Are Club Stores and E-retailers Decimating Our Life Stories?

I was at Costco last weekend. Quite possibly you were too.

I was on Amazon.com this week. Quite possibly you were too.

Were you buying an engagement ring?

I know the story of my husband’s search for just the right ring for me—I’ve been married a long time, so pre-Internet. He searched store after store; making excuses to “run to the mall” or “make a quick stop at xyz shopping center” since it was to be a surprise. It makes for a good story.

I know the story of my husband’s search for just the right diamond for his first fiancée (yes, I’m a soul baring blogger). They scoured the diamond market in NYC to find just the right shape, and the right seller. Husband can still do a great recanting of the bargaining process. I’d wager his ex-fiancée can too.

So the $20,000+ engagement ring for sale at Costco caught my eye (it was right between the big-screen TVs and the shredders, to the left of the battery display).

And it got me thinking: What’s the great story behind buying an engagement ring at the same time you bought some tires? Or shopping for a new book on Amazon and ending up with a 2 carat stunner?

If we continue down this path, one of three things will occur:

• E-retailers will have to give us ways to create those stories.
  • Think cool certificates about the specifics of your diamond’s journey to Costco—it crossed the ocean on X/XX/XXXX date, only to be delayed by a storm in ABC city . . .
  • Imagine creative follow-ups after purchase—”Yes, Son, after I bought Mom’s ring, Amazon sent us roses on that date for 10 years”

Are you up to that e-retailers, are you?

• We’ll have to fill in stories around the purchase.
  • “I stole her class ring to get the size and then thought I lost it when I was attacked by a hyena”
  • “I got a flat tire on the way to Costco and guess who stopped to help me change it, guess . . . no, just GUESS!”

• OR, these purchases won’t come with stories. And that makes me sad. Very, very sad.

So come on Costco, Amazon, whoever you are. Let’s make sure those stories still exist—even when the time comes that 90% of engagement rings are purchased with the click of a mouse or at the same time as lowly paper towels. It’s up to you to fill the void and make sure they don’t disappear.