Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Irritated by Overkill.

I ordered a bag of 80 cod liver oil capsules online yesterday (£5.49 incl p&p – for the benefit of my worn-out-through-overwork-knee, you understand.) Today I got an email from the supplier which said:

Good news about your order!
(Note the exclamation mark. It’s what makes good news great news.)
Your order has been shipped and it will be with you soon!
(Another exclamation mark, just to leave you in no doubt that this really is great news.)

Look: I order something online, I pay for it by credit card, they send it to me. That’s all that’s going on here. If you went into your local grocery store and asked for a Hovis thick sliced loaf and a bottle of milk, and the guy behind the counter proudly presented them intoning ‘Great news, Mr Customer! Your bread and milk is herewith produced! Haven’t I done well?’ you’d think he had a screw loose, wouldn’t you?

And that’s one of the things I find disturbing about online shopping. It does so encourage mindless hyperbole.

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