I was reading a favorite blog of mine the other day, and the mom mentioned that she likes to use Sam’s Click ‘n’ Pull service. I had never heard of such, but she described it in glowing terms. Boldface type mine.
“Heather alerted me to the fact that Sam’s Club has something called “Click & Pull” on their website. I log in to the website, and there I have created a “shopping list” of items that I usually purchase. A couple of days before I intend to head to Sam’s , I go to my list and order the items on the website.
“AND THE VERY NICE STAFF AT SAM’S CLUB PULL THE ITEMS FOR ME. Hence the name, Click & Pull. Clever, eh? When the items are ready, I receive an e-mail which I print out and take with me to Sam’s Club. When I get there, I take the print out back to the cigarette stand (why there, I don’t know) and the items are retrieved for me while I finish up my shopping.
“It doesn’t matter if the items are frozen or in the refrigerator section. They remain in a cooler/freezer until you arrive to claim them.
“The only thing they don’t pull for you is fresh meat. Which I prefer to lean across that cooler and agonize over myself. I also like to pick out my own fresh vegetables, but they will pull those for you as well.
“I save a ton of time using this technique, and I’m less likely to engage in impulse purchasing.”
So, I thought to myself, “Time is the most valuable commodity in my life right now, and when we go to Sam’s, we probably spend 20 minutes from parking the car to driving away. If someone other than Jessica, Josiah, and me collected all the groceries and brought them to the checkout for us, we could be in and out in five or ten minutes.” And minutes saved at Sam’s translates directly into more minutes at the library. (insert evil grin here)
I decided to give Click ‘n’ Pull a whirl. First, I called our new Sam’s Club to find out how the system works and how long I’d have to wait for my goods once I arrived at the store. “Oh, it’s great. You place your order online, and we pull it and send you an email when it’s ready. You print out your order and when you bring it in, you just go to member services, we bring you your stuff, you pay for it, and you’re out the door.” But how long would I have to wait? “Oh, just a very few minutes. It’s really fast.” Sounds like my kind of shopping experience – really fast!
I created a Sam’s account online, selected my items, and hit “go.” I could see everything I wanted and even the total cost before tax. Sure enough, a few hours later, I received an email saying my items were ready for pick up. Yee hah! I printed it out and away we went.
It was a frustrating day in Springfield anyway – but that’s another story – so we got to Sam’s later than I wanted to, but since it would be “really fast” and “just a very few minutes,” I figured we’d still get in at least 45 minutes at the library. My goal is always at 60 or more, but I had already shot myself in the foot on that yesterday.
We waltz into Sam’s and I head directly for Member Services, which is conveniently located quite close to the door. I am waylaid by an Associate who asks if she can help me. I tell her I’m here to pick up a Click ‘n’ Pull order, and she tells me to go to Tobacco. TOBACCO?!?!? What’s with THAT? I don’t even know where Tobacco is. She points to the pharmacy on the very far side of the building. Binoculars would have helped. “Tobacco’s just to the right of the pharmacy. You can’t quite see it from here.” I guess not. That would be because Tobacco is ALMOST as far as it is possible to hike away from this front door and still be in the building.
Nevertheless, I deftly trot over to Tobacco, which consists of a chain link fence to the ceiling, enclosing many, many cases of pallet-stacked cartons of cigarettes. There are two cash registers in front of the tobacco cage. There are no Associates anywhere to be seen.
I call out “Howdy!” No one answers. I peer among the pallets. No one. We wait a few minutes. No one appears.
I walk next door to the pharmacy and tell the lady there that I need to pick up a Click ‘n’ Pull order, that I was told to come to Tobacco, and that there is no one there. She will page someone. Which she does. But no one comes.
We wait a full ten minutes in front of Tobacco. Finally a managerial-looking lady in khakis comes strolling by, talking into her shoulder. She smiles, but does not stop. I am not surprised. She doesn’t really look like a Tobacco Lady, anyway. We wait several more minutes. I grow quite impatient. By now, we could have collected the stuff ourselves, paid for it, and loaded it into the van, and hauled our crate of returning books into the library.
Finally the khaki lady comes back by (interestingly from the same direction as before) and this time I flag her down, waving my Click ‘n’ Pull print-out. She pauses. She looks at the sheet, apologizes that the Tobacco Lady “called in” today, and tells me to walk this way please. I try, but my body is not shaped quite like hers and I’m not terribly successful.
She leads us to another caged-in area, this one back up near the front of the store, and asks me if I can identify which of the dozen or so shopping carts of dry goods within might be mine. I do so, and she begins to try to move a flat-bed cart out of the way to get to mine. Josiah helps her extricate our cart. She tells me I can take the cart to the checkout and pay, because they will just scan my print-out. Meanwhile, she will go get my refrigerated and frozen items.
We go. I pay. We wait. And wait. And wait. We have now been in the store almost 30 minutes, I am out some $130, and I still have less than 1/3 of my food. Our library time is going away, going away fast.
Finally, the khaki lady reappears with a mere mortal male Associate in tow. Each of them is carrying a large, heavy box full of cold stuff. They have clearly hauled these boxes (sans anything having wheels) from the fridge and freezer, which are located even farther from the checkout than Tobacco. I thank them for their help, and we leave.
Moral of the Story: Click ‘n’ Pull may work for my online friend, but it didn’t work at all for me yesterday. As for me and my house, just give me Jessica, Josiah, and a torn-in-half Sam’s list ANY day.
