# I don't know how to shop anymore

By [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://paragraph.com/@nickgrossman) · 2014-02-25

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The sole is starting to peel of from my snow boots, so I'm in the market for some [shoe goo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Goo) or [Gorilla Glue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glue).  I'd really like to get it today because the flapping sole is getting annoying. As I was thinking about this just now, I realized that I don't know how to shop anymore. In other words, I don't have the faintest idea how to buy shoe goo, today, in a real place.  I guess 10 years ago I might have googled for shoe stores or department stores, and then called them, but I can't possibly imagine doing that now. My (and I know I'm not alone) go-to now is to order on Amazon and forget about it for a day or two.  That is really easy and works for almost anything.  But it's not the same as getting it today.  And I'd really prefer to buy from a person in a place if I can. For example, I needed a watch battery for a garage door opener.  Rather than try to figure out where to buy that in the real world, I ordered it on amazon and waited.  That seems silly for such a tiny thing, that is actually available in lots of places. What i would really like is a shopping interface like amazon, but that just points me to local merchants.  Someone I can walk to on my way to the subway. You are probably saying: but [google shopping](google.com/shopping) already does this!  And you are right, sort of.  They do offer a "find in stock nearby" option -- but the problem is that it's only got big box stores and dedicated e-commerce sites.  My guess is that there is a bottle of Gorilla Glue closer to me than the nearest Home Depot. The folks at [TalkTo](http://talkto.com) are one group that's approaching this problem -- by surfacing answers to the"is this in stock" type questions via a phone-to-web interface, and publishing them online. It would be great if this, or something like it, works, and I can learn to shop locally again.

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*Originally published on [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://paragraph.com/@nickgrossman/i-dont-know-how-to-shop-anymore)*