Thursday 21 October 2010

The Social Impact of IT: Online Shopping, Retail & Grocery.

The Social Impact of IT
Online Shopping, Retail & Grocery.


Simon Alexander Tolhurst-Simms
21st October 2010 07:08

Shopping on the internet has become very popular in recent years, securing a large share of the retail industry. Since the release of webstores such as eBay, Amazon & iTunes, there has been a huge decline in the highstreet retail industry. Online shopping at present is causing ever increasing damage to the music retail industry, the electronics industry and various other highstreet retail industries apart from clothing and grocery.
Online Grocery Shopping

Even though it has not caused significant damage to their retail stores, online shopping has proven to be a very popular industry for supermarket & grocery chains such as Tesco & Waitrose. Grocery shopping on the web has also brought independence to the disabled who are unable to visit stores. When ordering online, groceries are delivered to ones home at a specified date and time. This perk also helps the disabled in other parts of the online retail industry; however, delivery from other non-grocery retail stores cannot be delivered on the day of purchase as they are usually delivered through the postal system.


Shoppers spent a record £7.66bn online in the ten weeks running up to Christmas in 2007 – a rise of 54% on the same period in 2005.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Sunday 19'

Sunday, Sundays are never the same, at least for me that is, even the mornings are usually different, minus the fact that it was Mothers birthday today, there always seems to be something new going on.

Today I woke up early at 6:30 AM as usual, & did my morning duties, took a shower brushed my teeth & drink 1 - 2 ltr of highland spring water & attempted to make my circular bed, which currently has square sheets.

Being Mothers birthday, Of course I had a giant card & a bottle of the new Dior perfume she had asked for & wrapped to utter  perfection, one might say.

After the clock reaching 7:30 AM & making sure Mothers present was looking Devine, I squeaked my Murloc plush toy & headed out of my room, down the stairs, through the corridor, passing my parents down stairs bedroom, doing my best not to wake them & headed to the kitchen, I put on my hot pink marigold gloves which I use when handling vegetarian food (I refuse to handily omnivore food, even with gloves) & made Mother a latte & wholemeal toast, her favorite breakfast, served on an antique silver tray that once belonged to my great grandmother & my grandmother who recently passed, sadly the plate, cup & saucer did not match the tray & so was not a set, but it stilled looked exquisite, which is what mother deserves on her birthday. Obviously I couldn't leave Father out, so I made him toast too with white bread & a cup of Twinings breakfast tea on a boring "Wood" tray. Father is a tea'a'holic.

Then it was my turn to make myself breakfast, so I chopped up 4 - 5 small bananas & spread them on a plate. Then I selected my chopsticks (White) & joined Mother & Father in their room with her gift bag full of presents. My sister is rather lazy & was still sleeping, even after being called for 6 times.

After Mother finished her breakfast, she opened her presents. She was delighted with all of her gifts & looked happier than she has looked in quite a while. I like to see her this way.

Anyhow later on after the excitement died down, with me still being banana powered, decided to go on a run. I usually never run, I usually walk, walk to Starbucks & spend hours in there on my MacBook Pro, but today this was not an option, however it was probably for the best, Starbucks coffees contain caffeine which is bad for me & they also can lead to obesity if over-drunk.

After finishing my run, I came home, put on my & played video games for an hour or two (or three), only to be disturbed by a repetitive squeaking sound made from the chocolate Labrador that my family are looking after for a family friend, I ventured down the stairs & removed to squeaky toy from the dogs possession & hid it.

By this time it was lunch time so I ate 3 zucchinis (also known as: courgettes) & drank 1.5 Lr of water for lunch & played The Sims 3 for a good while longer.

Mother had been deciding on what to do for her birthday, she had two plans. We could travel to Kirkstall Vue cinema & then go out for a meal afterwards or we could buy a movie on Apple TV & order a takeaway. My sister spoilt choice number one as she did not wake up or leave her room till 3:00 PM. Father started singing a cheesy song to her called "On The Move" when she finally entered the living area.

It seemed the plan was to buy a film on the Apple TV, which  although is bad in terms of the theatrical aspect of the movie, At least I didn't have to go to a fancy restaurant where Mother & Father complain at me for choosing water and a plain salad.

Mother decided that we would watch the film at 7:00 PM, she then asked me to go to the shop & purchase a Sunday Times, newspaper, my preference is usually The Guardian but hey, you cannot argue with someone on their birthday so I just agreed to buy The Times. Mother then went on to tell me to walk to M&S & purchase something substantial to eat for dinner whilst they have their takeaway & some more fruits for the early week. Enthusing on the word "Substantial".

I decided to brush my teeth again, then J walked to M&S & picked up the last Sunday Times in stock! I also picked up 6 orange bell peppers, a packet of 18 Medjool Dates & 5 boxes of 4 x figs & a 4 leaf salad. Mother then texted me to pick up 2 pints of  skimmed milk too, which I did.

After finally returning home from my short walk through the rain & putting the shopping, away. I talked for a long while with Mother & Father & then surfed the web & visited: Facebook, 30BananasADay & the iTunes store. Whilst I was doing this, Father walked the dog.

Once my father returned home, the rest of my family ordered their takeaway & I prepared 9 figs for my dinner.

Then we sat down in the main living room & switched over from Sky to Apple TV. We chose to watch the movie: Shutter Island & all enjoyed our meals when theirs arrived.

After the movie ended, I put in my pajamas, drank another 1 - 2 litres of water, brushed my teeth, washed my face & sat in bed till 1 AM when I started writing this day blog for my homework. I finished at exactly 2:20 Am & decided to go sleep shortly after (Or I will do).