A Tisket, A Tasket...Don't Have to Push The Basket

I did my grocery shopping today and I didn't even have to leave the comfort of my van.  Yup, I finally decided to try the online shopping feature that my local grocery store offers.  Yesterday I logged onto their website and after setting up my online account using my frequent shopper card (got to get those gas points, you know), I was soon browsing through the store online.

Giant (my local store) has their system set up so that you can shop by category, by aisle, or just type in a product and search that way.  It couldn't be easier.  Once you find what you want, you adjust the amount that you want to purchase and then you select it to add it to your "cart."  There is also a place where you can  enter comments (more on that later).

The final step is to set up the time you want to pick up your groceries.  You pick an hour time slot (i.e. between 10-11 a.m. on Tuesday) and then you print out your order and that's it.  If you have any coupons to use, you just bring them along with you and hand them to the clerk when you pull up in the designated area.

Since this was my first time, I was unsure if you were supposed to tip the person who brings your groceries out to your car.  I called the store and asked and they assured me that I was not to tip.  I just needed to pull up in the lane clearly marked for the online shoppers and someone would come out to get my name and my credit card.

That's exactly what I did.  I pulled up, a nice young man came out and asked for my last name and then I handed him my credit card and my coupons.  Soon he came out with my bags of groceries and loaded them in the back of the van.  Next out came a grocery clerk with my receipt, my credit card, a charge slip to sign, and new coupons that my order had generated.  I signed the slip, she thanked me, and I was on my way back home.

The whole process took about 5 minutes.  Unloading the groceries and putting them away took a tad longer because I was checking items against my list.  When you place your order, you can indicate whether or not you want the personal shopper to make substitutions.  I had said they could but they didn't fill two things I had ordered - a box of Barista K-Cups (they were out-of-stock) and a carrot cake from the bakery (also out-of-stock).  Darn!  I was hoping to have that carrot cake for lunch.  Guess the fates knew it was something I should not have.  I wasn't charged for either item either.  Now, in the comments section, I'm thinking that I COULD have said that "any" K-Cup by Barista would have been ok.    They also had a question on my ground beef when I had ordered a pound of ground beef three times.  They had asked me about it when I'd called with the tip question.  I explained that I hated to touch meat so I wanted to have 3 individual packages of a pound each so that I wouldn't have to separate the meat.  That way, I could just plop it into the frying pan when fixing a recipe without having to do much touching.  They probably thought I was nuts but said politely that they would go pull it for me immediately and have it ready when I arrived.  I COULD have indicated "please pull 3 1-lb. packages" in the comments part and there would have been no confusion.

I'll definitely be using this service again.  The extra charge for the convenience is only $4.95 which is peanuts, if you ask me.  If you are near a store that offers this type of service, give it a try.  You might find yourself pleasantly spoiled.

One Sexy Shirt

Image via Wikipedia

I swear the local grocery store should pay me for providing entertainment every time I go shopping there.  Today was no exception.  It was supposed to be just a quick pop in and pop out around lunchtime.  I had a short list so I grabbed one of those electronic scanners that let you scan your own items as you go through the store.

Image via Wikipedia

Everything was going fine until I got to the last aisle and was going past the bakery section.  That's always my Waterloo.  I was sorely tempted to pop a few donuts in my bag but I'm really trying to give them up.  However, the little carrot cakes were loudly calling my name.  I told them to pipe down, mainly because I didn't think I could get one home and get the top of it eaten and the rest thrown away before the Commander returned back from his errands.  I decided to be virtuous and settle for a croissant.  I put one in a little bag and scanned the barcode for croissants.  Whoa!  My scanner started making an alarm noise and when I peered at it, the screen said, "Item exception.  Take to a clerk."  Ok, but I also noticed that something else had popped up on the screen of my scanner.  When I had scanned the barcode, not only did an alarm go off, but an item showed up on my list of things purchased.  It said, "Sexy Shirt."  Say what?

I looked up in confusion and looked straight into the eyes of a bakery worker.  My face must have been quite expressive because he came right over and asked if he could help me.

"I just scanned the croissant barcode and it came up as "one sexy shirt," I explained.  

Image via Wikipedia

"Good grief," he said.  "I've never used one of those scanners but I think you can remove items.  Why don't you see if you can remove it?"

I tried and all that happened was that my scanner just made that alarm sound some more.  "I'll call a manager over," the bakery guy offered.

Soon an official-looking lady showed up and I had to explain the whole thing again.  When I got to the part about the "sexy shirt", she started to laugh.  I laughed too.  What else could I do?

"So where's this sexy shirt?" she asked.

"Well I can guarantee you that it isn't in there with the ground beef or the Di-gel," I vowed.

After about five minutes of her fiddling with the scanner and the errant barcode, she finally gave up and told me to meet her at her computer, halfway across the store.   I dutifully trudged after her and we were ready for Round Two.

"Can I see your Frequent Shopper Card?" she asked.

"With my luck today, if you scan it, it will probably show up as "One Sexy Pants," I countered.

We traded quips back and forth as she tried more things on her computer, all of which didn't work, and then it was time to try another tactic.  We headed over to the Easy Shop terminals.

 "Just scan the "End Order" barcode at this terminal and I'll tell the clerk what's going on," she said.

"OK, but I have to tell you that I NEVER have any luck getting these barcodes to scan when I try to check out," I replied.  "I always have to get the clerk to do it for me."  True to my prediction, it would NOT scan.

My friendly manager tried it, the Easy Shop clerk tried it and then they went around to ALL of the other Easy Shop terminals and tried those barcodes and none of them worked either until they got to the last one.  Finally, success!  But wait.....the computer screen was telling me to "Scan my first item."  Excuse me, didn't I already do that and isn't that what caused all this trouble in the first place?  The clerk did some more fiddling around and at last my items started popping up on the screen, including the "sexy shirt."

The manager and the clerk huddled together over their terminal and tried to figure out how to get the shirt off of my bill.  They weren't having any luck so they decided to call a third manager over.  They explained it all again and I dutifully held up the croissant bag which was most definitely NOT a sexy shirt.  The third manager tried to stifle a giggle but couldn't.  She started to laugh and looked at me helplessly.  "I'm so sorry," she apologized.  "I know I shouldn't be laughing but I can't seem to help myself."

"Hey, don't worry about it," I said.  "It could be worse.  It could have said 'one ugly shirt.'"

FINALLY everything got straightened out.  They never did figure out how to delete the shirt off my bill so instead they issued me a refund for the cost of it.  As long as I didn't have to pay the extra $14.95, that was fine by me.

As I left, they couldn't have been more apologetic. "No problem," I assured them.  "I needed something to blog about today and this will be perfect."

I was almost tempted to make a detour on the way home to do some shirt shopping.

Related articles

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Overheard in the Fitting Rooms

There were some great sales today and since I had a store credit to use before it expires, I thought I'd swing over to do a little shopping.  I didn't take any pictures but I just had to share some things I overheard in the fitting room today.  Oh my, if only people realized that just because their fitting room door is closed, other folks can still hear them.

The first merry group I heard were a grown mother and daughter.  From the sound of their voices, I'd say the daughter was middle-aged and the mother was elderly.  The daughter was going on and on about whether or not certain tops were letting her n_____ of her chest show.  I felt like sticking my head out of my room and saying, "For Pete's sake, if you're worried about it, put a bandaid over them or wear a bra!"  But I restrained myself.  Then she started in on that age-old question....."Ma, do you think this makes my a__ look big?  Apparently, her mother was either hard-of-hearing or had bad eyesight, because the daughter kept on asking and not getting an answer.  Once again, I was tempted to put in my two-cents and say, "Look, if you want an honest opinion, just step out in the hallway and I'll tell you."  Again, I restrained myself.

At the next store, I walked into the fitting room after squeezing past a portly young man who was standing right in the entrance talking to his wife, who was standing in front of the mirror as you entered the fitting area.  I got a glimpse of a large lady wearing fishnets and a mini-skirt but I was moving fast.  Frankly, I was worried about getting high because the scent of marijuana was fairly dripping off the two of them.  They were carrying on the following conversation:

She:  "So, what do you think of this outfit?"
He:  "It's ok."
She:  "Well, you don't seem very enthusiastic."
He:  "You know I don't get excited about this stuff.  It's ok."
She"  "I'm going to need more positive reinforcement to wear something like this out in public."

I REALLY wanted to yell out, "DON'T!  Find something with more fabric."  I controlled myself.
As I was trying my own haul on, I could hear her back in her fitting room.  She was breathing like she had just run a marathon.  I thought, "What in the world?"

Then she started with the pep talk....."OK," she said to herself, "I got one arm in."  And so it went.  I kind of think a larger size might have been the solution but what do I know?   Bet you didn't know that women's dressing rooms could be such interesting places, did you?

Now THAT'S a Bite!

I headed off today to get the second of my 3 Hep. B shots in preparation for my upcoming trip to Indonesia.  As long as I was out, I decided to do a little shopping.  Not particularly remarkable in itself but that's where it get's dicey.  Just a note to the squeamish.......if you don't like to read about blood, you'd better stop here.  OK?While I was at one shop, I came across a jacket that looked a lot like one that one of my favorite TV vampires wears.  "Oo", I thought.  "Cool look.  I think I'll try it on."

I gave it a go and it looked great.  Wow!  I was "styling."  But then I happened to glance down and noticed something.  My hand was all bloody.  Holy S___!  When did that happen?  My first reaction was to try to figure out where the blood was coming from.  OK, I seemed to have snagged the top of my thumb and now I was bleeding like a stuck pig.  Next thought was to keep the blood off the floor and the clothes. And a third thought was "Well, this has to be the freakiest endorsement of a vampire jacket that I've ever had."   I popped my thumb in my mouth while I groped in my purse for something to wrap around it.  Unfortunately I didn't have any tissues but I DID have an old 50's-era handkerchief so I grabbed that and wrapped it around my thumb, applying pressure over the cut.

I looked at the jacket again.  Oh, oh....the bad news was that there was some blood on the white drawstring at the waist.  The good news was that I was definitely buying the jacket and had already decided that I was getting rid of that drawstring.  It was NOT cool.  Didn't go with the look at all.  But I couldn't exactly pull it out and discard it in the dressing room, could I?  I looked at it again and decided the best thing to do would be to pull the bloody part on into the inside of the casing, which meant that there was more drawstring on one side of the waist than on the other but hopefully I wouldn't get some detail-oriented clerk who would insist on getting that drawstring even before she rang me up.

I lifted up the hankie and examined my thumb.  The bleeding had definitely slowed down but it wanted to start back up when I wasn't applying pressure to the wound.  Drat!  I still had some blue jeans to try on.  Have you ever tried to put on blue jeans without using your thumbs?  Believe me, it is NOT something that is readily achievable.  I decided to just forget it and go buy the jacket and head to a drugstore for a bandaid.

 
Once I got a bandaid on my thumb, things were under control once more.  I was able to continue on to another store to find an outfit for my mom's birthday present and then head over to the grocery store for some menu ingredients.

The rest of the day was a lot less eventful.  I finished one of the fingerless gloves that I'm knitting out of a rustic alpaca yarn and started the second glove.  Should get that finished tonight what with all the great TV viewing on the agenda.....Hawaii 5-O, Castle, Dancing with the Stars. And there's NO vampire show on the schedule!

The Incredible Growing Scarf

Yippee! I came in under the wire on this Knit-a-Long (KAL) with several weeks to spare. I have to admit that I was a little worried considering that I was also knitting up a storm on socks for the Summer of Socks '08. But "I dood it!", as my Mom likes to say.

This was a KAL headed up by the Loopy Ewe gang over at Ravelry. If you haven't discovered Ravelry yet and you like to knit or crochet, my friend...you need to head on over and read all about it. Membership is free. You just have to sign up and wait several days until you get an email invitation to join and then the fun begins. This is a marvelous worldwide community of fiber people and the website is chock full of patterns, groups of every interest imaginable, pictures of people's projects, a library feature where you can add your knitting books, etc. Really, it is just hard to describe. You have to experience it. Imagine a big convention of like-minded folk and now extend that convention to year-round, 24 hours a day, at your fingertips whenever you want to be there. Go to http://www.ravelry.com/ and when you get on, look up "Booklassie" and say "hi." You'll find me up there most days and if I'm temporarily away, you can leave me a message.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes....talking about the KAL that the Loopy Ewe group was doing. Loopy Ewe (and I promise I'll stop tantalizing you soon) is a fantastic vendor of sock yarns and accessories and spinning wheels, etc. Sheri has a wonderful selection of handpainted yarns from some great companies and some wonderful new Indie artists. Her service is top-notch. You can find the Loopy Ewe store here http://www.theloopyewe.com/ and don't say I didn't warn you.....you might become a "Loopy Groopy."

Now, back to what I was saying. We all picked a Dream in Color Baby laceweight yarn and then each picked our own projects to knit. Concurrently, there was a Red KAL going on and so I decided to pick some DiC Baby in the colorway "Lipstick Lava" and knit it up into a Rivulet scarf. I started it and decided that I wanted a little heftier weight yarn so after doubling the yarn, I was a happy knitter. Here is how it looked as I was starting out.


If you look closely, you'll see that I actually used some "lifelines" in this scarf. For those of you not too familiar with knitting, a lifeline is a piece of string or yarn threaded through something you are knitting (usually a shawl or scarf) periodically so that if you really mess up and have to rip out a bunch of rows, you can always rip down to the nearest lifeline and know that all your stitches will be intact at the point of the lifeline. And you also try to ensure that all your stitches are correct at the point that you insert a lifeline. In almost 50 years of knitting, this is the first time I've used lifelines and I can tell you that now it won't be the last. I decided that they are a good idea.

I worked and worked on that scarf and it didn't seem to be getting long very fast but the time was ticking so eventually I decided that I was going to finish her off and just artfully cross it at my throat and secure it with a nice pin. That was the plan. Imagine my surprise when, after giving it a good soak, I went to block it out and discovered that my little scarf had grown to a full 68 inches long. Wow, that yarn just relaxed and BLOOMED in my sink. I felt like Jack and the beanstalk except that I didn't have to climb anything to find a treasure. My treasure was lying on the guestroom floor.

After giving it a day or two to dry thoroughly, I unpinned it and wrapped it around my neck. It was soft and warm and long enough to wrap around my throat and sling over my shoulders, just the way I like it.

 
Once again, I'm amazed at the way lace knitting looks pre-blocking and post-blocking. And now, I plan to go pull out that stole I've been working on off and on over the summer. I've used umpteen skeins of yarn trying to get that thing long enough to wrap around a person but I was figuring that I still had another 2 or 3 skeins to add to it before blocking it. Now I'm not so sure. If that stole is anything like this scarf, I just might have a potentially LONG stole in my knitting bag. In fact, it might already be big enough to wrap around 2 or 3 people all at once. Maybe I'll call it the "Overachiever Stole."