Finally had to stop in the corner store to pay off our tab.

[conuly]

You'll be happy to hear they had flour in stock again, and also toilet paper. In their typical blunt fashion, the hand-written sign by the toilet paper informed me sternly that there are only two paper products per customer because "It's not just about you".

I'm trying to think through the logistics of ordering a big meat order from the butcher shop. Their website says they do phone orders, but it's not clear if that means delivery or pickup. And they have lots of pre-planned "home freezer" options with a discount. There's an organization that does shopping for seniors... ten items or less. Obviously we have a senior in the home. I wonder if I could contact a volunteer through them to just pick up the damn meat if the butcher shop doesn't mean delivery, and god, why is their website so useless anyway? Both their websites.

Comments

[mordorbot]

I had the same problem with a nursery when I needed soil for the garden. I ended up calling. They explained that they never did anything online before and the website was only supposed to be a place to let customers know their phone number and opening hours! They never used to do delivery, but they'd started now because there was such a huge request for it, but there was a delivery fee. And they said that if I couldn't get through next time I called to place my order, please leave a message, since they didn't have specific delivery drivers so they couldn't answer the phone if they were all driving.

It was the best and worst customer service - humans doing everything in their power to be helpful, but completely unsuited to the technologies that could've made their job easier. It was actually really sweet.

Anyway, long way off saying that my advice is to call.

[mtbc]

Indeed. A further frustration here is that the many places for which their online presence is a confusing afterthought tend to not have updated their advertised opening hours since Everything Changed.

[mtbc]

(best yet, the doctor I'm registered with has a great website: separate sections for Opening Times and When We Are Closed)

[mordorbot]

What?

[redbird]

I assume this isn't like what my doctor's office has right now, which is something like "in emergency, call 911. For other urgent things, either call my personal cell phone and leave a message or call [number] and the on-call physician will answer."

[mordorbot]

Even major grocery stores with typically very well run websites are bad at keeping up with changes, I'm finding. So how can Mom and Pop stores manage?

[redbird]

Based on this, I may call a garden center as well. Thanks.

[mordorbot]

Apparently in the UK most nurseries are closed, but the one I called first was open so it worked out for me!

[conuly]

I absolutely have to call - their website gives no way to order.

[mordorbot]

Yeah, I think it's easiest to do that

[chez_jae]

That's actually a wonderful sign. I don't know why some people need to be bashed over the head with the "it's not just about you" concept, but there it is.