Shop early

Befitting a contemporary ecommerce professional, I have just completed 100% of my holiday shopping. I usually buy stuff for my immediate family, partner, and nobody else.

We have talked about how I am bad at gift receiving. In short, I treat gifts like I live in a 300 square foot apartment where I already have all the things I need to live well, where the addition of any durable object will be more burden than joy. People have learned to buy me a thing of olive oil, instead. You would not believe the delight that I am capable of expressing when you find me some obscure-ass olive oil that a recluse made in a town of 400 in Portugal.

I am generally considered to be as good at gift giving as I am bad at gift receiving. Here is some text about what I do here.

As a contemporary ecommerce professional, I am now so jaded about the supply chain and BFCM hype that I buy early. Like, really early. Early enough that I am but a blip in the whole season, sneaking in undetected. Early enough that I laugh at the idea of “sales” driving any of my decisions. Early enough that I am writing this text before the World Series starts.