Living in Singapore, I’m somewhat satisfied with the brands that are found in the supermarkets here. Both my go-to diaper and luxury diapers are well-known and I am very comfortable with them. But when surfing the net, all those premium diapers such as Bambino, ABU, AwwSoCute etc, keep on propping up. These websites don’t ship to Singapore, sadly, so my next best bet is to go to the likes of eBay and Amazon. I’ve tried shipping ordinary parcels from both the US and UK, and even tried using vPost as an alternate shipping means. But I’m not convinced that these means provide the discreetness and privacy of buying diapers directly from brick-and-mortar shops.
There are a few issues with shopping online for diapers. The first is the fact that you leave a digital trail of what and where you buy. I think banks and services like Paypal are professional about not divulging data. But the problem is that when a retailer ships a parcel to you, they need to send an invoice too, which they like to attach on the OUTSIDE of the box. Ok, lets assume the postman ignores that invoice. The main issue is when the parcel has to cross international borders. That’s when the immigration officers, in our case Singapore’s Imm!grat!ons and Checkpo!nt’s Author!ty (ICA), would be interested in the contents of the box for tax purposes and what not, and will read that invoice, taking note of it’s contents. The govt would know!
Then there is the ICA check itself. Like all border control, they would open up parcels to check for contraband, drugs etc. Given that I’m ordering diapers for non-medical reasons, this might be a cause for their suspicions, e.g for illegal sexual activities. Trust me, I don’t do such things but in the eye of the law, this may not be so. These data recording would be easily the biggest turn-off for me.
Then of course, there is the delivery of the package itself. My grandmother lives with me so there is someone at home all the time. And we also can’t choose the time that the postman delivers the parcel. So my people are bound to see such a parcel, and if my current parcels are anything to go by, they would certainly want to know its’ contents. To mitigate this, I tried using a local alternate shipping service. SingPost’s vPost service allows you to buy stuff overseas, and they do the international shipping to Singapore on your behalf. The neat thing about them is that you can choose to pick up your parcel at your own convenience from a 24-hr automated POPStation. That way, I can eliminate the awkward home delivery. Alas, I found out that parcels shipped from the US are open by the USA customs too…
To sum it up, going shopping online for diapers is not as discreet as buying it at the supermarket. This is because of the digital trails one leaves behind, the border and customs checks, and problems with home delivery, though the latter may be mitigated by using the vPost service. I guess that these aren’t a real problem for the incontinent, but they sure can be for an ABDL. So, I guess that my wish of trying a proper ABDL diaper would have to be put on hold for a while.
dlselv@sg 