Amazon Mp3 Store...

Today I bought my first mp3's online. Yes, that's right, I'm an iPod junkie and an internet freak, and I never used iTunes to buy music.

Anyway, I bought a shuffle for someone from Amazon and in exchange Amazon gifted me with a $5.00 credit.

After some searching, I found some musical inspiration and went to purchase...

And discovered I couldn't build a cart.

Now, the nice thing about a cart is that you can put things in it, and then take them out. I don't run an ecommerce site with insane analytics... but I bet there's a whole department at Amazon who can tell you exactly how many people put about 9 things in their cart and then buy 3.

I like carts because I don't have to find everything once, make a note of them, decide which ones I actually want to buy, and then go back and find the ones I really want. I can surf and add things, then delete them at will when I figure out what I really want.

Amazon doesn't let me do that. I either need to buy everything I see (um, sorry, I don't make $1,000 an hour, a dollar is worth something to me...) or know exactly what I want from the beginning.

Unless you're hunting something really specific (i.e. you're out of TP at the house, you really need some Ben and Jerry's, your printer is smoking and the term paper is due tomorrow, etc.) no one actually shops that way!

So, by not having a cart, Amazon insured that I didn't browse or mess around in the store. I spent exactly 54 cents on 6 songs ($5 not dividing equally into parts of .89 or .99). I would have probably spent more if I could have played around more.

Boo, Amazon!

The scary part...

Amazon didn't make me log in to purchase the mp3s. So, kiddies, log out of amazon when you're done! They don't make that easy, but I swear to you-- no login to buy the mp3s.