The Blog @ Shopping-Bargains

Last week I experienced firsthand the Sears.com “buy online and pick up in-store” option and wanted to share that story. I am a big fan of Craftsman tools and know that the best time to buy them is typically around holidays like Father’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. During these events many are on sale and some are actually at half-price for short periods of time!

I don’t have a full-size Sears store in my town and didn’t have time to drive 30 miles to the nearest one. Given that I like to shop online anyway, I knew I could order via their website and take advantage of the current half-price Craftsman tool sale before it ended in a few hours. So I ordered an $80 tool but paid only $40! That was exciting enough. But it gets better. If I had ordered $9 more I could have enjoyed free shipping on mailable products but I only purchased that tool then so I opted for the free “pick up in-store” option.

Within a few days I received an email notice that my tool was ready for pickup and all I had to do was bring a printout of that email and my credit card I used to place the order.  I like to combine trips to save time and gas and I knew I was headed in that direction later in the week so I waited until then to go.

When I arrived at the Sears store, they had some specially-marked parking places where I could sit in my vehicle and using my cell phone call in my order and they would deliver it to my car.  I thought that was an ideal option for many people with small children or with disabilities.

I opted to walk in and use their kiosk to start the delivery process.  I scanned the barcode on my email and swiped my credit card for confirmation. Their system immediately displayed on their big screen that my order was being retrieved. A few minutes later a store clerk arrived and did a visual confirmation of my email and I signed for the delivery.  He handed me my tool and I was out. The whole process took less than 5 minutes and I only had to walk about 10 feet into the store!

As I was thinking about this later, I came up with some other advantages to using this system.

• I like knowing my product is in stock. That means no wasted trips and time looking for a product that may or may not be there.
• The product is reserved for me. I have paid for it in advance so it is pulled off the shelf and ready for me.  I don’t even have to go look for it and carry it to the checkout. It is brought to me.
• I can take advantage of the sale prices even if I cannot go to the store during the limited duration of the sale. That’s probably my favorite reason.

The bottom line, Sears did a great job convincing me that their buy online and pick up in store system works well and is worth using. It is a very smooth system and one I will probably repeat again and again for products I know I want to order.

Last 3 Posts by Mike Allen

• Meet Me at BlogWorld Expo - August 26th, 2008
• Enter the Shoebuy.com Fashionable Child Contest - August 25th, 2008
• Shopping-Bargains.com Featured in Deals.Alltop.com - August 17th, 2008