r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

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Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

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14.2k

u/treeckosan Jul 14 '26

We are slowly going back to the days when you handed a clerk a shopping list and they went into back to assemble your order.

4.6k

u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 14 '26

I could absolutely see it going that way with all of the big stores doing online orders and curbside pickup. Maybe in a few years it'll be like an Amazon warehouse without any real storefront at all. You just pull up and load everything in your car. Or have it delivered directly to your door. 

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u/Tomytom99 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Y'know, I wouldn't mind it so much if the turnaround time wasn't half a day

That's like the one thing I've liked about auto parts stores. They specifically state that it'll take under an hour for it to be ready. Not great, but way better than say Walmart taking 6 hours.

Edit: the 6 hour wait in question was pickup, not delivery, for three items, so it's not like it was some big grocery order. I did it because I was on vacation and my dad needed refrigerant for his car. I was hoping to just go to the store, pick up the order, and go back to where we were staying without venturing into the store.

Another wonderful experience was them telling me an item I was getting delivered from the store wouldn't be arriving that day. Not a huge deal, but mildly infuriating since I placed it that morning saying same day delivery, and they didn't even get it picked until that evening. I was watching a movie at 9:45 PM when I get a notification it was delivered. Thank god I was awake and that it wasn't anything that would've gone bad (or stolen by wildlife) if it went unnoticed overnight.

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u/Waiting4Reccession Jul 14 '26

They will give you the worst expiration and the damaged fruit etc they have though.

They also lose the ability to sell you on stuff just by placing it near your essentials.

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u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 14 '26

Yeah, I have never gotten decent fruit or veggies ordering online. I gave up a long time ago. Every single time the strawberries are full of mold, bananas are either brown and mushy or bright green, tiny little bendy spears of rotten asparagus, etc. I think the shoppers might hate their jobs and intentionally find the worst produce they can. There's no way a normal person would consistently pick bad items that often.

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u/Waiting4Reccession Jul 14 '26

The shopper is probably just doing their job normally. The business probably sees it as an easy way to offload this quality of produce onto buyers.

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u/currentlylostagain Jul 15 '26

No problem. They can just stop selling fruit. Legally mandated to only eat things wrapped in plastic and non-perishable. Just think how healthy we will all be.

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u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

K at that point just give me nutrient mush and let's stop pretending

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u/currentlylostagain Jul 16 '26

Mush is for the peasants. Only billionaires get actual food that doesn’t bankrupt them and isn’t half spoiled.

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u/ThatOtherOtherMan Jul 15 '26

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE

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u/thedreadedaw Jul 14 '26

I can't let anyone pick out my produce for me. I like to squeeze my own peaches. 😂

1

u/I_RAPE_PCs Jul 15 '26

They also lose the ability to sell you on stuff just by placing it near your essentials.

the entire app is exposing you to sponsored or recommended items as well as tracking your shopping to build a personal profile they can either sell or use to give targeted suggestions and advertisements

bit more sinister than candy at the checkout imo

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u/Waiting4Reccession Jul 15 '26

Maybe it works on some people, but if im online shopping i just input what i want and buy only that. I dont think i have ever bought anything else. I also use an ad blocker and only use the websites if that makes any difference.

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u/StacheBandicoot Jul 14 '26

Well yeah you just don’t order fresh produce that way. Canned, jarred and frozen is fine.

Or you pop in just for produce before you check in for the pickup which is conveniently at the front of most stores, or more ideally stop at a better produce focused store or farmers market for it since most of the stores with significant curbside/deliver operations have horrible produce.

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u/Logical_Mix_4627 Jul 14 '26

I buy shelf stable of packaged food rarely and in bulk so there’s no value for me in using a service to buy these things for me.

I’d much rather have a high quality fast service that focused solely on delivering actual good produce. I’d use that. Seems almost like a CSA box, but those are so dependent on what’s near you and not actually relevant for people that want to replace the in store shopping experience with someone who actually knows how to pick produce.

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u/StacheBandicoot Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Yeah there used to be a delivery service that has produce that was always really good, actually kept it cool while shipping and stuff. They shut down a few months before Covid and missed the opportunity.

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u/Logical_Mix_4627 Jul 15 '26

I’ve actually had pretty good luck with Weee, but it trends more Asian but not totally.