Greg Burghardt

’Tis the season to go shopping.

Online shopping will not take people away from the stores, but is an option for holiday shopping, said some CMU students.

“I think there is a variance in the population. I think there are some people that want to do it and those who don’t,” said Brandon Potter, Sanford junior. “I think it will affect the number of people in stores slightly.”

Angela Pincumbe, Holt senior, disagreed, saying she thinks a lot of people will shop shop online this year.

Potter said he has not gone shopping online and is not sure if he will.

He said he would stay away from it as long as possible, but would do it if he wanted.

What types of things would people buy online this holiday season?

Some students said they would buy compact discs and books, but were skeptical of buying clothes.

“I might go online shopping for CDs at www.CDnow.com
for my brother,” said Kate Maki, Grosse Pointe freshman.

Some students wouldn’t buy clothes online because they are not able to try the clothes on, Pincumbe said.

Some other reasons are delivery time and shipping and handling, said Vanessa Gembarski, Port Austin sophomore.

Online shopping is useful, but only if one is sure of what they want, Pincumbe said.

“If I already knew what I wanted and I was going to run in and leave, I would shop online,” she said. “If I was going to shop with someone and make a day of it, I wouldn’t.”

Jackie Coch, Woodhaven freshman, said in a lot of cases a person just wants to go in and get it themselves.

Detroit senior Jamarr Allen is going to combine traditional with online shopping this holiday season.

“Most of my shopping I will go out and pick up, but the things that are more expensive or hard to find I will buy over the Internet,” he said.

Allen said he likes to go on www.ebay.com
to find almost anything and www.eastbay.com
for shoes.

“I think (shopping online) will always be second nature because people like the shopping environment,” he said. “Shopping over the Internet takes away that environment.”

Trisha Ritter, senior department manager for JC Penney Co., 2231 S. Mission St., said online shopping will continue to increase for a while before it reaches a plateau.

“My personal opinion is it will increase until it hits a steady level and than level off,” she said. “My general feeling is the more people get comfortable with using credit cards online the more it will increase.”

Ritter said JC Penney started online shopping two years ago. It has increased each year it has been offered.

Unlike other businesses, JC Penney was better suited to make the switch to online shopping, Ritter said.

“It was easy. We were in a good position because of catalog sales,” she said. “Because we were in the catalog business for years, we didn’t really have to start from scratch.”

Ritter said she believes online shopping will increase and could possibly
have an impact at a store level.

E-mail the author: Rick CharmoliCentral Michigan Life