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I consider myself somewhat of an "onlineaholic shopper". I hate to say it, but the malls in my area have lost my business. I hate having to fight for a parking spot - if anyone wants my spot at home, I'll just move to the next chair.

I first discovered how really convenient online shopping was, several years ago, I had knee surgery and couldn't drive and get to the stores to do much needed Xmas shopping. Santa had to come, pain killers and all. I stumbled upon Amazon.com quite buy accident.

Mama needed a new pair of shoes (I really did) and I was purchasing from Nordstroms since they had the style I wear and the size I needed. I went to place my order and found myself at Amazon.com. I quickly hit the back button figuring I must have clicked on an annoying pop up window somewhere, and once again was lead to Amazon.com.

Amazon.com seems to have become somewhat of a Santas workshop. Giving you the ability to make purchases for just about every member of your household. The website is very easy to navigate and the pages load quickly. I find I get better results when I use Internet Explorer on their website than Netscape Navigator. When you first arrive at Amazon.com you will find the following catagories:

Welcome
Your Store
Books
Apparel & Accessories
Electronics
Toys & Games
Kitchen & Housewares
Cell Phones & Services

WELCOME - Shows you some of the specials that may be offered at the time of your visit. From cell phone deals, toys, books and jewelery. It has an area called YOUR FAVORITES, which keeps track of where you've visited on the site and previous purchased and makes suggestions as to what you may also want to purchase.

YOUR STORE - once you're logged in it will appear, in my case, SUSANS STORE. It gives recommendations based on previous purchases. From here you can access information on previous orders (boy have I ordered a lot of STUFF). You can also track recent shipments for orders you haven't received as of yet.

BOOKS - considered to be "the Earth's biggest book store". You can easily find a book you're looking for year. On the left side of the screen it lists the different genres, subject, categories that you can search through. You can do a search by title, ISBN #, Author, Subject, and Publisher.

From here you can also access USED books, which I have recently placed an order for. For example, I need to have a copy of my kids Math Text Books at home so they don't have to worry about forgetting them. I put the ISBN # in from the back of their text and I'm given the option of purchasing a new one for $71 or search the 7 used ones starting at $31.00. I should receive the $31 one I ordered in a couple of days and will update as to the quality of this book.

APPAREL & ACCESSORIES - Basically it's pretty much shop till you drop. The benefit I have found is that some places you don't get charged tax, if they don't have an outlet in your state. I've ordered clothing and shoes and have been completely satisfed with every order I have received. Some of the stores you can shop at are Nordstrom, Polo.com, OshKosh B'Gosh, Target, and Footlocker, only to name a few.

There is also a Special Offers section where you can find Free Shipping and Special Deals at various stores.

ELECTRONICS, Here you can purchase anything from cameras, to computers, DVD Players, TV's, cell phones, and video game systems, you name it, they pretty much have it.

TOYS & GAMES - it's like having a toy store in your home that you can easily order from. They are a portal to Toys R Us where you can search by age, toy type, boy or girl, sale items. This came in handy and I have been Xmas shopping in advance through Amazon.com for the last 2 years.

KITCHEN & HOUSEWARES - They offer everything from a small kitchen utensil to large furniture (I'm currently looking for a kitchen table and they may have what I want). I recently purchased my Mikasa Utensil set through here and was 100% satisfied with the price, delivery time and quality.

They also have a Gift Registry where future brides and grooms can register, as well as making xmas lists, birthday lists. An excellent idea (kids don't want to write their lists out anymore anyway.) They have daily deals which you can take advantage of as well.

CELL PHONES & SERVICES - One stop shopping for that new cell phone you need - they offer severaly different manufacturers brands, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung to name a few. They also offer hot deals, accessories and service plans.

These are just the major catagories at Amazon.com. Each major has several subcatagories that lead you to different "stores". I have found my shopping experience at Amazon.com to be excellent overall. Out of about 10 orders I have placed in the last 2 years, only one item was no longer in stock, that was a hard to find Scrabble Folding Table. I was notified within 2 days of placing the order that it was removed from my order because they didn't know when it would be back in stock.

The prices I have paid through Amazon.com and the stores that are being shopped through them have been comparable or better prices than other stores. I always research the price on an item before I buy it online and always go for the lower priced store, taking into consideration, shipping and handling charges, taxes, discounts I might receive purchasing through other websites like Fatwallet.com, etc. I always seem to end up back at Amazon.com for the convenience and prices.

Except for being notified by Customer Service about the unavailability of the Scrabble Folding Table mentioned earlier, I fortunately have not had to contact their Customer Service for any reason. All my items were received within 1 week of order, actually a few days sooner than what they estimated as a delivery time.

** FREE SUPER SAVER SHIPPING ** This is another perk Amazon.com offers, however it does not apply to every item you buy - only the ones with a little truck next to the item description. You should go to the HELP section at the top right of the Amazon.com website, click on FREE SUPER SAVER SHIPPING and follow the instructions from there - read the fine print section to the right. You must purchase $25 or more worth of merchandise that is eligible for the Free Super Saver Shipping and then you must select it as follows:

"* Once you've ordered over $25 of eligible products, click the "Review or edit your 1-Click orders" button on the 1-Click® confirmation page.
* On the next page, which summarizes your order, click the Change button next to Shipping Speed.
* Finally, select Super Saver Shipping as your shipping speed."

Any items ineligible for Super Saver Shipping will be charged shipping charges. It can be confusing, but can be worth it.

I'm looking forwards to my Xmas and Birthday shopping this year - it beats waiting on lines at the stores and the crowds.

UPDATE 9/17/04 - As I stated earlier, I had purchased some USED school text books through Amazon.com. Out of the 6 books I ordered 1 was out of stock, but I was notified the day after I placed my order (luckily it was a book I wouldn't need for another year when my son is in 8th grade); 1 book hasn't arrived yet; The 4 that did arrive, (all from different used book sources) 3 were in brand new condition - better condition than the one my sons received from their school and one was used, but still in good condition. I also ordered a Music Stand which I paid $4.00, plus $4 shipping and handling - for $8 I got an excellent quality, heavy duty music stand.