shopping

The 25-Cent Dividend: A Hockey Billet Dad’s Survival Guide

I wrote this post a few months ago, but as time goes by, it feels almost like yesterday.

With the house filling up with hockey players—all three arrived yesterday—my life has officially relocated to the grocery store. My brain is currently a constant loop of logistical questions:

  • Do I have enough snacks for the kid with the tree nut allergy?
  • Does anyone here survive solely on chocolate milk?
  • Does tortellini count as a “high-performance fuel,” or are we strictly a spaghetti operation?

Between the uncertainty and the sheer volume of food required to fuel teenage athletes, I’ve hit Aldi, Sam’s, Winco, and Costco a combined five times this week. The frequency usually drops once the season gets going and I learn their eating patterns, but for now, I am a professional errand runner.

The Aldi Encounter

My first stop at Aldi this week offered a rare chance to be a decent human being. As I was walking out with my non-bagged groceries (I refuse to pay for bags—it’s the principle of the thing), I saw an older lady parked in a handicapped spot. She was visibly struggling to get out of her car; it was clear she needed something to bear her weight before she could even make it to the cart corral.

As I popped my trunk, I called out, “Just hold on! I’ll bring you my cart as soon as I get it unloaded.”

She looked at me, worried, and replied, “But I don’t have a quarter.”

(Ah, the Aldi quarter—the “annoying” way they force us to return our carts. I get that it saves them from paying someone to chase rogue carts in the parking lot, but I don’t have to like it.)

“Not a problem,” I told her. “Just give me a second to clear this out.”

I backed the cart toward her, handle-first. As she grabbed hold, she sighed, “It is terrible to get old.”

Knowing the truth in that, I just smiled and said, “I’m hoping my kids are there for me when I get there.”

The Payback

Zoom ahead to today.

I walked up to the store, quarter gripped in my hand and ready to claim my cart, only to find one already “checked out.” The previous shopper had left their quarter in the lock.

Now, I could have overanalyzed it, but I chose to take it as a sign. It felt like the carts had orchestrated a small tip for my “General Expenses” fund. I took that shiny coin as a little wink from above—as if God was saying, “I saw what you did the other day. You have your moments!”

If only I could get a few more of those moments… I have a feeling I’m going to need a lot more quarters to get through this hockey season.

Miss-Pinned

As a regular Amazon shopper, Amazon knows where we live. If packages weren’t delivered to our house, it was one of the “account sharers” getting a package. Whenever I would get a delivery email at our Texas home, I would only glance at it casually. If the package was for us, I would know about it. Much of this could change when you move to a new state in a new subdivision.

Right after we moved to our new house, we started ordering items on Amazon. (a combination of “new house” stuff and Christmas purchases) While we were placing our orders, three of our four kids were also placing orders ON THE SAME account. Of course, once you place an order, items start showing up on your front doorstep. Or, at least, they were supposed to.

The deliveries at the new address were not consistent. The “delivery” email would say something had arrived. When it wasn’t at our front door, I assumed it was a delivery one of my kids had placed. The deliveries to the new house weren’t the sprinkles we would have expected. There was one day when a series of 3 deliveries showed up on the same day. The corresponding email was not available. Despite these inconsistencies, the new TV delivery day was when we knew. The email arrived with an Amazon link to a picture that was NOT of our house. The street map showed a delivery to an address that was NOT ours but was designated as our physical address.

Despite the unpacking I needed to do, this issue became my new priority. What actions were part of solving this problem?

  1. I immediately let Amazon know the delivery address was the incorrect one. I did this on their website.
  2. After running my errands, I drove home so I could go past the house that Amazon had “pinned” as our house. It was not even on our street. If our street would have been extended north a quarter of a mile, it would have ran through a curb, a house, and a fence before arriving at the the shop or our “house”. With a shop and other out buildings, I didn’t feel comfortable walking around on their property.
  3. Barely after I arrived home, there was a knock at the door. The visitor was the owner of the house that had benefited from the “miss-pinning.” He informed me of a few things:
    • They had received numerous Amazon packages addressed to us. On at least one occasion his wife had made a “delivery” to our house of misdelivered packages.
    • They tried to call Amazon and report the problem. Since they did not order the items and were only the recipients, Amazon told them, “They are gifts.” Unfortunately, this went no further at Amazon. Because of the pinning, Amazon thought all was good.
    • While I was talking to our visitor, his wife called him. The Amazon driver was trying to make an additional delivery to their address. After some haggling, the driver agreed to bring over the TV and the other smaller items that were part of today’s deliveries.
    • After our visitor left, I was on the phone with Amazon for nearly an hour. After my wife and I went through the unreceived orders, we determined which items hadn’t been received. With the exception of one item, Amazon created new orders for all of the items we hadn’t received. (They gave a refund on the unavailable item.)
  4. The next few days were a little stressful. The problem wasn’t solved.
    • After receiving emails of delivered items that did not arrive at our address, I called Amazon again. This call was the, “Let’s pull up a map and let me show you how the deliveries are close but wrong.” After walking a very helpful Indian customer service person through the present address pin and the accurate address pin, I had hoped the issue would be resolved within 24 hours
    • There were two additional deliveries to the wrong address as well as an Amazon delivery driver who wasn’t fooled by the “false pinning”. The delivery team realized the pinned address was inaccurate. And, thankfully, they realized the Amazon system may not be infallible.

How did we get into this problem? The only thing I can figure out is my early casualness. If I would have raised flags early on and let Amazon know the address was the wrong one, it would likely avoided all of these issues. The more deliveries made to the wrong address the more “solid” the address was within Amazon’s system. While I don’t plan on moving again soon, I won’t forget my miss-pinning lesson.