COVID19: WalMart Day

I can't say enough nice things about WalMart pickup. A lot of people make a hobby out of hating WalMart, but it's gotten us through the worst of times (so far) during the COVID19 pandemic, and the employee associates are consistently polite and professional. Maybe not every store gives the same experience we're getting from the one in McMinnville, but that seems unlikely since most of the people we know who shop WalMart pickup have shared similar positive stories on social media.

In the weeks we've been going, Jack and I have come to recognize some of the young men - mostly young men - who bring out our groceries and other stuff. Alex, Dillon, and Tony have been great. There's also a girl who quickly and efficiently put our stuff in the trunk one morning in a driving rain about six weeks ago. I wish I knew her name to mention it on the surveys they send after every pickup. The kids whose names get mentioned get a $10 gift card at the end of the week. Alex is the one who told us about that, and since then, I always mention the names of the staffers who helped us.

During the early weeks of the pandemic, we were all trying to get good with the new normal, and now we all seem to be reaching our stride. Knock on wood, we haven't forgotten anything critical in weeks, and we do our pickup on different days than Mom, so if one or the other of us forgets something, the other can add it to their next order. WalMart is also doing a better job - they've had pretty much everything we've ordered for several weeks now, and it's been great.

Our latest "uh oh" wasn't something we forgot to order - it was a loaf of bread we forgot on our porch. The next day, it had a hole in the twist-tie end of the bag, and a critter had helped itself to several bites of bread. We went down past the bite marks and salvaged what bread was obviously untouched by wildlife, but Mom saved the day by getting us a new bag a couple of days later.

Since then, we've been a lot more careful with what we leave on the porch and how long we leave it. It's good advice for all time.

COVID19: Sunday Observations

Today we picked up groceries at Kroger in Murfreesboro again. This time was a doozie, and I'll not go into the gory details of our horrible customer service experience because I have already spent way too much time thinking about it today and have already typed out the chronology of events twice - once in the survey about our pickup and in a separate contact form submission from the Kroger website.

Some points:

• People loitering or lingering on foot in the pick-up area are a hazard in multiple ways, and customers should not be allowed to have a leisurely visit while others are trying to get in and out with their orders.
• Masks only work when you wear them up over your nose and mouth. 
• "Jesus is stronger than COVID" emblazoned in rhinestones and sequins across the front of a t-shirt looks stupid.

The weather was lovely for most of the day, but storms rolled through at sunset-ish and have left lots of folks, including Mom and Dad, without power. Ours blinked off for a few seconds but came right back. We were lucky this time. Normally we're the ones whose power stays off for hours and hours when  storm knocks it out.

Thankfully the weather wasn't wild for long.