where are the sample people?

We ran errands yesterday.

One of the errands was a grocery run to Sam's Club. (Yes, we shop at Sam's Club - an identification mark of being a large family...lol).

Silly though it may seem, the highlight for us in shopping at Sam's, was the samples. In particular, the people that hand out the samples. Yesterday no one, no one was handing out samples! There was not a sample to be found. Which was very odd, we thought, since Friday through Sunday are the busiest days for samples.

After a while we actually saw a couple of the ladies who usually hand out the samples. They were shopping, too. Um...shopping?

Wait, why aren't you doing samples today? Where is everyone? Those were the questions we posed to them. Well, come to find out, they were laid off! What?! Laid off?!

Yes, apparently, Sam's Club's profits were down and they have decided to lay off their typically elderly, friendly sample people and replace them with "trained" professionals. Whatever.

They think profits are down now? Wait until they lose additional sales and even customers. Did you know that you can go to the Sam's Club website, place an order, and then just go pick it up? It's called Click 'n' Pull. I think that's our next option.

Yes, I know they may not notice our drop in spending. We loved to go into Sam's Club and walk around to all the samples. Not that they were so great or anything (but they were usually good). But, the people handing them out were so friendly. They are our friends. We would spend more time talking to them than actually eating the samples. They knew us and we knew them. (Well, most people did recognize us when they saw us coming. :) )

Dot always did their pizza that you can eat there (we always did) or take it home. Vince was a favorite; we always looked for her, even if she wasn't doing a food sample. My husband could talk to John for an hour if we let him. Shirley and Barbara always had a kind word to say. One of the ladies passed away last year, and we still miss her. I could list so many more.

We would more often than not eat lunch at the cafe after whetting our appetites with the samples. We sometimes bought the item that was being given out as a sample. I would guess that 90% of the time we bought something that was not on our list.

Now? Probably not. Yesterday was just missing something. No friendly sample people (except the two we ran into shopping). No samples. No extra food. We did eat there, but it just wasn't the same.

Click 'n' Pull, here we come!


Until next time...