Have you ever bought a jigsaw puzzle online?  Before Covid-19, we didn’t even own one.  But my husband found them a great way to pass the time while staying at home. Trouble was, the local stores were out of all the good ones.  So we turned to Amazon.  Buying a puzzle by mail order is fraught with hazard.  There are sometimes missing pieces—which you don’t discover until you’ve spent about a week struggling to put the thing together.  When this happened, we decided to get a refund.  Printed out a return label.  To our surprise, it said we had to take it to Kohl’s drop off station for shipping return.  This seemed very strange, until I finally figured it out. Beware:  Amazon lures the shopping deprived..

I thought Kohl’s and Amazon were competitors.  After all, online shopping is robbing retailers of much needed traffic. But these two retailers teamed up last year for what seemed like a win-win situation. Kohl’s would pack and ship returns for Amazon for free.  This would bring traffic to Kohl’s.

I know I’ve been making fun of people who shop for clothes during the pandemic.  Why do you need anything new when you have nowhere to go?  But I’d forgotten the siren call of retail therapy.  When I stepped inside Kohl’s I felt a surge of joy. The brightly lit cosmetic counter. Colorful  new summer fashions.  Sale signs everywhere.  As I made my way back to the Amazon kiosk, temptation overcame me.  My senses pulsed with desire. No, I did not need new tops and shorts.  Not at all.  But I knew what was going to happen, and I didn’t have the strength to stop it.

Like a starving refugee, I darted  from counter to counter, filling my arms with merchandise.  My face mask was getting hot, but I didn’t care.  I couldn’t leave until I had used the 25% discount coupon that I received at the Amazon drop off station.  When I got home with my packages, my husband had  a good laugh.  I had fallen for their trap. Amazon lures the shopping deprived.