In my view having to go to the bank or having to go to the electricity shop to pay your bill was a pain in the ass and took valuable time I could have been having a pint or something. Also, in my job you couldn’t really leave the site to go do this kind of stuff in your lunch break (not that we had one which couldn’t be interrupted) so it all had to be done at weekends off.
I remember the “novelty” of booking flights or the boat home to Ireland on the phone but still having to go to the travel agents and queue for 3-4 hours to get your ticket issued (OMG that was a royal pain) so it didn’t actually save you any time and might as well have just gone to the travel agent in the first place. I certainly don’t miss all that. Now it takes me all of 5 mins to do the same thing and I can do it whilst having a pint. I am happy to be able to do these things online and thus have more of my free time to myself.
All of this stuff used to also involve social interactions though. My mum used to know fecking everyone and she’d stop and chat to them all which as a 3-4yo kid was also a pain in the ass 😀 It always seemed to happen in the doorways of shops and all I wanted was to get home and play or watch playschool or something. Largely, in my home town in Ireland, independent butchers and other shops do still exist. No one buys their meat in Tesco if they can help it.
I am someone who likes going to shops but I have found my shopping is much smarter thanks to online research and price comparison. I think we have a problem with offshoring of profit and I think if you trade in the UK (or any other country) you should have to pay taxes on all your trade in the UK, including intellectual property, in the UK. No offshoring. It is time for large windfall taxes everywhere and the meaningful shuttering of offshoring loopholes.