Bidenzuela

[FC]

Our Walmart yesterday. I was in shock! Friend in TX says it's just as bad there, and one in Iowa said not so bad in her area (yet).

[FC]

[FC]

[Dr.Hess]

Wow.  I'm heading to Store 100 (across the street from WMT Home Office) this afternoon.  I'll tell ya what I find.

 

[FC]

Good time to clean the shelves!

Source for emergency supplies and canned meats, etc. https://www.lehmans.com/category/emergency-supplies

https://pleasanthillgrain.com/food/dairy-dried-eggs

[Dr.Hess]

Well, we went to Store 100 today.  It used to be the flagship store, but they built a really, really nice, very fancy store in Rogers that is the new flagship.  Still, Store 100 is quite well run.  Any of the executives can just drive across the street and look at anything there.

 

It was really very well stocked.  Milk, creamer, juice, bread, cheese, all fully stocked.  I did see some empty space in the processed meat section, but we are vegetarians so it didn't really concern me.  Other than that, they were very well stocked.  That is, shelves full.

 

So, I'm going with "regional outages."

[FC]

No meat at Sam’s. No meat truck in 3 days.

[AzRednek]

I didn’t do bad at all with my Wally’s pickup order. A few of the substitutes weren’t to good. 2% milk got me whole, Diet Dr Pepper was subbed with the regular and coffee was subbed with decaff. Some of the other subs weren’t to bad or a problem. Different brand of tortillas, relish, a very large jar of peanut butter instead of the smaller size I ordered, oddball brand of crackers instead of Ritz and another I haven’t figured out or possibly I ordered it by mistake. A small jar of grape jelly I didn’t discover until I got home. Another screw up, I ordered a cheapie pack of three scissors. At home I discovered it was subbed with a single pair labeled rose stem scissors. I try to be patient considering I was likely dealing with a minimum wage employee but I don’t really want to go through the BS of waiting in the return line. 
 

In the past I’ve caught Walmart twice not following through giving refunds for refused items. About six months ago my order was so botched up. I returned the entire order and made them start over. I got things I didn’t order and I was missing numerous things I was charged for. After being double charged and not getting credit to my debit card I had to get on the phone and raise hell about ten days later. Another order I think I mentioned here previously. On Wally’s website I got a pop up for an AR-15 for $115.00. Knowing it was likely to good to be true I took the risk anyway. A few days later a AR-15 wall poster showed up at my door. I wasted no time returning it. The returns clerk told me I’d get credit in a few days and also telling me it was the third person returning the poster. A little more than a week later I went into the store and raised hell with an asst manager. She went back into her office, did something and came out telling me I’d get credit the following day which I did. I’ve got eyes on my account now after refusing the decaff coffee and Dr Pepper. I stopped on the way home getting both at Dollar General. 

[Dr.Hess]

That's the first I've heard of problems like that with walmart dot com.  Be sure to make a complaint though the online process.  Those complaints actually do get a lot of high level attention.  The poster thing was probably a small (single person) 3rd party vendor trying to slip a fast one through.  I'm sure they are no longer vendors.  And subbing decaf for regular coffee, well, that's borderline criminal.

 

 

[FC]

The wife found meat at Kroger, so we're making progress.

[Racepres]

I sure wish we still had a Kroger

Not even a Spartan store anymore... WallyWorld, or Our Fambly...or???? Luckily, still 2 very good Mom and Pop groceries that F'n miserable Dollah Genl ain't pushed right Out!!!!

Disgusting state of affairs...

[AzRednek]

The poster fiasco was indeed a third party vendor. How they managed to get the pop up on the grocery website was clever. I’ve complained in the past on Wally’s website. The response is the same. Something like we apologize for not meeting your expectations please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve your shopping experience. The last time I responded with. You can take my complaint seriously and do more than respond with a canned answer. They responded with, we have forwarded your message to the store manager and you should hear from us shortly. I never heard anything. 
 

I’ve done comparisons to other grocery pick up services. Wally’s is at a minimum of 10% or more cheaper. For a $200+ monthly order it is worth the aggravation to save 20 or more bucks. Fry’s Food (grandfather to the founder of Fry’s electronics)  I discovered having a PIA arraignment. Have to go inside to a waiting area where they push the order out in carts. No help like Wally’s where they assist in loading into my SUV. I haven’t used Safeway because of their higher prices. I got spammed from Safeway offering 15 bucks off my first order so I might try them next. 

[FC]

I hear Aldi is quite a bit cheaper.

[AzRednek]

On 1/24/2022 at 11:20 PM, FC said:

I hear Aldi is quite a bit cheaper.

Aldi is just coming into Phoenix scheduled in March. I’ll check them out as I love grocery store grand openings. When I worked in a grocery store as a teenager. One job I had was changing price tags and stamps. Lower on Wednesday then raise beginning about 6:00 PM Saturday through Sunday. One grand opening I did had a lot of so called lost leaders. Selling advertised goods below cost to attract customers. I don’t know how it works now. In the 60’s they could sell the lost leaders for about a week, any longer they got into trouble with the state govt. I only saw them get into trouble once most likely reported by a competitor. My store and the chain bought a bunch of Tide. I mean they had Tide stocked in every nook and cranny imaginable except the produce and meat depts. They placed a huge order for the Tide, got it cheap and it was actually marked it up a few cents when the state looked into it. I recall when a lost leader of a name brand of toilet paper backfired. The store sold a lot but within a few days customers were returning it. The same complaint “it’s like sandpaper”. I wasn’t there one day about 1968. The FBI came into the store and bought up all of one brand of spot remover. The feds told the manager don’t bother to order more. They claimed to have bought the company and closed it down. It was being used to manufacture speed and LSD. It was to bad as it really worked well. I spilled egg nog on my tie and shirt. I helped myself to the spot remover and it immediately removed the stain on my tie. 

[Dr.Hess]

That's weird on the feds buying all the stuff on the shelf.  I wonder what was in it.

 

Businesses are not allowed to sell products too cheap.  You would think not, as "Free Enterprise," "Capitalism," "America," etc. but that's not what we live in.  If you want to sell your product cheaper, like for a big promotion, you have to have the difference in a book keeping account that you made from selling other things higher.  It's all very complicated. I don't recall the term for it anymore, being out of the vendor level biz too long, but a company like Clorox or whoever owns the brand will have someone whose job it is to keep up with the numbers so they don't get in trouble.

[AzRednek]

3 hours ago, Dr.Hess said:

That's weird on the feds buying all the stuff on the shelf.  I wonder what was in it

I don’t know. As a spot remover it started evaporating almost instantly. Within a minute or two it turned into a grayish white powder then brushed off. If I remember right I used a wet paper towel to remove the powder.

 I think it was in the early to mid 70’s Arizona dropped the fair trade laws. I assume the govt overreaching on lost leaders was likely ended as well. Best I recall it was the liquor distributors that lobbied unsuccessfully to keep it in place.