiment with a new purchasing experience that combines entertainment and shopping. Two weeks after the launch it is undoubtedly early to sum up, but a reflection emerges: that you were better when you were worse? We do the point on the pros and cons of those that today are (still) the possible purchase experiences in our daily lives.

To stay updated on the royalty, the celebrities, the shows and all the news from the world Vanity Fairsubscribe to ours Newsletter.

Say the first stone who has never regretted they have not stayed at home on a shopping weekend. Walking through the shops during the weekend can be quite stressful: the people are too many (especially at the sales, with worthy rough in Rebecca Bloomwood style, famous protagonist of the book saga I love shopping by Sophie Kinsella), and – as if that was not enough all this – it also touches the row in front of the dressing rooms and the coffers.

However, it is also true that caught the right time to shop (a midweek moment, maybe? In the morning, moreover, maybe?) Sometimes it is found. And when it happens, it is like magic: it seems to have the shop everything to itself, as well as the possibility of trying all the garments calmly and returning home grateful and satisfied.

Photo Getty.

Maskot

Here, try the garments, in fact: the shopping experience in the shop becomes even more fabulous when you have the opportunity to be followed by a sales assistant ready to immediately understand what you are looking for. Not to mention how much support it can be in the passage of the clothes of one more size or one size less beyond the perimeter of the Camerini tent: who does not suffer from the anxiety of the “How does the dress go?” He won everything. Different, however, is the case of Sales Assistant Ready to launch the definitive blow on the threshold of the shop crossed with one foot (in its imagination we should already be in the cashier with a credit card in hand, right?). But the time to feel my breath on the neck that, no, we have passed the desire to shop.

Ah, luxury! Silent and not very crowded boutiques, uniform sales assistants, ready to show off even white gloves to show us the most valuable accessories and the most precious jewels. If there is a merit that is still recognized in luxury boutiques, it is the experience itself: unforgettable. A tête-à-tête which begins in front of a showcase and ends up on a luxurious sofasometimes accompanied even by coffee and biscuits (not to mention any works of art all around). And then there is the confidentiality of purchases, which is no small thing: In addition to the griffed bag it is possible to request a white paper shopper, to feel more anonymous once in the street. The disadvantage? It is more obvious than ever: it is for the only customers of luxury.

Photo Getty.

Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

If you are a fan of the vintage and also of the great signed affairs that inexplicably manifest themselves between batteries and batteries of “stuff”, please, on this side. Shopping at the market can give great satisfaction, and fortunately the stars also confirm this (see to believe Harry Styles at the Rome market: Chapeau). Advantages? Small prices, large business. Bonus track: the use of the imagination, because the dressing rooms are not there and touches the garments directly at home, unless you want to try them in the van of the kind seller on duty (which once I really happened to do in a warm morning in August: experience highly not recommended, you should have the ammonium salts always behind in case of possible fainting).

Eye also to the changes: it is essential not so much to ask if they are possible, but above all Ask which day of the week the seller will return to the market. Because if you return and you don’t find it anymore, no, it has not turned into a ghost. You just made a wrong day.

Here, if there is a chapter that is still missing in the notorious saga of the English writer Sophie Kinsella, it is nothing more than I love shopping online (Goliardia, take us away). On the other hand online shopping is continuously growing: second Moviweb85.3% of Italian users carry out at least one online purchase per month, with 39.4% of purchases in the fashion field and 31.8% strictly related to shoes and sneakers. But let’s get to the pros and cons. No files, no expected, no sales assistants (at most there is augmented reality, which allows us to try clothes and accessories by mirroring us on the laptop screen), but also no possibility of trying the garments. Welcome to them at home, of course, as long as they are the right size.

Photo Getty.

Oscar Wong

The online shopping In fact, it requires a pinch of more effort to try not only to guess the exact size but also the fit of the garment itself on your body. Penalty the return or change, phenomena that pave not only the path to a due reflection on the issue of sustainability (due to the CO2 emissions used in the continuous transport forward-and-and of the garments), but which also determine a real waste of time.

An advantage of online shopping remains, however, The possibility of comparing the prices having the same product on two different e-commerce in front: that wins the best (i.e., the cheapest).

The real big deal on a pre-Loved fashion platform is to be able to close the purchase of a “new with card” garment at a reduced price. Previa, of course, negotiations and conversations with the seller. The secret formula that season shopping on platforms such as Vinted and Vestiaire Collective is, on the other hand, precisely this: the possibility of interacting with those on the other side, asking for photos, contracting and relaunching with an even more advantageous price. There is only one risk, which is also big: that of the fakes, when you do not purchase with the additional authentication service (money well spent, always).

Photo Getty.

Alistair Berg

The new, absurd, objects of desire? The shopping bag of paper. As long as they are very griffy

And who would have expected it: the paper bags of the big maison, those where our most luxurious purchases are put, have become a real obsession. And while on Tiktok there are those who show how to plasticize them to make them last longer, on the resale platforms there are those who have made a real business

You soon think that personal shopping is a phenomenon intended only forelite. Of course, in large boutiques and in Department Store more prestigious is proposed as a service luxury More exclusive, but in the online shopping world there are those who have revolutionized the purchase experiences by offering the personal shopping service in a much more democratic key. This is the case of look, the service that allows you to subscribe to a subscription to receive five items chosen by a personal shopper on the basis of an online test (woe not to be accurate). The advantage: you only pay what you choose to keep. The disadvantage? It may not like anything. And wasn’t it better to leave the house and go for shops? Whoever does it does for three.