Board 8 > A question about grocery stores

(+) Yeah! (+)

I keep on meaning to ask this somewhere. My housemate works phone lines for some grocery chains, and a call type they get normally is asking for stock. I just wonder if that's normal, since I never heard of that before that job.

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pretty much any time I go to a grocery store its not for one specific thing. Even if there was something I wanted to get that might be in low supply, I may as well just check for it when I get there.

so no, probably never

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No. I have called other types of stores to check for stock but not a grocery store.
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Never myself, but I can understand if maybe you are trying to track down a turkey a few days before thanksgiving, or perhaps if you are one of those extreme couponer types you might have an inside line on some products that are either free or nearly free if you combine the right coupons so you'd be checking beforehand to make sure the stock hasn't already been picked clean by people after the same thing.

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I haven't. I don't live especially close to any store so I go on larger, generalized grocery store trips, and if I really want to know about something beforehand there are online catalogs I can search.

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I guess if I needed something specific and uncommon I could see doing that

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i haven't personality but it doesn't seem weird to me

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If I needed something specific and lived in a rural area where the store was far away, I might call.

But I can walk to my store so that doesn't really apply to me.

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My first job was at a grocery store and from my limited time there it's only useful to call around the holidays or if you need free moving boxes.

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Called for a ham around a holiday in the pandemic. Was trying to minimize trips out and the hams weren't showing up for pick up ordering.

My mom was looking for some limited time pumpkin spice coffee creamer last October so I called a few places for her to find a store that had it in stock.
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I've definitely called for specific items. There's a grocery in the area that has an amazing produce/fruit selection, but I never know when the season for certain fruits/veggies start for the store, so I've called to ask if stuff is available yet.

I've also called my regular grocery store looking for certain items to see whether or not I need to go to the bougie-ass grocery store to find it instead.

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Yes, for specialties. Used to be no, before I moved out here, cuz the farmer's market and minimall by my hometown was basically Diagon Alley with some niche shit.

Three times in the past year: one for fresh mint leaves, one for canned water chestnuts, and one just last week for unscented liquid soap. Hilariously, I had the most problem with the soap.

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no but that's a really good idea

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So I get why people would want to check if a store has something before going, but why call instead of checking online?
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Because you can't check online for a lot of stores?
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It's perfectly fine for people to call a store ahead of time and ask if an item is in stock.

It is NOT fine to walk up to a random employee and expect them to have infinite knowledge of every single item in the store. Which is very, very common, sadly.

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I may have once for a certain soda

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I've never done this. I generally do one big grocery shopping trip for the week, and if something's out of stock then I'll just deal.

Big Bob posted...

It's perfectly fine for people to call a store ahead of time and ask if an item is in stock.

It is NOT fine to walk up to a random employee and expect them to have infinite knowledge of every single item in the store. Which is very, very common, sadly.

I don't expect infinite knowledge, but I don't see any harm in asking, especially if it's a large store where I'm unfamiliar with the layout. They might be like "umm idk but if we did have it, it'd be over there in aisles 8-9" and I'm like "ok cool thanks"
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I hate calling people I don't know for help, so I would go there, look around hopelessly for the item, and then leave without ever asking someone who could potentially help me.

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Every once in a great while I might call and ask about a particular item. Maybe I don't want just any turkey, or maybe they stopped carrying something and I want to know if it's coming back.

Drakeryn posted...

I've never done this. I generally do one big grocery shopping trip for the week, and if something's out of stock then I'll just deal.

I don't expect infinite knowledge, but I don't see any harm in asking, especially if it's a large store where I'm unfamiliar with the layout. They might be like "umm idk but if we did have it, it'd be over there in aisles 8-9" and I'm like "ok cool thanks"

This isn't usually how it goes. They like to say "Oh, you don't have it? When is it going to be in stock? You don't know? Can you go find a manager so they can find out?" when there's 10 people waiting in line and the manager isn't going to know either.

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