Are you prepared for this year’s shopping extravaganza? Credit cards poised? Christmas clubs plumped up and ready for a quick pruning? Have a twice-checked list of your Naughty and Nice? Great. Some other things to consider: Be ready to park a half-mile from the store entrance. Oh, and say hello to those nice, new teenage employees covering for the holiday onslaught: they’re usually about as helpful as dryer lint. When dragging those gift-laden bags through the mall, be mindful of the screeching babies whose parents have pacified them with a sugary treat. And don’t forget to have that Christmassy cheer while under a pile of ferocious shoppers vying for the last Pokémon.

If your holiday shopping outfit includes protective headgear and a tight-fitting jersey, you might want to buy at least one of your gifts online this year. I know that the Internet was created for the world’s cultures to come together and create communities of thinking people with ideas to share, but like many other well-meaning things, it’s become a source of revenue. Take advantage of this realm of unending competition and shop around. You might be amazed by how far your dollar goes.

Just give it a shot. Yeah, you know about eBay.com and eToys.com and whatever else they stick in between e and .com, but the Internet provides huge, better-priced galleries of each and every item that you could ever hope to find. Have a cigar fanatic at home? StogiesOnline.com has a special — Mancanudo Petites for $19.95, down from $60. Send a fruitcake to your bratty nephew from MonasteryFruitcake.org for only $22. You can even send a lump of coal to your ex by employing the folks at XmasCoal.com for as little as $5.31! I found these sites, determined the price, and filled out the electronic forms in less than 5 minutes. And I was sipping on a "special" nog the whole time. All you need is a computer with Internet capability, a few minutes, and a valid credit card.

"Hell, no!" you say? "I don’t trust my number out there!" Aha! A doubter. First of all, know that the Internet has been selling merchandise since 1994. Online shopping is not new. Second, I found many different sites that accept not only credit cards, but also checks, and will even accept Cash on Delivery (COD) in some cases. Credit cards, however, are furnished with the best insurance of consumer protection and satisfaction. Troubleshooters have made it their life’s work to make it practically impossible for any one to appropriate your credit card number from an online transaction. Encryption of your credit card number and passwords is a federal standard. Netscape’s Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Visa’s Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) are the premiere guardian protocols that protect the online consumer. SSL provides privacy by encrypting the information that exchanges within each transaction. SET is a standard by which e-businesses must meet stringent security criteria and pass a rigorous certification process in order to display the SET logo. This logo helps consumers quickly differentiate what sites are safest. In addition to that, looking at the little padlock in the lower left corner of your browser can easily check a website’s security. If the padlock is locked, you’re on a high security web page and have little to fear. If it is unlocked or not there, the site is low security and is not recommended. If, by some fault of the online gods, you are still made the unwitting dupe of a scam, you still have lifelines. Do a little research and you’ll find out what I did: ALL major credit cards have extensive Fraud Protection that put online purchases under their umbrellas. From what I understand, credit card companies are seldom argumentative about reimbursing victims of this type of crime. That’s because there is an easily traced trail accompanying every online purchase to which only authorized personnel have access. The credit card companies are very good at doing the dirty work of punishing those who dare to exploit you.

"Not to put the restaurant industry on the spot, but there’s more danger of having a waiter copy your credit card number down and run up charges than an online hacker. That’s how well-protected it is now," assures Greg Smith, CEO of PSECU. Smith explains that PSECU alone has two programs that, in addition to the above safeguards, use a type of intelligence to "learn" the customer’s purchasing habits. If something is bought that seems atypical of the customer, a flag goes up and the customer is called to verify the purchase. So, come on. Buy a gift online and see if the pros don’t outweigh the cons.

Let me guide you through a good format for finding exactly what you want when shopping on the Internet. First, making a list of gifts to buy is definitely a great idea, particularly if you are on an hourly allotment from your Internet Server. List in hand, you might want to utilize a Meta-search engine, a site that pools together multiple search engines to return a more precise list on your request. For years, I have sworn by Dogpile.com to find anything I asked. Simply type in any keywords and click on the ‘Fetch’ button. One of the 12 different well-established engines is bound to have what I really want. Recently, however, I have begun to use NorthernLight.com. This is a much more far-reaching and organized site. It not only is connected to over 168-million-and-counting web pages, but it puts all of your search results into folders separated into categories in which you might be interested. It even gives you tips on how to make your searches more efficient. A natural language phrase like "inexpensive gifts" results in over 40 thousand items. On the left side of the screen, I click on the blue "Holiday Gifts" folder and whittle my choices down to 39. I then choose the blue "Commercial Sites" folder and end up with 25 places to start shopping on. I begin with a friendly invitation saying, "Welcome to Christmas Holiday gifts — Online," and find the New Mexico-based Delight Company, 4-christmas-gifts.com, specializing in the body and bath products that usually result in great big hugs and kisses from my special someone. Delight Company has a privacy policy reassuring that no one but them will ever see your transactional information. "Nobody. Never. Nothing." They do this by assigning you a unique access code. I check out close-up pictures of the hand-made products and put Bath Fizzies that "turn your bath into a spa" into my e-shopping cart. More like heart-shaped Alka-Seltzers that smell like patchouli and roses, but it’s a gift for someone else, right? I ask them to gift-wrap it for free and then get 16 oz. of "Power Shower" bath salts. The total, $21.40 is comparable, but the UPS shipping is $7.00! I can pay three times as much for overnight delivery, but opt for the US Postal Service’s $4.50, instead. I make sure to click the "Recalculate" button to get the correct price and then decide on my method of payment: credit card, check, or even — gasp! — C.O.D.! I am guaranteed that this is fully refundable if I am unsatisfied with anything. And, being a new customer, I get five free samples of hand-made soaps. There’s one gift done for $25.90, five minutes, and I didn’t wait in lines or waste gas looking for a parking space.

In fact, there are many of the stores that you would normally have to drive to that now have online shopping sites. JCPenney.com, RadioShack.com, OfficeDepot.com, and ToyRUs.com all have shopping available on the Internet. Search your favorite store’s name to see if they have the same capabilities. Many online stores are offering free shipping to the early bird shopper this time of year, too. Toys ‘R Us offers free shipping until December 1. So, essentially, you’d be buying the same items at the same cost of the foot soldier pushing a cart up and down the aisles. Plus, as long as you have an invoice, all of the local area stores offering online shopping accept returns of online products.

For that someone for which you have no idea what kind of gift to buy, visit an online mall. All-Internet.com will supply a comprehensive list of every category of gift. Simply click on "malls and such" and pick any mall. You can browse through jewelry, apparel, toys, foods, furniture, electronics, and any merchandise your local mall boutiques would carry. Specific sites include iMall.com, 1-InternetPlaza.com, and aShoppingGuide.com. The purchase procedure is much like the one demonstrated above and the shipping charges vary, as well.

Speaking of shipping charges, I understand that handling is an entirely different entity from shipping. The common phrase "shipping and handling" refers to the courier’s charge for delivery and also the merchant’s cost for preparing the package and handling it. Regrettably, some of the e-stores do charge handling costs and all I can say is to shop around for the same item without excessive charges like this. It may send a message.

You can even get those hard to find items like out-of-print books and music, antiques, and one-of-a-kind artwork out there, too. Just type it in. Bookfinder.com, MemoryLaneRecords.com, AntiqueArts.com, and thousands of artists worldwide are there at yours and my disposal. Imagine having to fly to Turkey 10 years ago for a genuine, Turkish rug when all you now need is the correct URL, FloorBiz.com. I think you get the gist of how simple this is.

For you die-hard philanthropists who love the shopping holidays and enjoy the incessant caroling and fake snow in the window dressings, and the nip in the air, there is no Internet substitute. I admit that there is nothing like walking hand in hand with the love of your life through a winter wonderland of eye-catching displays and feeling the Yuletide joy and good will oozing from every storefront. Aaah! The smell from Cinnabon’s! Mmmm! The coziness of a sparkling storefront while it snows outside. But take note of the shift in attitudes as Christmas nears and the last-minute shopping community takes over the highways and stores. The tension mounts with the whirling chords of a Tchaikovsky ballet. You see the crowds of cheerless patrons shuffle along as though in a subway. It’s at that moment that a stay-at-home shopping spree might be ideal. I’ll give you a list of sites to check out. Start slow, but above all, have fun.

Happy holidays from all of us at MODE!

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