Subscription and Mystery Boxes: "Going to the Mall” of the Digital Age?

Earlier today, Mrs. Denmarkguy walked into my office, and started talking about the growing number of "mystery boxes" and "subscription boxes" she keeps seeing online.

She also talked about how genuinely wonderful many of these are, and (consequently) how easy it is to all of a sudden find yourself subscribed to hundreds of dollars worth of different "subscription packages" every month.

Afternoon sun on the gable of the house: The "Golden Hour."

Changing Times...

I got to thinking about this a bit, and it started dawning on me that subscription boxes might actually be the shopping mall of our times.

Now, we used to think that simply shopping online was the shopping mall of our time but maybe it really isn't. Shopping online (in a broad and general sense) is more like "mail order" of old.

You might wonder what the heck the difference is... and I'm going to suggest that it's the issue of "planned" vs. "spontaneous."

Hang with me, for a second...

Dandelion fluff... in close-up

Consider that "going to the mall" used to be an activity people would engage in, but now shopping malls all over America and beyond are dying. Meanwhile we become more and more reclusive and homebound and tend to reach out for every conceivable kind of thing we can have delivered in a box because we sit at home and don't get out and about nearly as much as we used to.

What does this have to do with Mystery Boxes and "Going To The Mall?"

Consider that the act of going to the mall was seldom about buying something specific. You might find a few cool things; you might not. There was no real plan. It was not a deliberate planned purchase. Similarly, a subscription or mystery box is not about "getting something specific." When you just order something online... it's usually pretty specific. Hence the "mall connection."

Am I overreaching? Maybe...

View across the bay

How We Spend Our Time

.
To be honest, I actually prefer to go somewhere and do something... as does my wife. Of course, that might simply be because we've both reached the far side of age 50. But still...

As we continued the conversation, Mrs. Denmarkguy pointed out that we'd really have more fun and probably be better off going downtown even just one day a month, and spending that money we "would have spent" on a subscription service and instead used it in physical stores run by people we (most likely) know.

I do have to agree with that.

That said, there are of course plenty of benefits to having various box subscription services. And just from poking around a little bit on the web there's no doubt that you can get pretty much anything you want via subscription service in a box. It just feels a little "disconnected."

Last but not least, I can't escape the slight irony of the fact that Mrs. Denmarkguy's "Supernatural Passport" Patreon actually has a box subscription service of its own! Every quarter, her Supernatural Passport supporters get a box of fun and funky things and that works pretty much like a mystery box service.

And I have to confess that I have a lot of fun helping her put together these boxes was various things we find when we're out and about! What is noteworthy, however, is the fact that we do go out and about to find these things. And so ultimately, we do end up being "out of the box," so to speak when we do our shopping!

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

Have YOU ever tried a "mystery box" or "subscription box" service? How did that work out for you? If you haven't, would you ever consider one? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190809 23:50 PST
1069