Get out of the stone ages

If you have visited your local electronics retailer lately, I’m sure you felt like I do when I go in, completely overwhelmed. Every day more and more products flood the marketplace and it seems like a never ending array of features and options. On bad days, I walk around in a daze stupidly staring at the signs and reading the descriptions that I don’t understand. On good days, I bribe one of my tech geek friends to accompany me and translate into English what all those options actually mean.

My latest shopping expeditions have been for a navigational system. I am getting ready to move to another state and decided that I would be proactive and get the system before I get there so that I have time to learn how to use it. That would be a great idea if I could figure out which one to buy. Dozens of brands, dozens of options and a huge price range make it nearly impossible to make a decision. I have learned the hard way that its not always best to buy the cheapest electronic possible but I also don’t have unlimited funds to buy the nicest one either. Finding some middle ground would be nice but how do you know what options you need until you’ve actually owned one and seen how it works?

So far, internet research has been my biggest help. My husband laughs at me for spending time pouring over online reviews and retailers websites trying to find a machine that suits me, but I need to feel confident that my money was well spent and that I got the best price available to me. Naturally, two weeks after I choose the prices will probably drop another fifty dollars, but unfortunately that is the nature of the beast. Electronics are getting faster, smarter and cheaper every day but you have to take that plunge some time.