Save gas by shopping online...
 

I'm sure I am not the first to suggest this, and I am by no means making a plug for amazon, but I have had an amazon prime membership for a year now, and it has definitely saved me gas and miles on my car. Let me explain...

Amazone prime is $80 for a year. With that membership you get free two day shipping. Not only can I find niche items that I might not find in the stores, I find everyday items (sometimes) for cheaper. So it saves me a little money on the item (or the item is no more expensive) and I can get it in two days without driving anywhere.

Example: Yesterday I needed a two hole punch for work. Amazon 2 hole punch was $7.50 and staples was $10.99. Besides saving money on the item, I would have driven 24 miles roundtrip which is about 0.8 gallons of gas in my car and miles that I don't put on my car.

Of course, to use this "technique" you don't have to buy an amazon prime membership. You can simply look online for items with free shipping before going to the store.

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.

i live about 20 mins from the closest store and it sucks when i have to use as much gas as the item costs

I tend to call or text message friends before I head to a store to see what they might need there as well or to see if they are already there for other stuff.

It really depends on how you live. I live about an hour from the city, for a variety of reasons. I work in that city, though, so I go there everyday. I can pickup my items on the way back from the office, and be done. For me, it doesn't make a difference.

If you work from home or close to it, and are pretty good at planning, I could see the appeal of shopping via amazon for common things. No gas, no lost time; basically, the mountain comes to you.

I'm willing to pay an extra $ or two when buying something while I'm in town anyway, rather than to have the delivery van come all the way out to my place. The van probably uses 1-4x more fuel than if I were to go out and get that one item.

When I buy online I try to look for seller that either:

1. Allow me to pick the item up myself when I'm in the city, or
2. Send it through the post office, not by a delivery company.

#2 is because the delivery van uses fuel to get all the way to my door/mailbox, while the mailman/postperson rides a bicycle. Or I can bike to the post office and pick it up myself. Now that saves fuel.

One reason I plan for my next car to be a hatchback, or even better a wagon. If I can stop and pick up stuff 1-2 miles from work, it saves nearly a gallon of gas in the Odyssey making a full round trip from home. If I had a larger-cargo car I could replace more Ody trips with mine.

I agree with shopping at Amazon for anything other than food or some simpler or bigger things.

Why?

* research...I look for things that have 4-5 stars...and many ratings...means product has been around a while and people like it and it lasts

* usually a lower price

* free shipping...I can wait a week...no UPS...USPS only!

* don't spend gas going after something

* no tax if I'm lucky

* no PITA types to deal with at times

Yeah, YOU may save gas, but how often does shipping from wherever Amazon (or the merchant) has their warehouse to your house burn more gas/diesel than you save? Add to that the facts that A) Amazon doesn't tell you where they ship from (or at least I haven't figured out how) so you get (as I did just last week) a fairly common (but not available in my usual stores) item shipped from New Jersey all the way to Nevada; and B) Amazon just won't ship everything in one package. I ordered 5 books recently, which came in 3 shipments.

Mrs A is an avid price comparer so when at store A looking at something she will not buy it because its cheaper at store B, which is not walking distance. So I tray and pursuade her based on time and how much fuel we will burn but she insists on principle.

I also do this because I abosolutely hate shopping and want it over with asap.

Also tried online shopping but it can be more expensive and the quality is not too great - they will just pick produce at the top of the basket and not the ones you might pick - say the ones which aren't ripe yet because they will last longer.

They do carry multiple packages when they transport....so the fuel cost per lb is pretty low....whereas you are driving one package per vehicle.

Amazon has local dist centers...the free delayed shipping results from stuff being sent to those dist centers by truck?

note: don't work for Amazon...just shop there...shop elsewhere when I find a better deal that I think I can trust.