COVID 19 and your plans

[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

[redman2006]

Walmart here will not allow it, but Kroger/Dillons will.

[Kailani Kealoha]

I would think $20 would be a good amount. Maybe order a Walmart giftcard and tell the worker it's for them? I don't know if they offer those for curbside pickup.

[kickstand]

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?

[Kailani Kealoha]

They are to a good extent. I was at the park with little K this morning and there were plenty of people walking around with masks on following the two meter rule. Obviously stores are a bit more difficult but everyone seems to be doing their best. One of the things I've noticed is that people who have medical conditions as well as the elderly have been self isolating with the government providing support so they can stay home. I haven't been back to Stockholm though so I don't know how things are going there beyond what I see on the news.

[kickstand]

Hi KK! Great to hear you're ok. I'm curious though, are the people there actually practicing Social Distancing at the stores, etc? Or is it more like business as usual?

[Kailani Kealoha]

Hey all. It's good to hear that everyone is doing well. Things have been going good here in Sweden. I'm mildly aggravated that I had to leave all my preps when I moved but my parents are finding them useful. I'm sort of ashamed to admit that I didn't buy any preps until I started to see signs of a problem in January. The SO thought I was being a little crazy but I think it makes more sense now. I bought a decent supply of gloves and N95 masks along with some hand sanitizer. I have probably a 6 month supply of many foods. I stocked up on plenty of non perishables so I've only needed to go to the store once every couple weeks for fruits and vegetables.

For reasons beyond me, the government here has been really laid back with their coronavirus policies. They have cancelled schools but for the most part, they're trusting the people here to social distance without any lockdowns. It's kind of nice in a way. I guess it's to prevent the economy here from collapsing. Only time will tell if it was the right decision or not.

[redman2006]

Does anyone have a source of bulk grains, beans etc. We lost some to mice, and I would like to replace them, but all sources seem to have dried up