. The pre-Christmas season is bustling with shoppers. Although stores were closed and we couldn’t spend money as usual, we found other ways to get by. During the Covid-19 lockdown, online sales skyrocketed. Czechs have discovered and fallen in love with home delivery, where you don’t have to worry about shopping carts—just the one you fill online. And it fills up pretty quickly! There’s nothing easier than sitting down at your computer, searching for your favorite store—whether for groceries, drugstore items, electronics, home appliances, or clothing.
Stores know how to target potential customers. They offer various discounts, and once you sign up, you’re usually required to subscribe to their newsletter—which they churn out almost every week—and then they bombard you with information about where the latest deals are. And Czechs are very responsive to discounts. And the cycle keeps spinning. You’ve been hooked—and how can you not buy it when it’s so cheap! And maybe you’re hoarding things you wouldn’t otherwise buy.
Stop and buy only what you really need or what you want to treat yourself to. But don’t let them push things on you—even small items—that don’t satisfy you and would just pile up at home. One of the lures of online retailers:
You finish your order and a pop-up immediately appears telling you that for this price, you won’t find this or that anywhere else, while a message scrolls across the screen stating that many customers have already purchased these products before you—and as if that weren’t enough, a countdown timer starts. This is meant to induce not panic, but stress, forcing you to make an immediate decision. Most people ignore it, but there are still customers who fall for the seller’s tricks and end up buying unnecessary items at the last second. So be vigilant, buy only what you truly need, and don’t let yourself be manipulated. Be the one in control of the situation, not the online retailers.
