Parking lots and what bugs me

Delivery requires you to be home though or have it left on your doorstep which isn't great for refrigerated items.

Pick up - you can order online same as for delivery- and then pick up at set time or text when you are there. Handy for people who pick up on way home from work or don't have time to go in or don't like crowded shops etc.
 

January said:
Delivery requires you to be home though or have it left on your doorstep which isn't great for refrigerated items.

Pick up - you can order online same as for delivery- and then pick up at set time or text when you are there. Handy for people who pick up on way home from work or don't have time to go in or don't like crowded shops etc.
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When I have groceries delivered, I'm always home. As kitty 'goes on alert' whenever there's any sound in the hallway, I'm always ready to grab the bags as soon as they're delivered.
 
I have never "picked up" and only used delivery of food once, during Covid, was not happy with it.

The only reason I can imagine for going to the parking lot to pick up is that you are more in control of your own time. Most deliveries or work on the home (repair providers, etc.) give you a time slot of about 4 hours. If you go to the store to pick up, at least you are controlling your own time. Some people can drive fine, but can't manage all the walking required to shop in the store itself, especially the huge supermarkets.
 
On cold wet days, I just put on a jacket and walk outside. If it’s too icy to walk safely, it’s also too icy to drive, so I stay home.

Parking lots are ok. I usually park far out and walk to the door. I hate driving near the main entrance. People with their carts and packages come darting out the exit, right in front of traffic like they own the parking lot. The lack of marked walking lanes with barriers for cars entering them in parking lots is a danger.
 
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Sunkist said:
To each his/her own, but I've never been able to figure out why people choose the pick-up option.. I mean if they need to go there anyway.. unless it's special circumstances like health/medical problem and can't move around very well, or someone who hates to shop..?
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As I said above, I don't hate shopping, I just hate shopping inside Walmart.. It's the only store I do pickup with — I avoid Target altogether.

Why? Their stores feel like an assault on my senses. I find them overly loud and bright, chaotically laid out, many aisles are difficult to navigate because of displays down the centers, and their checkout process is nothing short of a misery.

However, there are some things I choose to purchase from WM because of selection or pricing, so I order and pay online and pick up my order within four days from an easy pickup area. WM apparently realizes a fair number of customers prefer shopping this way, and they accommodate us.

I've been doing this since the pandemic. Prior to that I didn't shop at WM at all because of the above reasons.

If they discontinued pickup, I wouldn't shift to shopping inside WM, I'd take my business elsewhere.
 
Brookswood said:
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Parking lots are ok. I usually park far out and walk to the door. I hate driving near the main entrance. People with their carts and packages come darting out the exit, right in front of traffic like they own the parking lot. The lack of marked walking lanes with barriers for cars entering them in parking lots is a danger.
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I'm the same park away from the entrance. I never understood the need to be closet one to the door. It's not worth thei risk because they are high foot and car traffic areas.

Then you have the congregaters who insist are parking next to someone even in the far away spots. I've been by my lonesome come out less than a half hour later and I'm surrounded.

In some parking lots back in parking not necessarily the best thing. Many businesses and insurance companies push that but also a high risk of backing into the front end of another's car. I can back out of a parking spot quicker and easier than backing into one. I will say people need to look at the cars back up/reverse lights when walking in a lot just like driving in one.
 
WhatInThe said:
I'm the same park away from the entrance. I never understood the need to be closet one to the door. It's not worth thei risk because they are high foot and car traffic areas.

Then you have the congregaters who insist are parking next to someone even in the far away spots. I've been by my lonesome come out less than a half hour later and I'm surrounded.
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It never fails.. every time I park in an empty car park..or far away from other cars....I come back to the car.. and there's always one tool whose parked right next to me
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WhatInThe said:
I'm the same park away from the entrance. I never understood the need to be closet one to the door. It's not worth thei risk because they are high foot and car traffic areas.

Then you have the congregaters who insist are parking next to someone even in the far away spots. I've been by my lonesome come out less than a half hour later and I'm surrounded.

In some parking lots back in parking not necessarily the best thing. Many businesses and insurance companies push that but also a high risk of backing into the front end of another's car. I can back out of a parking spot quicker and easier than backing into one. I will say people need to look at the cars back up/reverse lights when walking in a lot just like driving in one.
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These are the points I was going to make.

I have my head on a swivel when walking around the parking lot.
 
StarSong said:
As I said above, I don't hate shopping, I just hate shopping inside Walmart.. It's the only store I do pickup with — I avoid Target altogether.
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the trick to shopping at Walmart is to learn the store, which means the customer has to shop there frequently. The stores are so BIG that learning and remembering where things are is an ongoing challenge. There is not Walmart near me so I rarely shop at one. When I do, I wander about like a homeless waif wondering back and forth as I search for whatever I am looking for .

Despite the above I would love a Walmart grocery store in my neighborhood. We have several national chains, and lots of boutique markets. All of these are high priced. If we didn’t have Costco and Trader Joe’s I would be on the bread line waiting for my turn to enter the food bank.

Milk at the local national chain stores is near $5 a gallon. Under $4 at Costco. Eggs at TJ’s are at least 60 cents a dozen cheaper than the Kroger store.
 
Brookswood said:
the trick to shopping at Walmart is to learn the store, which means the customer has to shop there frequently. The stores are so BIG that learning and remembering where things are is an ongoing challenge.

Milk at the local national chain stores is near $5 a gallon. Under $4 at Costco.
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This is true of most stores. I'm very familiar with the layouts of Costco, TJ and the two produce-focused grocery stores I frequent and compose my shopping list in accordance with their layouts.

Truth be told, most of WM's merch doesn't interest me. I spend roughly $50/month with them, mostly on some combination of the same 20-ish items. With easy online ordering and backdoor pickup, I have no need to learn WM's layout endure the assault on my senses.

What state do you live in, BW? I thought CA had the most expensive gas in the nation.

Most gas around my parts is in the $4.35 range if using a CC. Costco is $3.99/gal, but using the Costco (Citibank) Credit card it goes down to $3.93 at the pump plus bumps my annual rebates from Costco and Citi.
Brookswood said:
There is not Walmart near me so I rarely shop at one. When I do, I wander about like a homeless waif wondering back and forth as I search for whatever I am looking for .
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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
jujube said:
Panhandlers who approach me in the parking lot on my way to my car.

I don't know if the rather-rough-looking guy who's shuffling toward me and muttering something is going to just ask me politely for some change or knock me down and make off with my purse. I'm an old lady....I don't want to be knocked down.

It's rather common in my Walmart lot for there to be Panhandle. I've complained to the store but apparently there's not much they can do about it.
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I agree. I've been encroached upon a few times in parking lots. Once at Kroger's and once at CVS. It's unnerving because you don't know what that persons ulterior motive is.
Once at Kroger's someone approached me out of nowhere. I told them I don't carry money on me, and I don't. They said they were hungry so I gave her a loaf of bread. After I finished loading my groceries, and I got in the car I followed the girl. She had hopped in a nice compact car with what looked to have three or four other young people in it. I don't know what they were up to but I sensed it was no good. That was in broad daylight.
Another time, it was dusk and I was at CVS to pick up some items. Out of nowhere, some disheveled guy approached me in the parking lot begging me for money. He said he and his wife had got kicked out of a motel on the other side of town and the motel wouldn't give their clothes back that was left in the hotel room until they paid their bill. That really unnerved me. I got in the store as fast as I could.
I had one other encounter at the inside of a Starbucks years ago. Some guy approached me wanting to go look in his trunk because he supposedly had a female dog in it that was in distress and he didn't know what to do. He was pretty insistent but he finally backed down when I got up to the cashier.
The bottom line is we have to be extra cautious in parking lots. To this day whenever I go shopping alone, I usually try to wait until another customer is leaving the store before I go to my car whenever it is possible. I do a lot of my shopping online now unless I have someone go with me.
 
I do not like parking lots as they make me so nervous with so many cars and waiting to turn in a lane and people walking in any direction. One of our big stores, people just park their cars and go somewhere else. You go in the store and there isn't that many people compared to the cars parked outside. The store even put up a notice to not park if you are not a customer but they do anyway.
 
Rae said:
I do not like parking lots as they make me so nervous with so many cars and waiting to turn in a lane and people walking in any direction. One of our big stores, people just park their cars and go somewhere else. You go in the store and there isn't that many people compared to the cars parked outside. The store even put up a notice to not park if you are not a customer but they do anyway.
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People did this all the time here.. until the supermarkets put up a time limit. Some are 3 hours long..most are only 2 hours.

It's irritating because very often using the same car parks are other stores such as big box stores... .. so if you want to go into tesco and do a weekly grocery shop, and then go into one or 2 other box stores.. and maybe the coffee shop.. as well... 2 hours is not anywhere near enough.... ..and you can't just drive out and drive back in.. because most stipulate no return within 1 or 2 hours.

if we break the length of time we stay or return within the 2 hours... .then we're issued with $100 parking fine....the supermarket all use automtic parking eyes.. so it checks the number plate as you enter, and when you leave... all to be done within 2 or 3 hours depending on which suupermarket it is..

Some supermarkets have an option to pay for more than 3 hours, but the costs are exhorbitant

The Shopping...Malls otoh, do a pay as you leave system, so you can stay as long as you want, and pay at the end...

The drawback with the shopping malls in the UK is that most don't have any supermarkets within them... or if they do it's small version...
 

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