Hello,
I picked up 4 or 5 of these in my area, and I have completed two. I will share my experience with anyone who is thinking of doing one of these:
- Download the HD app to your smartphone (if you have one) and create a shopping list by entering the SKUs provided in the search bar (not the item name); you do not need to create an account within the app to do this. Choose your store and then "Map My List", and it will literally give you aisle and bay locations for each item (and it seems to be in a logical order so you aren't walking back and forth). The app will also give you their # of items in inventory: I wouldn't use this as your official count, but it can be a good way to double check the numbers you observe.
- The app will retain your shopping list, so if you are doing more than one of these, you can change your store location to the new store and it will map your path again in the new location (no need to enter it twice).
- My first one took the longest (about 1.5 hours, all told) because I forgot to count the number of available inventory in each bay, so I had to double back. Do a quick count at each location and jot it down on your physical shopping list so you don't add time in the store. The second one was 40 minutes because the cabinet department was unmanned, but I plan to do the rest within an hour or so.
- The return is...weird...because they didn't give me a bag either time and you're just walking and saying, "Oh, I want to return these and I don't have a receipt," and just standing there to see what they say. I just played it off, saying my husband wanted to be with me because I didn't get the right things, and I acted a bit ditzy when they asked for the receipt.
I would do more of these if I could: $50/hour is nothing to sneeze at (the reporting took literally 10 minutes).
If there is anything else I can advise about, let me know.