Curbside Pick Up - Is this really necessary now?

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

54 minutes ago, Old Man Graybeard said:

I won't use self checkouts. I can't understand how some of these big box stores can find people to fill orders...but can't find people to run registers and open checkout lanes. I find myself doing business at more mom and pop or at least smaller places then big box places

It's not a matter of can't find people to run registers, it's a matter of Don't Want to Pay Them. I won't use them either. I'll flat tell them I don't work for Fill in the Blank Store. 

If they were to do like gas stations did when Self Service first started, and offer a discount for doing it yourself, I'd be all over that. 

[Buckshot Bob]

I think it’s just a matter of convenience, I don’t know if it’s the same in every state but here I haven’t seen any of the grocery stores that offer all of the items that are in the store online and at some of them “not all” you pay a premium for curbside pickup, the online items sometimes cost slightly more. I know a few people that get allot of their groceries from Amazon. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Technology and marketing will continue to change how we live, but one thing is for certain businesses would not be offering these services if it wasn’t putting more to the bottom line. 
To me it’s no different than going to McDonald’s drive through. You’re paying for convenience. I can go to a sit down restaurant and get a meal for the same $$. It just isn’t as fast but imoh the food at the sit down restaurant is almost always better. 
Personally I like to pick my own fruits, vegetables, meat but if I can get tp, canned goods, condiments, etc… delivered by Amazon for the same price or less I have no problem with that. 
I do have to say I’m still of the opinion that it could hurt a community to not have full service grocery stores, I know they only offer a couple days of groceries but in times of trouble it’s still better than being completely dependent upon on time delivery that isn’t always on time, so in that aspect we may be our own worst enemies. 

[Cypress Sun]

4 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I was at Walmart Friday afternoon and the aisles were full of people and carts. It was a bit crowded. The people were Walmart employees and the carts were these big honkin’ carts with bins for filling people’s orders via the interwebs and curbside pick up. Only two registers open but at least 15 people filling other people’s orders online and that was just in the grocery section. 
 

I just got an email from Tractor Supply for the convenience of their curbside pick up. Kroger snd Giant Eagle are doing the same as Walmart. 
 

Does anyone think this is now going to be the norm or will this go away at some point?

 

I, for one, like that it’s available for folks that have a hard time getting around, but most of the people I see making curbside pickups all look pretty darn young and healthy to me. 

 

I haven't used the curbside pickup option. Probably won't either.

 

I'm kind of a look at the exp. date on all foodstuffs and looking at/hands on what I'm buying type of person. If I end up with the wrong thing, it's on me. Heck, going inside Wal-Mart assures exercise AND entertainment...sort of like going to the circus.

[Buckshot Bob]

4 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I haven't used the curbside pickup option. Probably won't either.

 

I'm kind of a look at the exp. date on all foodstuffs and looking at/hands on what I'm buying type of person. If I end up with the wrong thing, it's on me. Heck, going inside Wal-Mart assures exercise AND entertainment...sort of like going to the circus.

I also enjoy the sight seeing. Although I do try to avoid the hours of peak congestion. Years ago for a couple years my wife and I both worked afternoon shift and would sometimes meet up after work to grocery shop. You can certainly run into some interesting people in these big box stores at 2am. 

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

Theft and Labor costs - nothing else.

The SINGLE largest cost in retail is labor.

The SECOND largest cost is theft.

 

Fewer nose picking, mouth breathing entitled Karens walking thru your store touching, opening and breaking your goods means less need for clerks and salespeople.

 

The staff that remains can be assigned actual tasks that can be monitored and tracked for productivity (as opposed to waiting for a customer to show up at a register or having to walk them across the store because they cannot grasp directions or hanging signage {or want to ask questions about every product in the aisle}) - vastly lowering labor cost.

 

Limiting the number of people accessing your products (and/ or limiting the products they can access) also means less of it walks out the door unaccounted for - and enables the seller to better streamline the tracking and checkout process.

 

If they can convince you this benefits you under the guise of convenience - even better.

 

It is a modern version of the old west general store - where you told the proprietor what you wanted and he retrieved it from behind his counter.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

To each his own, but last Thursday when shopping, the order pickers were deep and clogging the narrow aisles and they won't move. 

Personally, I want to pick my own groceries, or items and check them out and not let anyone else decide that it looks good enough. Its like hiring a personal trainer and having them exercise for you. With masks no longer required, it seems too many have gotten into the Hermit frame of mind and are reluctant to step outside. My wife's sister is like that now, she hates to leave the home and has groceries delivered and rarely now even socially distances herself. Myself I enjoy looking at tools, automotive items,, etc. while wife shops and she enjoys it also. Maybe when I'm bed bound I'll think about it.

[Pat Riot]

4 hours ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

Marketing 101. We've lost customers because of the Fauci flu. What do we do?

Curbside pick-up, some restaurants have been doing this way before the plague.

 

It costs the same, it's convenient, it works for most items except perishables, nuts and bolts etc.

We've paid a bit to have Walmart deliver groceries if we can't get out for some reason. Baby sitting grand kids, 2 YO's, or health.

 

For me, I'm not somewhat handicapped. So I go online, order, and head out when notified.

 

The businesses seem to be doing much better.

Marketing 101. We've lost customers because of the Fauci flu. What do we do?

Curbside pick-up, some restaurants have been doing this way before the plague.

 

It costs the same, it's convenient, it works for most items except perishables, nuts and bolts etc.

We've paid a bit to have Walmart deliver groceries if we can't get out for some reason. Baby sitting grand kids, 2 YO's, or health.

 

For me, I'm not somewhat handicapped. So I go online, order, and head out when notified.

 

The businesses seem to be doing much better.

You can say that again. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

29 minutes ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

Personally, I want to pick my own groceries, or items and check them out and not let anyone else decide that it looks good enough.

 

Which was what we did for produce except for potatoes, and meat except for hotdogs or lunch meat.  But I can't see that there's a whole lot of difference between a can of Contadina Tomato Paste that I pull from a shelf and a can of Contadina Tomato Paste a store employee pulls from a shelf.

 

As an aside, if I recall correctly the pull it for yourself market is a fairly new thing.  Before somewhere around 1915 or 1920 you went into the store, handed the clerk your list, and waited while he pulled it for you.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

48 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

 

As an aside, if I recall correctly the pull it for yourself market is a fairly new thing.  Before somewhere around 1915 or 1920 you went into the store, handed the clerk your list, and waited while he pulled it for you.

The old Mom and Pop Stores. I remember the last one closing by us in the 70s.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

As an aside, if I recall correctly the pull it for yourself market is a fairly new thing.  Before somewhere around 1915 or 1920 you went into the store, handed the clerk your list, and waited while he pulled it for you.

Yes, but you watched him do it and could say you didn’t want the dented can or crushed box or another brand on the shelf. 

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

It's probably here to stay because people are lazy. It can be a blessing, my wife and I had Covid last summer, and HEB in Abilene had curbside app, or we would have been stuck for a week or two. I'm sure it's a blessing for old/and or mobility impaired people. But I suspect 90% of them are just too lazy to get off their @$$ and go shopping.

JHC

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

8 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

Sorry, those that think Masks were never necessary are on a FOOLs errand.  Even today, you can't just walk into any Medical Facility without a Mask.

 

Not in Texas.  Don't forget to pull it up over your nose.

JHC

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

It's probably here to stay because people are lazy. It can be a blessing, my wife and I had Covid last summer, and HEB in Abilene had curbside app, or we would have been stuck for a week or two. I'm sure it's a blessing for old/and or mobility impaired people. But I suspect 90% of them are just too lazy to get off their @$$ and go shopping.

JHC

 

Or, after an hour or more commute, an 8 to 10 hour work day, and another hour or more commute they are just plain tired.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

6 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Or, after an hour or more commute, an 8 to 10 hour work day, and another hour or more commute they are just plain tired.

I do that too (well, 40 min. commute), can understand. Maybe my 90% estimate is a bit high. Say.......85%

JHC

[Lone Spur Jake SASS #7728]

Don't care how many non-handicap parking places stores or restaurants have.  Only one I can be cited for is not having a handicap sticker or license plate.  I am spending my hard earned money just like everyone else shopping there.  Will park anywhere there isn't a handicap parking sign.  No one from any business has ever come out and said I couldn't park there.  How does anybody know who you are parking in that spot?   Walmart and grocery stores used to have employees putting up new inventory in late evening and overnight.  Now they are putting up new inventory during the daytime and clogging up the isles so you can't get thru the aisles trying to shop.   Just have to cut overhead to make bottom line more appealing for Wall Street investors to make more millions.

[Subdeacon Joe]

I'd rather deal with getting around a half dozen people picking orders than 3 or 4 multi - generation Mexican families each with a half dozen kids running around uncontrolled.

 

I can't believe the whining about a store marking under a dozen parking spots out of a couple of hundred for pickup of online orders.  The only possible valid complaint would be if they cut Handicap parking below the ADA minimum.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

12 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

 

Those spaces are mandated by Federal Law and there is a formula for how many ADA spaces there are per the size of the parking lot. 
 

Drop a dime on ‘em to the Feds. We pay for it. Use it. 800-514-0301

 

https://www.ada.gov/topics/parking/

 

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-23/chapter-II/subchapter-B/part-1235

 

 

Even so, I object, sometimes very loudly (Hell, almost always very loudly), at having to walk half a block or more over a poorly maintained and difficult to walk on macadam surface covered in moving traffic when someone has his or her purchases delivered to the their car.  If the store is delivering the load anyway how about their less than even slightly handicapped employees push the load an additional 40 to 100 feet and save me a trip a half mile further to a store which hasn't catered to the lazy and inconsiderate shoppers of the world.

 

Their situation is a convenience.  Mine is  physical handicap. 

[watab kid]

i wont use self checkouts ....im wanting them to accept my payment in person , 

a local grocery chain is still using the curbside pickup and ecourage the online order and delivery by their courier service - i like to pick my own produce , 

masks are for bad guys - im still inclined to reach for my handgun when i see someone in a mask , 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I use curbside when I can so I don’t have to walk so far. Makes no diff to me whether I park in HP space or curbside. As for expiration dates, I don’t worry about it, I buy stuff that has a high enough turnover that it’s always fresh enough. I do my shopping for fresh stuff elsewhere.

[Sedalia Dave]

Not really all that new. It's just now you drive to the store rather than having the store deliver to your door. I believe that was a service many grocery stores provided after WWII.

 

Remember, the self checkout craze has eliminated a lot of positions. With the increase in curbside pickup those that used to work the registers are now employed filling curbside orders. 

 

Without the curbside order option those former checkers would be unemployed.

 

I used it when the wife and I had covid to replenish the basics. 

 

BTW I DETEST self checkout.

[Pat Riot]

7 hours ago, watab kid said:

i wont use self checkouts ....im wanting them to accept my payment in person , 

a local grocery chain is still using the curbside pickup and ecourage the online order and delivery by their courier service - i like to pick my own produce , 

masks are for bad guys - im still inclined to reach for my handgun when i see someone in a mask , 

 

I refuse to use self checkout as well. What really gets me is many grocery stores are unionized. Those same store chains steer customers to the self checkouts. Heck, the union cashiers do too! I am not now nor have I ever been pro union, but I am pro working people. 
Also, I pay the same price whether I go through a standard checkout or a self checkout. 

 

McDonalds and Wendy’s in this area now have kiosks for one to place their orders. They will not man the counter and take orders via traditional human to human interaction. Though I do not eat at McDonald’s often, maybe once a year, I do like Wendy’s. I especially like Wendy’s chili and fries. My wife loves their Frosties. I will not eat at a place where kiosks are used. Period. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

I don't see it as much different than home delivery. Several grocery stores around here have had a home delivery for seniors or disabled or that matter anyone for years before this all started. My mom used to have groceries delivered after Dad died. We would go to the store for her but she didn't want to bother us so she'd have the store deliver. This was in 1994-1996.

 

As far as self serve I love em, especially when I only have a few items and there's no line at the self serve. Bing, bang. boom I'm done and outta there!

 

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

I remember one guy talking about using the pickup service, he’d ordered a dozen eggs as part of his order, picked everything up and went home. Only 9 of his eggs were broken.

[Blackwater 53393]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:49 AM, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

Sorry, those that think Masks were never necessary are on a FOOLs errand.  Even today, you can't just walk into any Medical Facility without a Mask.

 

And if that is true, why is it that as soon as I enter the exam room, the attending nurse, technician, or doctor removes their mask and advises me that I can do the same??

 

Nine out of ten of the medicos that I have encountered have said that the masks were useless, ineffective, and/or part of the fear mongering perpetrated by people within the government with a hidden agenda!!

 

Most of the medical facilities that I go to have completely dropped the mask requirement. The one place that still requires masks doesn’t enforce the requirement past the lobby and elevators.

 

And YEAH!  I want to pick my own produce, meats, and other stuff!  For those who don’t, the pick-up system keeps them out of my way!!

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 3/26/2023 at 9:08 AM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

From the first link:
 

Total Number of Parking Spaces Provided in a Parking Lot or Facility	Minimum Number of Accessible Parking Spaces Permitted
1 to 25	1
26 to 50	2
51 to 75	3
76 to 100	4
101 to 150	5
151 to 200	6
201 to 300	7
301 to 400	8
401 to 500	9
501 to 1000	2 percent of total
1001 and over	20, plus 1 for each 100, or fraction thereof, over 1000
At least one of every six spaces must be van accessible.

 

That's not many spaces.  

No federal, state, county, or city / town elected official or anyone  who has a say in where these are places and who can use then should be allowed to use them, nor can their families, personal employees, or any person who advises or signs off on these decisions.  It must include the election staff, even volunteers

 

Penalty should be loss of their elected offices and being disallowed for ever running for any public office ever again.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

19 hours ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

To each his own, but last Thursday when shopping, the order pickers were deep and clogging the narrow aisles and they won't move. 

Personally, I want to pick my own groceries, or items and check them out and not let anyone else decide that it looks good enough. Its like hiring a personal trainer and having them exercise for you. With masks no longer required, it seems too many have gotten into the Hermit frame of mind and are reluctant to step outside. My wife's sister is like that now, she hates to leave the home and has groceries delivered and rarely now even socially distances herself. Myself I enjoy looking at tools, automotive items,, etc. while wife shops and she enjoys it also. Maybe when I'm bed bound I'll think about it.

Let's add in the vendors employees who are mostly obnoxious aisle blocker, too.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

23 hours ago, Old Man Graybeard said:

I won't use self checkouts. I can't understand how some of these big box stores can find people to fill orders...but can't find people to run registers and open checkout lanes. I find myself doing business at more mom and pop or at least smaller places then big box places

Amen, my brother.

 

I was told by a manager at Walmart to get used to it because it's only a few years away until they will only have one or two open cash registers allowed to be used only for special occasions as determined by the on duty manager......if you can ever find one.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

16 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Or, after an hour or more commute, an 8 to 10 hour work day, and another hour or more commute they are just plain tired.

It was never available when I was still working 10-15 hour days all over the county at all times of the day.  It never even came to mind to complain about it because that's just the way it was.

 

We've been sissyfied to a very large degree.

[Rip Snorter]

9 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Let's add in the vendors employees who are mostly obnoxious aisle blocker, too.

Then they were poorly trained.  For any of the major companies they are instructed to keep out of customers' way and be polite and helpful.  Complain to the store or grocery manager.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

2 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

Then they were poorly trained.  For any of the major companies they are instructed to keep out of customers' way and be polite and helpful.  Complain to the store or grocery manager.

 

I have complained.  Frequently.  Nothing has changed except now the managers hide from me.

[Rip Snorter]

6 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I have complained.  Frequently.  Nothing has changed except now the managers hide from me.

Ask what company they work for if they are really annoying and report them online to their employer's customer service / complaint line with issue, date it happened, store name and location.  If nothing else they will get a little slap on the wrist.

[Subdeacon Joe]

21 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

It was never available when I was still working 10-15 hour days all over the county at all times of the day.  It never even came to mind to complain about it because that's just the way it was.

 

We've been sissyfied to a very large degree.

 

Oh, garbage.  Were we "sissyfied" by the Model T?  The cell phone?  Business people saw a newly created niche and moved to exploit it.   People started using it and decided that they like it.  

[Lone Spur Jake SASS #7728]

The three Walmart's in the Prescott and Prescott Valley, AZ area have about 20 cashier aisles but usually only have maybe 2 or 3 staffed.  Usually half the self checkouts are closed.  Was in a hurry one morning on the way to work and had a few items.  One register was open and there were six full shopping carts in line.  Went to self checkout, scanned items and tried to pay with cash.  Machine wouldn't take cash.  Employee monitoring self checkouts said credit or debit card only right now.  Great customer service Walmart!!!! 

[Singin' Sue 71615]

On 3/26/2023 at 11:28 AM, Old Man Graybeard said:

I won't use self checkouts. I can't understand how some of these big box stores can find people to fill orders...but can't find people to run registers and open checkout lanes. I find myself doing business at more mom and pop or at least smaller places then big box places

We use the IGA for small 'pick up on the way home' stuff...but it comes down to the $$$.

Walmart $$$ beat all others.

I can add $100 to the months shopping at Smith's over my Walmart cost...for the exact things.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Self-check...

Let's see.....

Do I want to stand in line for 20 minutes for my 3 items?  Or do I walk to self-check and be out in under 3 minutes?