Why leave your home to go shopping when all of life’s necessities can be purchased from the comfort of your home? With stores having online websites and companies such as Amazon and eBay existing, shopping has become as easy as the click of a button. But perhaps online shopping has given us too much power. While Amazon is known for its cheap prices, prime membership, and quick delivery, they are also known for selling many strange items.
Most everyone knows about the classic game of spin the bottle. A bottle is placed in the center of a circle, is spun, and the person who spins it has to kiss whoever the bottle lands on. I know, it surely is a difficult task to spin a bottle manually, but University Games has created a solution to this age-old dilemma: electronic spin the bottle. For just $28.21, Amazon customers may purchase their way into the new age of spin the bottle. No longer will partygoers suffer from the laborious task of manually spinning a bottle.
Uselessness is a common trend for strange items on Amazon. For a simple payment of $6.79 one may obtain their very own inflatable toast. One buyer even an amazing five star review with the message: “I have used many different types of inflatable toast [and] I can say without question that this is the best inflatable toast out there. The toast inflates quickly and with ease..this is important when I am pressed for time and need inflatable toast at a [moment’s] notice. If you are like me and can’t be without a high quality inflatable toast, THIS is the one for you!” Amazon provides a feature showing what sort of items people purchase along with the item you are viewing. In the case of inflatable toast, many purchase the yodelling pickle as well. The company which created both the inflatable toast and the yodelling pickle describe this amazing product as a “great gift for the person who has everything except a yodelling pickle.” But don’t worry, batteries are included.
Most everyone went through the stage of only eating the marshmallows out of their bowl of Lucky Charms. It is a part of life. If the craving for cereal marshmallows ever hits, a one pound bag of the delicious treat is available for $10.99. While the product’s intended use is to be mixed in other foods such as cookies or brownies, many reviews display their actual use: consumption of the entire bag by itself. Another item with a specific use is quite strange out of context. For $18.75, 1500 live ladybugs may be purchased off Amazon. Obviously they are intended to be placed in gardens to eat aphids which destroy gardens, but it is quite odd to purchase ladybugs over the internet and have them arrive at your doorstep in a sealed plastic container.
While there are numerous other strange items on Amazon such as uranium ore, wolf urine, a UFO detector, one-pound muscle replica, canned unicorn meat, a Nicolas Cage pillowcase, a giant nose that dispenses shower gel, and a 2003 nickel selling for $3.95 with $4.49 shipping, one of the funniest items on Amazon is the Wallmonkey Wall Decal of “Senior Woman with Asthma Inhaler”. The wall decal is exactly what it says it is. An elderly woman using an inhaler. This decal may be purchased in various sizes to spruce up any room. The company even created decals such as “Asia Old Man”, “Smiling Asian Teenage Boy”, and “Bitten Baloney Sandwich on White Bread”. There is nothing you need more in your house than a Wallmonkey Decal.
While Amazon has made shopping a lot easier, there are so many strange items one can purchase over the internet. But what may seem strange and useless to one person may be a prize to another.