Offbeat shopping.

• Position: Six online shopping services based in Colorado

ONLINE

ERIC PETERSON

A day on foot at the mall during holiday season typically feels like a retail re-enactment of "Apocalypse Now." But while e-commerce might spare you the horror of the parking-lot/cash-register/toy-aisle frenzy, don't think the Web is a cakewalk. There are billions of Web pages out there, with more digits dedicated to the buying impulse than could fit -- if bits had substance -- in FlatIrons Crossing and Park Meadows combined.

Yes, the perfect gift, more often than not, is a needle buried in a hypertext haystack.

But don't be discouraged -- it's far too early in the shopping season for that.

ColoradoBiz has taken a preholiday, online shopping tour for those souls who want to stay as far away from the brick-and-mortar chaos as possible.

Here's a list of six Colorado-based e-tailers who offer some of the more interesting, offbeat and downright bizarre places to shop online.

COLORADO'S OWN OFFBEAT ONLINE SHOPPING:

www.CabooseHobbies.com

Denver's Caboose Hobbies, the planet's largest model train store, has created a virtual Yahoo! For train-iacs at CabooseHobbies.com Not only are there 80,000 model railroading items in their online store, but the site also features tips and downloadable clinic videos for beginners, a kids' club, and links to the Web pages of Caboose's customers. The site is closely integrated with the brick-and-mortar operation, with a map to the store, information on returns and exchanges, and schedules for in-store clinics.

Be sure to browse the site's selection of scenery items. With more than 1,500 different products - including tunnels, trees, bridges, and buildings - it's a paradise in cyberspace for model-train buffs.

www.Diningware.com

Jordan Simons, the president and founder of Denver-based Diningware.com, says having every thing drop-shipped from the manufacturer allows purchasers on his site to save from 2.5 percent to 45 percent per purchase Diningware.com's catalog includes six different product categories (dinnerware, flatware, glassware, accessories, wedding, and kitchenware) stocked with merchandise from 30 suppliers, in the works, a "virtual dining room that will allow users to visually gauge the aesthetics of a place, setting before buying.

Be sure to browse Wallce Silversmiths, line of sterling silver dinnerware. Simons said it is a great source for higher-end presents. Beyond that there's something for every holiday budget: Price tags range from a mere $7.50 all the way up to $15,000.

www.Eleuria.com

Gifts don't come much more personalized than the perfumes proffered by Eleuria.com, the brainchild of Longmont's Kerry Ott. After blending perfumes as a hobby for 20 years. Ott leapt from the banking industry to dot-com proprietorship in February 2000. "It seemed the more people I made them for, the more people wanted them," she explained. Ott now mixes custom perfumes to the specifications of a 28-point...