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Tales from the Parcel Pick-up
OK, I don't know how many places offer this, but some of our stores offer a parcel pick-up and home delivery service. There's a major difference between the two:
Parcel Pick-up: Customer shops like normal, pays like normal, leaves groceries with US (we have to tie and tag each bag and mark if it's chilled, frozen or neither), then drives around and we load them up for them. It's often used by families who want to leave their shopping behind so they can do other errands in the mall, or go off, do other things elsewhere and come back later.
Home Delivery: This is run during the weekday ONLY and is pretty much self-explanatory. Customer shops and pays like normal, but someone will then come along and take them to the customer. THis is frequently used by little old ladies (I've noticed) not so much anyone else. They also need a card.
Anyway, some stories involving the PPU/HD services:
-Customer asks me what's involved in the home delivery service. I explain. She then asks me if WE do it for her. When I tell her no, her response is "Oh. Because I detest shopping." (BTW, we DO have that service but not in our state, it's online only and the customer must use a credit or debit card for it. This lady paid in cash. Oh and it's also a somewhat limited service.)
-The average number of bags for both services is usually between 6 and 10, sometimes less, sometimes more, usually with 1-2 frozen/chilled bags. One lady wanted Parcel Pick-up for TWO BAGS! I kid you not, she wanted us to load two bags into the car for her.
(this wasn't actually mine, a colleague told me that one)*.
-And this is more of a coworker brainburp, but is still funny. I get handed the keys by my supervisor and told to go down to parcel pickup. I go down, open the door, nobody's there. Shut the door, wait a few minutes, open it again, nobody's there.
I give up, head back in and PA my supervisor over the phone.
ME: Hey Sup, um, there's nobody there. I waited 5 minutes and there was nobody there.
SUP: Oh? I thought I heard the bell (you have to ring the bell for PPU).
Cue much laughter from me, my coworker who's PA I was using and the customer nearby.
*=and before anyone complains to me about discriminating against those with sore shoulders, disabilities etc. those who do have them will usually compensate by using a trolley or something similar and we will usually lift the stuff in for them upon request. For pregnant women, it's the same situation and usually taxis and bus drivers will help these women.
I've never used a debit card before
We had this one lady once who had a dizzy spell and needed to sit down. We all kept an eye on her and in the end, she was escorted out by mall staff.
She comes back in 2 weeks later and buys a family meat pie (about the size of a big apple pie, but obviously with meat in it). IT runs OK until it's time to pay. She pulls out her card and hands it to me. Unless they have their hands full, I usually hand it back to them. She kept handing it back to me and asking me how to use it. I kid you not.
So I showed her how to swipe the card and all and to select her account. When it comes time to put in PIN, she asks me
"how do I know what my pin is?"
It was written on a slip of paper, so I hand her the PIN pad. She then asked me where to type it in. In the end, I had to do the whole thing, but I had some colleagues nearby, so if she was playing dumb and trying to get me in trouble, I had backup. (She admitted several times that she had no clue how to use a debit card, yet she had a debit AND credit card in her purse)
OK, I don't know how many places offer this, but some of our stores offer a parcel pick-up and home delivery service. There's a major difference between the two:
Parcel Pick-up: Customer shops like normal, pays like normal, leaves groceries with US (we have to tie and tag each bag and mark if it's chilled, frozen or neither), then drives around and we load them up for them. It's often used by families who want to leave their shopping behind so they can do other errands in the mall, or go off, do other things elsewhere and come back later.
Home Delivery: This is run during the weekday ONLY and is pretty much self-explanatory. Customer shops and pays like normal, but someone will then come along and take them to the customer. THis is frequently used by little old ladies (I've noticed) not so much anyone else. They also need a card.
Anyway, some stories involving the PPU/HD services:
-Customer asks me what's involved in the home delivery service. I explain. She then asks me if WE do it for her. When I tell her no, her response is "Oh. Because I detest shopping." (BTW, we DO have that service but not in our state, it's online only and the customer must use a credit or debit card for it. This lady paid in cash. Oh and it's also a somewhat limited service.)
-The average number of bags for both services is usually between 6 and 10, sometimes less, sometimes more, usually with 1-2 frozen/chilled bags. One lady wanted Parcel Pick-up for TWO BAGS! I kid you not, she wanted us to load two bags into the car for her.
(this wasn't actually mine, a colleague told me that one)*.-And this is more of a coworker brainburp, but is still funny. I get handed the keys by my supervisor and told to go down to parcel pickup. I go down, open the door, nobody's there. Shut the door, wait a few minutes, open it again, nobody's there.
I give up, head back in and PA my supervisor over the phone.
ME: Hey Sup, um, there's nobody there. I waited 5 minutes and there was nobody there.
SUP: Oh? I thought I heard the bell (you have to ring the bell for PPU).
Cue much laughter from me, my coworker who's PA I was using and the customer nearby.
*=and before anyone complains to me about discriminating against those with sore shoulders, disabilities etc. those who do have them will usually compensate by using a trolley or something similar and we will usually lift the stuff in for them upon request. For pregnant women, it's the same situation and usually taxis and bus drivers will help these women.
I've never used a debit card before
We had this one lady once who had a dizzy spell and needed to sit down. We all kept an eye on her and in the end, she was escorted out by mall staff.
She comes back in 2 weeks later and buys a family meat pie (about the size of a big apple pie, but obviously with meat in it). IT runs OK until it's time to pay. She pulls out her card and hands it to me. Unless they have their hands full, I usually hand it back to them. She kept handing it back to me and asking me how to use it. I kid you not.
So I showed her how to swipe the card and all and to select her account. When it comes time to put in PIN, she asks me
"how do I know what my pin is?"
It was written on a slip of paper, so I hand her the PIN pad. She then asked me where to type it in. In the end, I had to do the whole thing, but I had some colleagues nearby, so if she was playing dumb and trying to get me in trouble, I had backup. (She admitted several times that she had no clue how to use a debit card, yet she had a debit AND credit card in her purse)
. Nobody's complained yet. A few stores will swipe your card for you, but they're smaller stores than us and their EFTPOS systems are a little different.
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