(no subject)
Apr. 8th, 2010 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaWe usually have our groceries delivered. The delivery charge ($7-12, depending on how much we buy and when we order) is more than worth the savings in time and hassle. Usually. (Lately they've been giving us some trouble.)
Last night our delivery was more than an hour late. I was pretty annoyed, because we had scheduled our delivery window to fall in between when Michael came home from work and when he had to leave for a meeting at church. Instead the groceries wound up arriving when I was alone with both kids. It took the driver forever to bring them into the house, and when I went into the pantry after he left, it was so full that I could hardly open the refrigerator door. Huh.
I started to shift things around. Right away I came upon a giant supersaver 5lb package of boneless chicken breasts. We didn't order that. Then I noticed a head of lettuce. We didn't order that either. I started to sort the bags. Sure enough, the driver had delivered our order and half a dozen bags of someone else's order. Specifically, their perishables.
As soon as I realized we had some of the wrong groceries I called Safeway's 800 number to tell them to turn the driver around. He'd only been gone about five minutes. She came back to tell me that the driver said he didn't have time to come back, so oh well.
"Well, I've got about fifty dollars worth of someone else's meat, here," I said.
"Really?" Her voice faltered.
I started adding up. "Fifteen-dollar package of chicken breasts, here's a ten-dollar package of ground beef, two pounds of bologna, some pork sausage, bacon, link sausages..."
"Um," she said. "Do you think you could store the groceries and we'll pick it up tomorrow?"
I explained that on grocery day my fridge is pretty much full. She wound up saying that she'd see if the operations manager could order the driver back to pick it up, and otherwise they'd just have to take the loss and I could donate the food to someone.
I managed, with difficulty, to wedge the most perishable stuff into the fridge, and went to put the kids to bed. When I came down, there was a phone message from Safeway. They had been unable to reach the driver. Could I please call them back to schedule a time when they could send a driver in the morning.
What would you do?
They schedule their drivers with a two-hour window. Two hours that I'd be waiting around for their driver to fix their mistake - if the driver wasn't running late like last night's driver. Plus, I think it's totally disgusting from a food-hygiene-and-safety perspective that they would consider taking back and selling to someone else food that had been out of their possession and stored in a customer's home under unknown conditions. Seriously, as their customer? The idea that they would put this food back on the shelf so as not to lose $50 makes me not want to eat their food anymore.
I did not call them back. Instead I called My Sister's Place, a homeless women's and children's day center across the street from my church. Yes, they take fresh food donations. Yes, they would be delighted to accept anything I can give them. I'll pack the stranger's groceries up with some leftover baby food Colin isn't going to eat, and drop it off this afternoon. And I will feel guiltless about it.
Edited to add: Safeway called back this morning to schedule a pickup, and when I brought up the food safety issue they said that they can't sell food once it's been out of their store at all. So they would've picked it up only to throw it out. Whew.
Last night our delivery was more than an hour late. I was pretty annoyed, because we had scheduled our delivery window to fall in between when Michael came home from work and when he had to leave for a meeting at church. Instead the groceries wound up arriving when I was alone with both kids. It took the driver forever to bring them into the house, and when I went into the pantry after he left, it was so full that I could hardly open the refrigerator door. Huh.
I started to shift things around. Right away I came upon a giant supersaver 5lb package of boneless chicken breasts. We didn't order that. Then I noticed a head of lettuce. We didn't order that either. I started to sort the bags. Sure enough, the driver had delivered our order and half a dozen bags of someone else's order. Specifically, their perishables.
As soon as I realized we had some of the wrong groceries I called Safeway's 800 number to tell them to turn the driver around. He'd only been gone about five minutes. She came back to tell me that the driver said he didn't have time to come back, so oh well.
"Well, I've got about fifty dollars worth of someone else's meat, here," I said.
"Really?" Her voice faltered.
I started adding up. "Fifteen-dollar package of chicken breasts, here's a ten-dollar package of ground beef, two pounds of bologna, some pork sausage, bacon, link sausages..."
"Um," she said. "Do you think you could store the groceries and we'll pick it up tomorrow?"
I explained that on grocery day my fridge is pretty much full. She wound up saying that she'd see if the operations manager could order the driver back to pick it up, and otherwise they'd just have to take the loss and I could donate the food to someone.
I managed, with difficulty, to wedge the most perishable stuff into the fridge, and went to put the kids to bed. When I came down, there was a phone message from Safeway. They had been unable to reach the driver. Could I please call them back to schedule a time when they could send a driver in the morning.
What would you do?
They schedule their drivers with a two-hour window. Two hours that I'd be waiting around for their driver to fix their mistake - if the driver wasn't running late like last night's driver. Plus, I think it's totally disgusting from a food-hygiene-and-safety perspective that they would consider taking back and selling to someone else food that had been out of their possession and stored in a customer's home under unknown conditions. Seriously, as their customer? The idea that they would put this food back on the shelf so as not to lose $50 makes me not want to eat their food anymore.
I did not call them back. Instead I called My Sister's Place, a homeless women's and children's day center across the street from my church. Yes, they take fresh food donations. Yes, they would be delighted to accept anything I can give them. I'll pack the stranger's groceries up with some leftover baby food Colin isn't going to eat, and drop it off this afternoon. And I will feel guiltless about it.
Edited to add: Safeway called back this morning to schedule a pickup, and when I brought up the food safety issue they said that they can't sell food once it's been out of their store at all. So they would've picked it up only to throw it out. Whew.
