ferdi1

Well, the country has been on a lockdown – evening clock since December 15 and we were not allowed to go to retail stores anymore. If stores had more than 80% of their balance coming from eatables and drinks, they were allowed to stay open, with very strict rules.

Stores like .... Action, were NOT allowed to be open, as their inventory does carry foods and drinks, but not far enough to be even close to 80%.

For a couple weeks, the government introduced Click & Collect. You had to order online and at least 4 hours later, you were allowed to pick up the product in store. The Action was not open for this, because it did not bring enough business AND their website did not allow to click and eh .... collect.

Since last week, retail stores are allowed to eh ... allow people in their store again, BUT only 1 person every 10 minutes. For a lot of stores, that still does not bring the cash, but Action decided to open up ....... and a lot of people were interested going there again. Action, if you do not know the store is a store that you go to, to actually buy 1 thing and you come home with 10 other things ...... and the original item is not 1 of them ! ! ! It is an amazing store, a lot of junk, but junk you need. You go for a spoon, you come back with motor oil, a jigsaw puzzle, a pyjama and an iPhone charger. All for the total price of 13.99 (not really, but it is cheap) ! ! !

So, every day the store would open “the agenda” for the next day and you could block “YOUR” 10 minutes. Well, not even a minute and the agenda was filled out, to give you an idea how eager people are to return to the store ! ! ! My wife did get her slot the other was happy, walked around with a smile and the smile said enough: I ran into her and the smile made me ask:

Did you get in? ? ?

Smiling from ear to ear, her answer was

YES ! ! !

Good for you honey. A little later I caught making a map of the store and the ideal road to take pass ALL the isles in the shortest amount of time, with all the products in her basket. She had it all planned out and was ready to go.

Made sure she left the house on time, no bad traffic situation, train crossings, traffic lights, she had it all worked out, on another map: the ideal road to the store ! ! !

And there it was the Store:

She was starting to get nervous, I heard this after she came home, as there was only 1 person allowed to enter the store; she took the pictures what was not as easy because it cut down her “search time”.

She was nervous, felt like 10 minutes of free shopping, just loading up the card, but nothing free though. Action called it Click and Collect but it was not really Click and Collect.

So my wife went in and talked with the first Action employee. She was ready to start, 3 minutes till the starting time. She was lucky because the person that had the 10 minutes before her, was already done, so she had more time. She was allowed to start immediately.

But that is where it went wrong, they made her start at a different point in the store and they had a particular walking path in he store. She was a little lost, as her planning, her map was for nothing. Color coding, product prioritisation, time indications, no use whatsoever ! ! !

So she just started, from a safe distance, a lady followed her for possible questions. They actually ended up being a great team and the ladies were laughing a lot ! ! !

5 minutes passed and a warning was heard from the speakers .... OOOOHHHH, only 5 minutes left ! ! ! !

After 10 minutes the client was asked, per speaker, to move along, go to the check out and hand over all the products.

It had been a lot of fun, stressful, but she managed to get all the products from the list ...... and a couple more :–)

It was a lot of fun, when she was sitting in the car, she had a satisfying smile on her face .... and first thing she did when she was at home, set an alarm 11:58 PM, to get ready to book another 10 amazing minutes

STAY SAFE ! ! !