Shopping on line is just like mail order with the exception that you know your credit card is going into a computer hooked to the internet. The problems occur when the web site you are ordering from stores your credit card in an insecure way. Unfortunately there is no way to know what the web site does with your cc info after the order is processed, so it's not easy to be careful.
That said, you can usually find both good and bad deals on anything via mail order or the internet. If you cannot find something locally, then you don't really have much of a choice unless you can make periodic trips to someplace that sells the things you need.
