Disability books are cheaper at Walmart.com
Written: Mar 08 '03
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Walmart and I did not cross paths until I lived in Orlando back in 1995. I ventured into the store only twice in those six months and was not really impressed or maybe the heat was too much to get into a vehicle that lost its air conditioning upon arrival in the State. A year later when driving across country from New Jersey to California I spotted a store from a highway, and stopped in to make an impulsive Easter gift for my one year-old son, who was enjoying our riding adventure. I left New Jersey in 1985 and it turns out a few years later a Walmart popped up in the town I used to shop in.
Here in Los Angeles they are pretty much spread out into the suburbs, thus requiring freeway driving into areas I am unfamiliar with or locations that are simply unsafe in my opinion. But time and again I read reviews here about the store and so I went about utilizing the compare prices feature for some disability related books I wanted to purchase and had started to head over to amazon.com when I went the other route.
Recently my financial situation improved, which enabled me to once again have access to a credit card and not be dependent on paypal to order online and allow me the freedom to pick and choose where to shop. I never seemed to have ink for my printer to order via mail and no access to a fax machine, limiting the ways I could shop online. I noticed at least a dollar or two on many of the books I wanted to purchase now and for the future listed at Walmart.com, thus making each book under the ten dollar mark as well.
I know there are many organizations that I could be shopping through and having a percentage donated to these autism causes, but I wanted to just side step all that extra opening of pop-ups and windows and just get the books that I have wanted for so long. I was especially excited to see My Brother Matthew available at Walmart.com. This is a book for a sibling about his brother who is autistic. Although both my sons are on the Autism spectrum, my almost eight year-old is able to differentiate between the symptoms his brother displays and has the name Matthew, so I thought this was the perfect book for our unique family.
My son also brought home a book from the library about amazing animals that he really liked and had not finished before it was due. We found this and a companion one about dinosaurs listed at Walmart.com and he chose the Dinosaur one for his item. Walmart.com has a feature that I like and have been utilizing for several weeks now. If you decide you do not want an item checked out at this time you can click on to save for later. Upon returning to the site and being notified by name you simply click on cart and check-out and get a listing of the items waiting for purchase.
This made my shopping less stressful and able to locate books over several visits. The next best aspect of the site is how the books section is broken down. When I input a search for autism I got several listings under sub-sections such as educational, biographies, children’s books and parenting to name a few. There were a few that are currently not available, but there is a section where you can insert your email address to be notified when this comes back in stock.
My first visit I had to sign up using my email address and creating a password from 6-11 characters. This is where you access your account and place shipping and billing data to be stored for continued use and access. When you enter the Walmart.com website and click on my account you can post photos here that you have, order and maintain online pharmacy account, view purchase history, check credit card account and order DVD’s.
I have not been bombarded with emails trying to get me to shop or see weekly specials since I started shopping with Walmart.com. The email confirmations seemed to be higher than other places I have shopped at though. I placed my order on Thursday, 2-13-03 at 5:45 and received confirmation email at 5:57 pm. Each of the six books were listed with a separate predicted arrival date, they all happened to be the same. This was listed from 2-19-03 – 2-15-03.
I chose the standard delivery of 3-7 business days costing $8.79 plus the sales tax for the State of California. There was a separate box for each book to note if I wanted gift wrap, but I declined and do not see the price listed on my print outs. The first email contained the order number and offered the tracking method with a link to click. It was noted that another email would be sent when the items have been shipped, at which time the credit card will be billed.
There are also directions in the two page email on how to get to your account and view details or cancel order. On the following evening at 7:17 pm I received another two-page confirmation email with the tracking number for UPS along with the order number informing me the item(s) were shipped. I knew the following week was a holiday so I figured the package would arrive later in the week.
Indeed one week later the UPS driver knocked on the door about three in the afternoon with a box. I was a bit disappointed to find five books and the one I had wanted so badly was not in this shipment. I quickly got online and found what I thought was the tracking number, but since I ordered two books with similar names it turned out I was looking at the tracking number of the items I just received. I was there online at Walmart.com not even seven minutes after delivery and it was already noted that I had just signed for the delivery. One more check of the exact book I did not receive and the tracking noted it was in transit with scheduled delivery for 2-24-03.
This was yet another week away, but it turned out to arrive the following day (2-20-03). The first shipment came in a box that was packed perfectly to fit just the number of books with no extra packaging and easy to open with my hands and fold down for recycling. The one book came in a rather odd shaped box that seemed to be wasteful. Inside the box was the shipping summary with a label for returning and instructions on how to do just that. I like shopping with Walmart.com with the handy drop down boxes to search in my selected areas and once I have placed something in my cart I have the option to continue with my search before finalizing my order for now or a later date.
For toys I can shop by the age, category, clearance or brand. When you view the item you see the listed price as well as the savings by using Walmart.com. I would have never considered making my purchases for specific disability books at Walmart.com had it not been for being a member of Epinions and reading the results of others at this online merchant and physical stores. Plus the feature of the comparing of prices with other online retailers and finding the best price consistently on all the books makes this a merchant I will continue doing business with. The next stop is heading over to sporting goods and health related items. I like that the home page is easy to read, not too flashy and organized in an easy to understand manner with not too many items glaring at me.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bonniesayers
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
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