Any kind of present(s) is cool, but I think it is cool to say “This was my {occasion} present” where This implies that it was the only thing. One thing of great value both in physical and meaningful terms.
The fact that you can’t get some things easily here (seeing the roads last week it now makes sense) can be a pain sometimes (but hey they have soymilk, let’s not exaggerate), but the effort in going to 5 different small places to get 5 different things has tremendous meaning in terms of connecting to an important part of human existance.
In streamlining and whitewashing our experience of consumption, modern retail business may have increased convenience and profits, but they have taken the life out of the thing we do most. Think about the gap between agrarian self-sustenance and Wal-Mart. Not saying we need to return to the former. Just saying the latter missed something in their modern ideals.
Take that last bit and apply it to culture. yeah. Now you’re seeing why IR. Remember that feeling of finding some record in some store somewhere and listening to it over and over, consuming it in the truest, most meaningful sense of the word? You can remember, right?, because the finding, the physical process of consumption, was meaningful.