Walmart: A Blog Divided

If I had a dollar for every time one of friends told me how much money grocery shopping at Walmart saves them I would have enough to continue to shop at Safeway. I love Safeway! The people who work there are friendly, the store is always clean and tidy, and their Safeway food brand items are oftentimes tastier than the big name brands. I also love their phone app that has coupons made just for me on the stuff I usually buy. So when I decided to give Walmart a try, I could not even believe it myself. I know people like to make fun of Walmart but they must do something right.

So I made sure to download the Walmart Savings Catcher app on my phone so that when I was done shopping, I could see how much more I could save simply by scanning my receipt. What a great idea!? I love a good deal so if they will compare prices for me and give me the difference, I am all for it. I had my list in hand and I was off! Not wanting to get cranky with a crowded Wal-Mart, I decided to embark on my first shopping trip at 8am on a Friday morning. This is one of the perks of working from home. It was fairly empty so I was off to a great start!

I was paying extra close attention to the prices because I am one of those people who generally goes to the store and buys the exact same things. I change it up here and there but for the most part I have a good inventory of favorite things that my husband and I like to eat. To my surprise, some of my favorites were a lot cheaper. Up to $2 an item cheaper! Wow! This was going better than expected. Maybe I should have listened to my friends years ago.

As I continued through the store I started finding that many items were actually more expensive than Safeway, particularly dairy and frozen food items. I was still on a mission to see if Walmart was really that much cheaper so I continued on to the checkout line. This is where things took a turn.

First off, the poor checkout ladies have to ring up items as well as bag the groceries. At a regular grocery store, they hire baggers to help with this. Not only did it make the checker slow, you can tell that they are not super happy about someone pulling up with a cart full of groceries and I do not blame them.

When I got to the checkout, I was third in line so I didn’t think that it would be too long. Fast-forward to 20 minutes later and I had not moved and now there were several people behind me. My patience was wearing thin. One of the problems is that they still allow people to bring in ads to do the price match. Now that they had the Savings Catcher app, they should have eliminated this type of price matching. My ice cream was melting, my cheese was getting warm, and my anxiety was increasing. If people wanted to price match, they should only be given the option of the phone app. Period.

I finally left my cart in line and went to the “self checkout” area and asked the gal if there was an item limit. She said “No.” Excited to hear this, I went back to my cart, made the people behind me back up and headed to the self-checkout. Remember, I was in the line a longer amount of time than I had been picking out my groceries. It was horrible!

So I started checking out my own stuff and I got to a bag of frozen fruit and the bag was busted open. I showed the checkout lady and she took it from me and I thought another bag would be coming up for me but she never called on anyone to bring one up. I guess I had to get it myself. My level of annoyance at this point was off the charts so I just decided to leave without my fruit. I paid, got my receipt, and I put my groceries in the car. Then I went to put the cart in the designated cart area and there were none to be found. People just were leaving their carts all over the place. I just cannot do that. I am too type A to leave a cart to roll around in a parking lot. So seeing that the one “Return Cart Here” area was further than me taking it back to the front, so I just returned it to the front of the store. So annoying! Safeway has like a billion cart returns!

Since I was practically already in the store again, I decided I would hate myself if I did not go and get the fruit I needed for our smoothies. I went back in the store, walked very quickly to get the fruit, and self-checked out again. I looked over and the same lady who I was behind was still being checked out and the line had not moved. How do people with kids wait this long in line? I would lose my mind!

As I walked out of the store, the shoplifting beeper starts going off. I just continued walking because I figured it was probably just broken but to cap off the best shopping trip ever, the lady says “Ma’am! Can you come back here!” Seriously!? Out of all the people who shop at Walmart, I am the suspicious one? You have got to be kidding me! I know it is not this lady’s fault but I walked up to her and just said “I hate Walmart.” I am not making this up.

I handed her my bag to check my 1 item receipt that I had to go back and get because the initial item was busted and no one offered to help. I once dropped a container of fresh cut watermelon at Safeway, completely my fault, and not only did they offer to purchase a new one for me, they went and got it for me. I declined because I was the doof that messed up but isn’t that amazing?

The door lady handed me my bag back and I was finally on my way. I could not wait to get out of there. This is why I hate Walmart. I just could not understand why so many people shopped here. I missed Safeway. It is actually a treat to shop there. I also noticed that they have about 50 people working there who are just wondering around. I am sure that they have their own duties but they should allocate their workers better.

The only funny thing to come out of this was when my husband was drinking his smoothie he just said “Nothing tastes better than shoplifted fruit!” He always has a way to make me laugh at these types of situations.

After looking at my receipt, I did save a few bucks. Nothing life changing though. Is $3-5 really worth my sanity and time? Also, their GreatValue brand is nowhere near as good as the Safeway brand so I am not really sure it even equals out. So my question is to the all moms out there, why do you put yourselves through this? Why? Why Kiera, Why? Can you help me out???

Now this is where the blog divides..... I hate to admit it, but I sort of love Walmart. My feelings are similar to Krista's at times, but overall, I can't stay away from the store! And to make it worse, they keep doing more and more to make me love them! I have had a lot of frustrating moments in a Walmart store, (I've never shoplifted fruit!! Ha ha!!) but I have been stuck in the wrong line...more times than I care to admit!! But I have yet to find another store that offers all the things I need in one convenient location. I can get arts and crafts, fabric, holiday and home decor, toys and groceries and I save a TON of money. I put up with the horrible store because I know I save money. I love their site to store pick up option so I never have to pay for shipping and now....the reason I tell all my friends about my love for Walmart.....they now offer GROCERY PICK UP!! If you are looking for a way to enjoy the savings of Walmart, avoid the lines, the parking, the crowds and the hassle of shopping with multiple kids, you have to try their new Grocery Pick up service. I read about it on a Facebook post and I thought to myself, this is too good to be true. But of course, I still had to try it!! I would love to eliminate all the annoying things about Walmart but still benefit from the savings!!!! So I went on-line to the special grocery pick up site (NOT the normal Walmart site!!) and I put a bunch of really hard items in my cart. I even tried some produce to see how they picked it. I picked a time that I wanted to go pick it all up and they had convenient 4 hour pick up windows. I took Joe with me on my first run just so we could test it out. I pulled up in the special designated spot on the side of the store and called the number on the sign. Someone answered and said they would be out with my order shortly. Joe and I both had a panic moment wondering if they were just now doing all the shopping?? How long would we wait there?? Well, to our surprise it was about 4-5 minutes! 2 nice employees came out and loaded all the groceries into our car. They even handed me a free gift for trying it out!! I was so excited. Tips are not accepted so we thanked them, drove away and enjoyed our free gift box filled with tons of goodies. I was SOLD!!!

Pretty soon they are even going to offer a delivery service!!! That would have been nice after I had the baby. I can't wait to try this out too!

I have done the grocery pick up option about 10 times now and I have never had a bad experience. I call the number, I wait 5 minutes or less (one time the guy was out waiting for me since I let them know I was almost there) and then I drive away. It's the best...EVER!!!! I have never enjoyed grocery shopping so much in my life! I even got my 2nd gift box in the mail filled with more amazing goodies. Walmart sure knows how to butter me up! I have also never had a wrong item or a missing item. If they don't have it, they tell you when you pick up and they don't charge you for it. Also, a huge tip I think is important to share is that they have an option where they will substitute items if they don't have what you wanted. I don't like the idea of someone trying to guess what I might like so I always make sure I click the box for NO substitutions. I would rather just not have the item, unless of course it's something really easy to substitute. You make the call.

Now for the best part!! Here is a link to get $10.00 off your first order if you want to give it a try. It will change your life! http://refer.walmart.com/v2/share/6195928743167085936 I could go on and on about all the reasons I love it but the best one is that they save the list of your last order on-line. So the first time you use it, it might take awhile to get everything in your cart but then the next time, you just go through on all your past items, 'add to cart' and bam, you are done! I have never grocery shopped so fast in my life! One more perk, you can add things to your cart at any time. So when I am out of baggies I go log in to my account and add them to my cart so they are there they next time I place my order. Sometime I even select a pick up time that works with my husband so he can pick them up on his way home from work. It's the best ever!!!!! Also, no impulse buying!!! So Krista, you have to give Walmart pick up a try and report back! If they can sell you after your experience, then they can sell anyone on this service!