COVID 19 and your plans

[kickstand]

Written inventory? What the hell is that?!? (This coming from the guy who has had to take buckets of canned foods to the dump.)

As for the other stuff, you do what is best for you. We'll be here to tell you how wrong you are.

Edited hours later to correct profanity.

[Gwynmael]

Only one direct hole I can think of, but many spots with lack of depth; and two major issues.

The direct hole was compost for the gardens. All the raised beds needed refreshed this year and I was adding another. Things shut down less than a week before the city's compost facility opened. Thanks to RD being classed essential and some unexpected OT, we were able to purchase a delivery of 3 tons of garden soil (top soil, compost, sand mixture). Remedy for that has moved up the project priority list.

Lack of depth was caused by multiple factors - everyone's #1 factor of finances; not maintaining good habits; and my two major issues.

Major #1 - NO flipping written inventory. Hard to know what you might need if you don't know what you have OR you can't find it. Working on it.
Major #2 - Head games. Sorry if my phrasing gets clunky and I plan on going into more detail in the Book Club (when I can force myself to finally write it out). Suffice it to say that I now (for the last 18 months or so) suffer from panic attacks. That made it difficult, at times impossible, to process the constantly changing information/circumstances and to just function. To take it in, process it, sort it, and then make decisions. Especially when I couldn't really trust myself that I had come to the "correct" conclusion. And that's if I could make a decision at all. And there were a lot of times I couldn't, it felt like getting stuck in a programming logic loop. I'm working on it and getting professional help doing so.

But now? Right now? I'm with Betty - I'm DONE and I'm ticked off.

Today is C's first day back to Adult Day Services in 8 weeks and the house is too dang quiet. I'm off to crank some music and run the vacuum cleaner.

[Betty Buckshot]

I'm plumb over all this. I was scared for a couple of weeks, tentative for another one, nearly went nuts being alone and just got DONE. Been getting together w/ friends whenever possible. Have worked the whole time. On 5/2 a friend and I went to South Dakota and found the bars and wineries were open. There may have been other stores open, but all we found was bars and wineries..
Our local bars opened last Fri, but no one got the message until Sat. 1/2 capacity, no seats at the bar, only 6 people per table and the help has to wear masks/gloves. No one is at all concerned.
Supplies of some things are hit/miss at the stores, but nearly everything is available within a week or so. Stores are limiting quantities of many items.

I do oilfield billing, so the virus is the least of my problems right now...Oilfield is pretty much shut down, coal mines are laying off and so is the railroad (coal transport). I'm nearly out of things to do at work, but the boss assured me a couple weeks ago that I will still have a job.
Glad to hear you're all doing well.

[airdrop]

Granny tells you all you need to know about it , watch her channel for more tips .

[kickstand]

Since my wife and I are both in the "higher risk" category for COVID, we have avoided going out into the public as much as possible during this whole pandemic. Since I've used the Order / pickup from Walmart a few times by now, I figured that Sam's Club will be a very similar process, and gave it a try for the first time today. It's also the last time I will use it. Let me be clear that the problems have nothing to do with the employees, they were friendly, kind and helpful.

First, like with everywhere else, you use either the website or app. I used the app. There's a lot of items that you can't add to your cart, you can only pick up in the store. Ok, well, although there were a number of things on that list that I wanted, I opted to forego them, since the whole point of shopping this way was to avoid going into the store. So ok, I have everything in my virtual cart, and am ready to check out. This is where you pick a day and time for when you want to pick up your order. My time slot was from 11:00am - 12:00 Noon today. That's all pretty straight forward and easy up to this point, so I checked out.

I got a text at 10:03 that my order is ready for pickup. Ok, it's an hour early, no problem. I don't have any frozen items in my order, and even if I did, I'm pretty sure that they would keep it frozen. The text says that I should check in using the app once I get to the store, and that I'm supposed to go to the Customer Pickup Area.

My lovely bride (aka "S") hadn't been off the property in over a month, so I asked her if she wanted to ride along. "They're going to bring it out to the the car, right?", she asked. I told her "I'm sure that they do." She decided that she was ready to get out, so she went along.

I tried looking online to find where to park for the Customer Pickup Area, but couldn't find any information. On the 20 minute drive, S tried finding the information, with the same lack of results as I had. Hmm, that's odd, but I guess we'll figure it out when we get there.

We arrived at the store and circled the building, looking for any signs or anything to tell us where to go, still with no success. On our second trip around, I saw an employee in the lot and asked him where the Customer Pickup Area was. Oh, it's inside the store, near the entrance. Ahhh ... now I see why we couldn't find the special parking area online; there isn't one. I park and ask S if she wants to go in. She opts to stay in the car. Since I had to go in anyway, I considered getting some of the items that are only available for in-store pickup, but still opted to bypass them so I could minimize the time that S was left out in the car (she gets herself into trouble if left to her own devices for too long).

I headed into the entrance. Do you think that you could make an immediate left and take the 5 steps to the pickup location? Nope, it's completely blocked off. You have to walk to the far end of the store because everything is blocked off. Once you get to the far end and make a U-turn, you then enter the check-out area, where everyone is waiting in line to check out. Passing through and around the throngs of people, you can then enter the Customer Pickup area to retrieve your order. The worker quickly found the cart with most of my order in it, pulled the refrigerated items from the wall refrigerator, and sent me on my way. I asked about the receipt and was told that it will be emailed to me. I pushed the cart to the exit, where the Exit Checker scanned my membership card and an item, a out to the car I went.

The whole point of ordering online was to avoid being in the store, around other people, and handling the carts (there were no wipes available to use). Walmart has it figured out, Sam's has a LONG way to go before I would consider using that option again.

[kickstand]

Honestly, I haven't tried the powder yet. It's been in my preps for 7 or 8 years I think. I need to try it.. Maybe I'll crack it open tomorrow and give it a go.


KK, of course Crunchy is the king of PB! I would say something derogatory about Creamy, along the lines of "Creamy is for peasants", but my lovely bride prefers creamy, so I won't be saying anything like that.

[redman2006]

What is that peanut butter powder like?

[Kailani Kealoha]

I see you're a man of class. Crunchy peanut butter is the superior choice.

[kickstand]

Today I placed an order of only the hamburger, chicken and hand sanitizer that were out of stock on my previous order. I again choose not to allow any substitutions. This time I chose the earliest time of day available, which is 8-9 Monday morning. I don't have any big hopes of getting any of it, so at least I won't need to drive to town if none of it is available. We'll see how it goes.

Well, my UPS driver ended up getting the $20 today that I tried to give to the Walmart associate yesterday. He's always been great, dropping my packages over my fence into the designated basket just inside my fence. I wiped the $20 bill down with a disinfecting wipe, then put it in an envelope, and wrote "UPS Driver" on the envelope (I really should ask him his name). I dropped the envelope in a Ziploc baggie along with a note saying how we get to stay home, and therefore healthy, because of people like him, and that we appreciate him, etc. You could read the note and "UPS Driver" without opening the baggie. I then clipped the baggie to my fence, right where he drops my packages over.

I kept an eye out for him, and saw when he arrived in front of my driveway. He was at my fence and reading the note by the time I could get outside. He was actually reattaching the baggie to the fence when he saw me. Evidently he didn't realize that there was the envelope inside for him and had used his Sharpie to write 'Thanks" on the baggie. Standing well away, I explained that there was something in the bag for him. He asked if he could take the whole baggie and everything with him, which of course was the plan to begin with. He said Thanks, walked back to his truck and drove away.

I went an retrieved my package of peanut butter, and headed inside. I'm now fairly confident that I can survive the apocalypse for a while without having to eat the dogs and Khatt (ok, ok, the Adams came from Walmart and the PB2 powder was from my preps. UPS guy did bring the other 4 though.)

PB_Goodness.jpg

[airdrop]

We've had mixed results shopping this way , we decided to go at opening time and found more stuff on the shelves than later in the day . As a heads up meat might be an issue before long as processing plants are shutting down causing shortages , one plant the works just didn't show up when a case showed up in the plant . Fear over this is nuts , the numbers are starting to show the death rate may not be as bad as the flu .

[0utlaw]

Your receipt should have a transaction number of some sort if you reference that and compliment your loader/shopper person I would bet they would know who it was.
Good on you for looking out for the people that make our lives a little easier, to too many folks they are invisible or worse are those people who enjoy belittling them to make themselves feel important.

[kickstand]

Here is my first experience with using the Walmart Shop Online, pick up at the store.

Using a combination of a Windows PC and Android phone with the Walmart app, placing the order was all pretty straight forward. It is a bit annoying that they are really emphasizing that they want everyone to shop without going into the store, all to help stop the spread of the virus, yet if you try to put Lysol Spray in your cart, you're told that it's for "In-store purchase only". Odd, but ok. Do they have any in the store? The only answer is "unknown".

When checking out, you can choose to allow items that may be out of stock to be substituted. You can choose Any/All, or you can select which individual items may be substituted, or allow no substitutions at all. Having read where one Instacart shopper substituted every fresh produce item with cilantro, I chose No Substitutions. I placed the order on Sunday evening, with a scheduled pick up between 11am & noon today (Wednesday). There was a total of 30 items in my order, for a total of roughly $240. The app said that I would receive an email when my order was ready for pickup.

Since I live ~25 minutes away and didn't want my order sitting around, I headed towards town at around 10:45. Just before leaving, I received an email saying that 9 of the items were out of stock, to include the frozen chicken breasts and all of the hamburger, leaving the only meat remaining in my order a package of bratwurst. Luckily, this was just a "it would be nice to have" order, not a "dang I really need that" order.

Even though there was a total of about three cars on the road, including mine, I still had a utility truck with a trailer pull out right in front of me. While I didn't have to panic stop, I did have to rapidly slow from 55 down to about 25 MPH.

At 10:50, my phone buzzed with a message saying that my order was ready. It also said that I should "check in" when I was on my way, but I didn't know that at the time, since I was driving and didn't think that reading from my phone would be a smart thing to do. I pulled into the parking lot and donned my face mask and gloves. I then pulled over to the designated Pick Up area, pulled into a spot, read the message, hit "Check In", and was informed that I had to enable the GPS. Dammit, I really don't like doing that, but I did, only to be informed that since I was at the store, I couldn't check in, but had to call instead. Oops, my bad, rookie mistake, I'll know better next time. I called, told them what number spot I was parked in, opened the rear hatch and tucked a $20 bill under a Windex bottle in the back, leaving just enough visible for the associate to be able to see it. I then went back and sat in the drivers seat.

An associate came out just a few minutes later, asked my name, and started loading my bags into the back end of my Tucson. I told her that there was something under the Windex bottle for her. She paused, looked, and said that she wasn't allowed to accept it, but thanked me for trying. She then finished loading my order, thanked me, and closed the hatch, and I headed home. Rats, I forgot to get her name for the survey.

As I was unloading the car at home, I saw a couple of smaller blue canvas type bags with things inside that I hadn't ordered. Great. Now I need to drive back, because someone else is missing what's in those bags, and they might need them. Oh wait, the bags have "Walmart Grocery Perks" printed on them. I looked again and both bags had the identical stuff in them, I guess as a "Thanks". Neat.

All in all, it was a fairly painless process. I do wish that I could place an order for just the chicken and just the hamburger, and have them inform me when when it was there for me, but that's asking an awful lot.

[0utlaw]

Mention the employee by name it really does get back to them...and their supervisors

[kickstand]

I just found out that it is absolutely against Walmart policy, and is a fireable offence, for any associate to accept a tip. As we all know, there are cameras everywhere, and I'm about as subtle as a turd in a swimming pool, so it's unlikely that I would be able to sneak it to them undetected. I certainly don't want to be the reason for someone losing their job. I've read that being patient and then filling out the email survey with kindness is the best way to help them.

[RD]

We have come to a compromise re: the resupply trip to "town". We have decided to give the Walmart "Shop online, pick up at the store" option a try. I placed my order last night (Sunday), and will be picking it up on Wednesday.

We are still good on TP, but would buy a package of our regular brand if they had it. All that came up in the app was TP hangers and rollers, not the TP itself. Not an issue at this time.

We usually don't get our meats from Walmart, but have opted to in this case in order to limit exposure to others. However, we are limiting what meats we buy. We have refused to buy Tyson products for many years due to their pollution record, and the only other option is Smithfield, which we are reluctant to bring into the house right now.

The store employees will be bringing it out to the car. I want to tip them in cash for doing so. The total is going to be right around $200. What would you consider a reasonable tip amount? Our typical 20-25% for restaurant servers seems a bit excessive, but I do certainly want to help them out, as they are providing a very valuable service for us.

How would you go about giving them the tip? Any special handling, i.e. put it in a Ziploc bag with a Clorox wipe? Some other method?

I agree with KK, but you can cut your tp usage with one of these. https://getaclearrear.com . Shut up, I seen the idiotic crap a bit back and ordered one just because. I will tell you it works and I would beat your ass "if you got by my dobies" try to take it.


RD