USPS Shop - Forgot the photo!

@SoCalMama wrote:

I don't venture into Wal-Mart, ever. Black Friday videos just reminded me why. Not my peeps.

Boxes are just about the only reason I set foot in that store and it's a dilemma since my family has felt very strongly for years about not supporting the Walton family. I forgot Staples carries the small boxes, my local store was out for a while and I quit looking.

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You can go to Dollar General and Dollar Tree and get free boxes that are an appropriate size when employees are unpacking to stock shelves. I too don't like Wal-Mart. It's not about snobbery. Our Wal-Marts have horrible, rude store associates.

Aw, I see. I currently service 17 Walmarts in my area and the surrounding cities. Occasionally I run into a "new" Assistant Manager who is running on a power trip or an overworked fitting room clerk but it's pretty rare. I can count myself lucky then. My approach, also, is one that tries to meet their needs (Associates). I do feature to home and an occasional zoning as my kiss arse in exchange for whatever it is that I'm asking from them.

A couple years ago when I was doing post office shops for the previous MSC, I went to Walmart one day to buy some boxes. I got about 40 feet inside the door and I saw a store associate walking by me. I said, "Hi, excuse me. Could you please tell me here I can find boxes and shipping supplies?" She looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, "I'm on break." I said, "Does that mean that you don't know where the shipping supplies are?" She sighed and gave me another eye roll and pointed her finger towards the back of the store and said, "They're about three aisles back that way." Then she walked away.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

A couple years ago when I was doing post office shops for the previous MSC, I went to Walmart one day to buy some boxes. I got about 40 feet inside the door and I saw a store associate walking by me. I said, "Hi, excuse me. Could you please tell me here I can find boxes and shipping supplies?" She looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, "I'm on break." I said, "Does that mean that you don't know where the shipping supplies are?" She sighed and gave me another eye roll and pointed her finger towards the back of the store and said, "They're about three aisles back that way." Then she walked away.

I live on the other side of the boonies in the back of beyond. Walmart is our social center here. If you want to see anyone in town, just head for Walmart and wait an hour or two. They will turn up.

People, both employees and customers, are great. After all, the person you are speaking to may be your grandmother's second cousin on her father's side. Everyone here is related to everyone else in some fashion, so you don't dare talk bad about anyone!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2016 12:11AM by tidedancer.

You must live in the South. I grew up in Florida where people are friendly like that. I now live in NE Ohio. it's a different world. There are some nice people here but not everyone is, and I live in a medium-size city with lots of strangers and just some strange people in general. If I lived in a small midwest town, maybe.

I think that is what it is, tidedancer. Because I lived in Hawaii and you can only drive 2 1/2 hours and you're on the other side of the island, people generally are more aware that they will see you tomorrow. I think I bring that attitude with me to "my" Walmarts here when merchandising and elsewhere when mystery shopping. My approach is one of how can I help you; I think I will continue no matter where I am. I had a very emotionally debilitating family thing happen and lost it two years ago. I moved to another State and have been merchandising/MS. But I've healed as much as I can now so I'm going back to Accounting; I can't take the low pay anymore. Being poor has taught me a lot about why people are the way they are. I may, or may not, ever shop at Walmart again and I'll never merchandise again but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for all of those people who have to endure what they do and maintain and helpful and happy attitude, or show the reality of shitty pay and shitty supervisors who have shitty pay and shitty hours, without meaningful benefits or much room for advancement; God bless them, one and all!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2016 01:08AM by spicy1.

I hear ya spicy, but i am plenty friendly, helpful, and polite to people. It would be great to think when I treat people kindly they would reciprocate. I definitely don't receive the same in return all the time.

I know, JAS, neither do I. But I guess I try to pretend I do, you know, have that thank you look on my face, when they're not so nice and hope and believe it will help for the next time I need to interact with them. When biotches be biotches I try and tell them how cute their earrings are or how I saw them somewhere or something. When they're neglectful, I don't really care, I just find someone else. When they're mean, I just feel sorry for them. I think I got a lot of my ideas from your posts in the merchandising area so thank you!

btw, and back to topic. I just completed 8 reg. box shops and 6 of them took between 2 1/2 to 4 minutes, hope there's no repercussions from that! I didn't see anything in the guidelines that changed and said we had to stay at the post office for a certain amount of time though.

I'm really glad I was able to help (not sure what I wrote but glad you got something positive out of it). And I think you have the right idea on being kind to mean people. I do know that a very wise person once said something like this: "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone is fighting some sort of battle." And how true that is, we don't know if someone is angry because their spouse left them with small children to raise, sad because they lost a parent or other loved one, or maybe they just found out they have an incurable disease, etc.

Thank you for properly directing the thread back to topic...sorry to all that I hijacked it

Most of mine end up being less 2-4 minutes too, even when there's a line. Haven't had a problem yet.

I take photos of my boxes immediately after I pack them. I do retake photos of the hazmat box that I reuse a day or two before I do the next shop if the package was refused from the previous shop. If I forget, at least I have the backup old photo from the previous shop to use. I have been known to write myself a note to take a photo of the box and leave it underneath my computer monitor, since I am so accustomed to doing the shops without taking the photos (I've done these shops for over 10 years with 3 different MSCs and it was never a requirement before). I have been lucky to not have forgotten to take a photo so far. I do find it challenging to do the entire shop report on my phone, though. What I generally do is enter all information that I can immediately after leaving the location on the phone app and then waiting until I get home later to go back through it when I can see it fully on my computer monitor to make sure I answered everything correctly and didn't miss anything.

Back in the old days when I first started doing these shops, the MSC who had the client then would mail us the boxes, along with the paper report forms. It's amazing how things have changed in such a seemingly short amount of time!

Yes, but dry goods like rice and beans are considered non-perishable.

One postal employee told me they only consider perishable bakery items like pies. Not cookies and nothing off regular store shelves are perishable.

@MarionS wrote:

That might be a good thing because I've been having trouble finding boxes and it will probably only get worse with the holidays. It seems as though the office supply store is the only place I can find one that doesn't have writing on the top (like 100% recyclable, or the brand), and they don't have any of the smaller boxes, just the 12 x 12 x 9 and I just bought the last two.

Marion,

you can buy them in packs of 25 on Amazon for $7 - $8. I've been buying 6"x6"x4" boxes for reg box shops for $7. The dimweight sized boxes are a little more expensive, and I'm out, but I haven't had to do one in awhile. I buy the 12"x6"x4" boxes for hazmat shops, I still have a half a pack of these.

edit, forgot to quote, sorry

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2016 06:01AM by newbieshop.

@Flash wrote:

Another thought for you. Poly mailers are now allowable for at least the regular shops. I picked up a box of 100 10 x 13 from Amazon for about $8. If I don't have a box I can use one of the poly mailers. They are nice because I can write the addresses with my Sharpie marker before stuffing them. Most of my shops I am sending 'care packages' to my son and it is easy enough to shove a pound and a half of stuff in the envelope, seal it, take my photo and be on my way. Meanwhile the box of white bags can be out of the way in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet rather than having a stack of knocked down boxes behind the file cabinet. Each time I use a bag I recycle the photo of the bill for 100 at $7.99 and charge a whopping big 8 cents for the bag used.

poly mailers are allowed.. im doing my first box shop next mth.. have quite a few queries.. hehehe, wish me luck

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