Let’s talk about online ordering (and pickup). Do you do it? I think it works mostly but sometimes it doesn’t. I tell you, I don’t know! 🙂 So want to hear what you think.
I have been doing online ordering at Tractor Supply for months now. It is great usually, I order online then I go pick it up. In a perfect world, this works. But no Tractor Supply is perfect.
You go to the customer service desk and they will pull your order, and you sign and they bring it out already on a cart. They will even load. Great! BUT sometimes there is no one at the registers to tell someone to come to customer service. But usually they come along and wait on you. Except yesterday.
OMG chicks and ducks are the scourge of my existence at Tractor Supply lately (No I like chickens and ducks but the people buying them?? ummm no). Since Tractor Supply has had chicks and ducks in for a few months now (I think up in the Northeast it was just around Easter but I think they got these suckers in in February down here) I have seen some choice characters getting those baby birds. Mostly silly parents with kids and it makes me feel bad knowing those chicks or ducks might not (probably won’t make it). I know some people buying them are knowledgable I hope.
But sometimes people are idiots. So yesterday I was waiting for my online order at the customer service desk which is right by where the chicks and ducks are set up. And this clueless woman with her equally clueless child wanted two ducks to go home with them. First CW called her husband to make sure it was okay and she even said well you won’t eat them right? Umm? Really? Said clueless husband must have affirmed it was okay to bring two ducks home and no he won’t eat them.
Then CW had a talk with the poor TSC employee who was leaving for the day and got wrangled into catching the ducks they wanted. FIRST CW wanted to go in the enclosure and pick her own. NO you aren’t allowed in there woman. (The TSC guy was nicer than I would have been). Then she is picking the ducks out and pointing at the ones she wanted. Ummmm they are all yellow or they are all black. THEY ALL LOOK ALIKE. I swear I almost filmed this, my eyes were rolling back in my skull with annoyance. JUST PICK TWO DAMN DUCKS, it is not like they will live long enough to turn white! HOW CAN YOU TELL THEM APART NOW? OMG I almost had a stroke.
So finally the man caught the right two ducks. Then the woman pointed out the bag of food she had picked up. This is all I need right, she says to him. And he then takes her back to get a feeder and a few other things. So who wants to bet those ducks are either eaten by now by her caveman husband OR dead from poor care, no heat light and so on. UGH I just can’t with people lately. So online ordering/pickup DOES limit the stupid you have to deal with but it does not eliminate it entirely. There is no cure for stupid I guess.
Yesterday I used the Walmart Grocery Online Order/Pickup for the first time. That totally eliminated the stupid like COMPLETELY. I ordered my groceries, got the notification when they were ready (had to download the app quick so I could check in) and then when we pulled up to the online staging area quickly told the app where I was parked. Not five minutes later a very nice clerk brought our groceries out, explained the substitutions they made, and helped us load. I will totally do this again. SO easy. SO LESS STUPID TO BE DEALT WITH. No need to try to get down the aisles with everyone on their cart things as well as ten kids with each person. And no need to stand in a silly line. It was a pleasure I will tell you that.
Do you do online ordering and/or pickup? How does it work for you? Do you deal with stupid every day like me?? Inquiring minds wanna know!
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
We do it for our Walmart shopping. I also do it for lowes. Ebates gives us 1%+ cash back at Lowe’s, and it really does add up with how much we spend there. BUT you can only get it if you buy online. Fine, order only, go to Lowe’s and pick up. It can be a frustrating experience, but if we time it right, it is usually fine.
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I’ve never used it because I do so much impulse shopping. Which is probably why I SHOULD do it. But I like picking my own stuff. And maybe throwing a giant bag of saltwater taffy on the counter to help me sort through my feelings after dealing with stupid people.
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hahaha you can put the taffy in your online order 🙂 I never thought I would do it either but our Walmart drives me NUTS (nuttier than I already am)! HA HA
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But how do I know in advance if i’ll want taffy or apple licorice or something else???
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just throw different things in the cart. Go wild 🙂 Impulse buying at your desk 🙂
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I can talk myself out of anything at my desk.
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I’ve done pickup at walmart too and it’s amazing! I don’t usually get food at walmart, so that limits what I can buy for pickup. But I know smiths does pickup and delivery as well, and that’s awesome. But yeah it’s why I buy practically anything I can from Amazon or have it shipped to store (cause that’s free shipping). Amazon I make sure it’s free returns, and then I don’t have to go to a department store or mall and get bombarded with stupid, rude people, and then if it’s shipped to store and I don’t like it, I return it there and have minimal dealings with people LOL. So I would put ordering online as a solid YAY lol
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haha even people who are knowledgeable end up with dead animals. My mom grew up on a farm and she loves to tell this story about how when they were little (think around 3yo) they would grab the juvenile geese and ducks by their necks and drag them around all day with them, at some point they asphyxiated the young animals and were just dragging carcasses like stuffed animals. My grand mother was probably doing actual farm things and wasn’t supervising her litter of children.
I’m not sure how many ducks or geese made it to adulthood on that farm honestly.
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OMG DYING LAUGHING HERE Sorry not funny but OMG 🙂
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I order everything online, including groceries from Walmart/Harris Teeter. And there’s never a shortage of Amazon boxes at my door, containing everything from air filters to lawn mower parts to clothes. BAHAHA at you having to wait for the woman to pick out the ducks.
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KC if looks could have killed that woman would not have lived to drive the ducks home 🙂
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I am all about the online shopping and avoiding stores. Amazon Prime is my best friend hahahaha. The grocery chain Hannafords has online shopping, which I have been using for years and it is amazing. Once I had my list all filled out (which did take some effort at first), I can now just check the things I want and make an order. So much easier to drive up and have groceries brought out than deal with going in the store! 🙂
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Since I haven’t actually ever done the whole online grocery order pickup stuff (only offered at Walmart and I don’t buy groceries there), but can you read ingredients? I mean, obviously I have issues, but…
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yes the labels you can even blow up!! So old eyes (ahem me ) can read 😉
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Haven’t ever tried it… I tend to run my errands at odd times when no one else in the world would do such things, so the stupid is minimal. Horse feed and shavings I phone order from my local feed store and they deliver. There is some stupid there… the regular delivery guy is awesome and cares about his work, but the other guys who come sometimes care not at all. They make a mess and stack things in the way of cabinets and doors. But at least I’m not there when they do it?
I’m with Amanda, my reward for surviving errands is usually some kind of snack. Which I wouldn’t earn if I didn’t run the errand.
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I’m all about ordering everything online! I’m pretty anti-social at the best of times though 😀
Those poor ducks. My parents always have a few and even with proper care they seem to get themselves into interesting predicaments. I can’t imagine just buying some without a clue or aporopriate space for them 😦
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I tried doing online ordering to pick up in store for a fat supplement at our local feed store last summer and had to quit doing it because I wanted to commit murder every time I had to reorder. The people neverrrrrr had any idea where my order was, or when it was coming, or if was there yet, and if it was where in the store it might be. Fortunately I found something that works better that’s carried in-store at TSC so I just grab it quick with my dog food and get out of there as quickly as possible. Those chicks and ducks are idiot magnets up here too!
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hahaha idiot magnets. OMG so true.
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I find the wait to get my stuff from Tractor Supply to be more annoying than just wandering around and throwing the stuff on a cart by myself. I love seeing all the chicks and ducks, but I doubt a lot of them survive. You do need heat lamps and such and not just a bag of feed. Poor things. I’m planning on getting chicks next month, but not from TS.
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yes i don’t mean people who get chicks for real reasons. I just meant the idiots who wander into TS and say YOU know what would be fun, getting chicks (or ducks) HA
And yes it is an upside and downside. My downside on getting my own stuff is that 9 times out of 10 the line is down the aisle so trying to navigate the line with a flatbed cart annoys me too. I am just annoyed. I buy my damn grain from Chewy’s it is pricey but it is shipped to my door. For Free 🙂 HA
Hope it is warming up and you are getting ready to enjoy your first VT spring! 🙂
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We have a great local feed store that will deliver all my feed and shavings and stuff so I really only go into TS when I need a random pin or other thing I broke or lost.
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People are 100% stupid which is why I do my grocery shopping on a Friday or Saturday evening. But besides groceries, pretty much everything else I order online. Clothes, dog food, supplements (Smart Pak is my fave place for the animals), etc. I even order my library books online and then just go into the local branch to pick them up. Happy weekending!
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We don’t really have any formal pre-ordering programs around where I live, but I have called ahead to order an item from feed stores or whatever and gone in at a later date to pick it up. Haven’t had any problems thus far!
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My plunder comes to me. The only two things I don’t order online and have delivered is distilled spirits and prescription drugs. I have to deal with stupid all day at work so you would have to pay me heftily to set foot in a Walmart. Target, though … that’s different. That’s like you just stop in for some sunscreen and you leave with 20 things, don’t ask me how much.
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And that “is” should be an “are.” Subject-verb agreement is helpful 🙄
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I mean…. I live in the middle of nowhere. If I didn’t order things online, I’d be living on like, ramen and canned goods.
(Okay it is not quite that bad. But still!)
The thing I find frustrating with TSC’s online ordering is that the timing doesn’t always seem to be accurate- it’ll give me a shipping estimate and it’s wrong more often than it’s right. This isn’t a huge deal with most things, but it’s irritating with dog food! Chewy.com has worked better for me for that. (I think some of it is the brand I buy apparently has distribution issues.)
And I mean, I did buy a horse online this weekend. 😛 (He’s even buckskin :P)
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ooh a buckskin!! wow 🙂 that is the best online shopping EVER 🙂 HA! and yes TSC is kind of wifty on that stuff i agree…
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(there is even a (bad, from the kill pen listing) photo on my shiny new blog, mtnspirits.wordpress.com 🙂
He doesn’t have a name yet though 😀
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