This is interesting. My list is all produce except 2 CDA items. I'm scared to stray from the list! I like these jobs and would like to stay on the list to do them.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

@rmkeith wrote:

Question from a Whole Foods newbie. I am thankful I got on a WF shop list and have several shops this month! Mine, however seem different than everyone else. Mine are called Bagging Compliance Shops and are delivery. I have 6 categories with only 2 specific choices each. I order 1 from each category and 2 from the CDA category. The report is only about the types of bagging, types of bags and quality of food with a few pics. I specified I only wanted to do delivery shops because WF isn't convenient to me and I have a full-time job.

Are most of your shops pick-up? I wonder if that is why I see so many categories and so much more variety of choices discussed in this thread.

It seems orginal that most people have are delivery/pickup but it's mostly about temperature and bagging. There are nine specific items that have to be shopped and most are dairy. The guidelines show a couple of items that are acceptable but it seems through trial and error some here have figured out how to push the envelope a little with the choices.

This was from the very beginning. Keep reading and you'll see there have been changes.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

@eyelove2shop wrote:

@sandyf wrote:

Just was approved but have a few questions...can I order my temp probe with other personal items from amazon to avoid a delivery fee? Can I sub out similar foods that are not 365 if the 365 is available but I prefer a different brand? So for instance the list of cheeses are pretty plain, can I order a different 8oz cheese which is more exotic? Or do i need to get permission to do that.
MY job is listed as $35 but I was told the reimbursement has gone up to $50, If that includes the delivery fee plus tip then it is still a $35 reimbursement for the ordered items.

reread the shop instructions. There are first choice options and second choice. Second choice should only be used if first choice isn't available. This shop has very specific ordering guidelines.

I have had a different experience. I reached out to a scheduler to ask about ordering a different brand because I was looking for plain yougurt and it wasn't available in the 365 brand. The response I received was, it doesn't matter what the brand is, as long as the size is the same on the guidelines.

The guidelines are very specific but many have reporting here of having lots of success with getting different items. In my last order, three of my items were non 365 and I got body wash instead of the listed options. I'm a rules person and would have never had the thought to try ordering other brands if others here had not shared their experiences. It seems to be YMMV as to what the editors have issues with, some have said english muffins and laundry detergent while others have ordered these items just fine.

For pickup shops where there is no delivery fee and no tip, it seems like they will reimburse up to $50 so you can possibly have room in the budget for organic items or possibly that exotic cheese!

@eyelove2shop wrote:

This was from the very beginning. Keep reading and you'll see there have been changes.

So strange because I always click on new and that's the comment it went to. Obviously it wasn't new! I deleted my coment.

I thought it was werid considering there have been so many reports of subs but now it makes sense. Oh well.

Just finally got back into these shops after almost a year but now I am doing pick up shops. My first one is upcoming so I will see how it goes. I sure hope I get more than a one day window. What if you have something else planned on that day?

If anyone who does pick up shops is reading I am doing my first pick up. Are we supposed to tip the person who brings the food out to the car? If so how much? Thanks

I do pick up. The guidelines do not say anything about tipping when doing a pick-up shop. I have not and have never been dinged. You have a little more wiggle room on spending because there is no delivery fee.

@sandyf wrote:

If anyone who does pick up shops is reading I am doing my first pick up. Are we supposed to tip the person who brings the food out to the car? If so how much? Thanks

@sandyf wrote:

If anyone who does pick up shops is reading I am doing my first pick up. Are we supposed to tip the person who brings the food out to the car? If so how much? Thanks

I do pick-up shops at WF. I have not been tipping -- honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me.

I just did my first pick up order and it took me much longer than it should have so I could use some tips. Taking the temps in a small car was awkward but I think i can do better next time. However when it came to inputting everything it took me over an hour as I first had to label all the screenshots and save them and then do the same with the photos. Attaching and labeling took a long time. I used a desktop. I have never done a report on an app on a smartphone but if that is how people enter this shop in just 15 minutes I need to learn how. So if that is the quick method can someone tell me with some detail since I have not done it how to do that? I would like to just enter the temps maybe and the photos that way and complete the rest of the shop on my desktop.

@sandyf wrote:

I just did my first pick up order and it took me much longer than it should have so I could use some tips. Taking the temps in a small car was awkward but I think i can do better next time. However when it came to inputting everything it took me over an hour as I first had to label all the screenshots and save them and then do the same with the photos. Attaching and labeling took a long time. I used a desktop. I have never done a report on an app on a smartphone but if that is how people enter this shop in just 15 minutes I need to learn how. So if that is the quick method can someone tell me with some detail since I have not done it how to do that? I would like to just enter the temps maybe and the photos that way and complete the rest of the shop on my desktop.

Okay, why do you need to label all the photos and screenshots? I don't do that; perhaps you could skip it.

I got a tip here to make a grid in my notebook. I enter the temps, dates and for meat, weight and price. After taking pics of the bags I take temps and write dates in my little grid. I also photograph price of beef while doing this.

I enter screenshots and data on the computer when I get home, then I save the report. Next, I get on my phone and upload the codes, bag contents, pic of group and pic of beef.

Hopefully this helps!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2022 01:39PM by olympia tennenbaum.

I did 1st shop on a laptop. Now I do only on tablet or phone.

I load what I can before pick-up or delivery (I have both), e.g. order and pick-up/delivery date, order #, how many items ordered, weight of proteins ordered, items ordered screenshot, any issues with ordering question - things like that, anything that can be answered before receiving the order.

As another poster mentioned, I do the grid also with colums for experation date, items that need temp taken, and weight and price for proteins.

My order: Take pics of bag and then the inside -- in piece # order (outside - inside) so I don't confuse what was in each bag. While removing the items from the bags, write down the expiration date on grid, price and wt for proteins. Take pic of the meat counter labels, take temps and then all item pic. Finish report.

I upload pics directly from tablet or phone w/o naming. I do sometimes crop depending on what all is showing up on the screenshots primarily.

@sandyf wrote:

I just did my first pick up order and it took me much longer than it should have so I could use some tips. Taking the temps in a small car was awkward but I think i can do better next time. However when it came to inputting everything it took me over an hour as I first had to label all the screenshots and save them and then do the same with the photos. Attaching and labeling took a long time. I used a desktop. I have never done a report on an app on a smartphone but if that is how people enter this shop in just 15 minutes I need to learn how. So if that is the quick method can someone tell me with some detail since I have not done it how to do that? I would like to just enter the temps maybe and the photos that way and complete the rest of the shop on my desktop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2022 08:44AM by Zek.

Another issue I ran into...anyone else find this? There is no deli in the store I shopped (pick up). I suspected so when I put my order in and had issues with the report as I had to order something that seemed like it may have been from the deli and I was able to order a half pound. There were no deli items at all but I found a meat that was a half pound. Turned out when I called the store today they do not have a deli and that one item is prepackaged in the store with varying weights. My order was approved but there was an issue with the input of the report and the last question regarding changing prices due to difference in weight. I had both differences from both meat items but neither came from the deli. But i checked both off since at that point i was not sure there was no deli. Then I was only asked for a pic of one label, not the one they wanted.
So my question is if anyone shops a store without a deli, what are you ordering instead? I have sent out emails to the msc regarding this but so far the answer is to do what I can. Hopefully I will get a more detailed answer but wondering if anyone else has come across this and how they order that item and then answer the differing price question. .

Not quite sure what you mean by a deli? Do you have deli counter items in your order sheet? If you're referring to the 0.5# ground beef and 2# chicken requirements, those are from the Meat Counter.

A recent editor told me that the chicken does not have to come from the meat/butcher counter, and can be prepacked.

My store has been out of various ground beef and raw chicken options on a regular basis. In those situations, I place orders for...ground beef: any 0.5# ground beef , 1# ground pork sausage, #1 stew beef or chuck, whichever is cheaper. And then just make note that I made the substitution in the issues section. On the chicken, I've ordered turkey legs from the butcher counter before, and also make note of the issue. No issues from the editor.

For the survey...I do what Zek does. Photo of each bag outer, then inner. Unpack everything into the passenger seat. Take picture of everything. Take notes on each item (exp/temp, +weight and time in proteins). Take picts of butcher counter labels. As I'm done with each item, I repack into a bag.

My phone's photo roll syncs with a cloud photo album. I use Windows' "snagit" app to zoom in an clip each QR code, and otherwise just drag and drop into the survey. The photos are all sorted in chronological order so I know which bag outer goes with which bag inner.

Hope this helps.

@sandyf wrote:

Another issue I ran into...anyone else find this? There is no deli in the store I shopped (pick up). I suspected so when I put my order in and had issues with the report as I had to order something that seemed like it may have been from the deli and I was able to order a half pound. There were no deli items at all but I found a meat that was a half pound. Turned out when I called the store today they do not have a deli and that one item is prepackaged in the store with varying weights. My order was approved but there was an issue with the input of the report and the last question regarding changing prices due to difference in weight. I had both differences from both meat items but neither came from the deli. But i checked both off since at that point i was not sure there was no deli. Then I was only asked for a pic of one label, not the one they wanted.
So my question is if anyone shops a store without a deli, what are you ordering instead? I have sent out emails to the msc regarding this but so far the answer is to do what I can. Hopefully I will get a more detailed answer but wondering if anyone else has come across this and how they order that item and then answer the differing price question. .

I did finally hear back from the editor about the lack of what I called a deli counter but I guess was the butcher shop. The store I am shopping does not have WF ground anything. They have other brands of beef in packages ranging from one pound to 4 pounds. The only meat I found in a tray pack was the stew beef where I could order a half pound. The editor got back to me and said the way to tell if a tray pack is from the "deli"
section is if the label says the store name on it, not just Whole Foods. But unless their selection changes in future it seems like I will be getting stew meat every time.
Not sure how to snag the photos but I will explore that.

I did several Whole Foods/Amazon Fresh delivery shops in late Nov and early Dec. This was my first time doing the shops and they were all approved so I guess I did them right! I'm curious if I will stay on the list for future shops. I emailed the assigner a couple of weeks ago and told him I would like to continue doing these, but haven't heard back. Has anyone received any assignments for January? Anybody know when they usually start assigning?

Hello rmkeith, This is only my take on what is going on and I have no idea if I am correct. I was an original shopper on this project back in the beginning of 2022. It was billed as a one year project. It also said you needed to do one to four per month. I was not able to do 3 or 4 a month and evidently my scheduler, who is very nice by the way, wanted someone to do it more often so I was not given any more assignments. As the 2022 year wound down around the end of November I started to see ads for this same job for 2023, I expect that some of the shoppers are continuing for another year but others are not interested in doing it for an additional year. I took a job in early December but my first assignment was scheduled for January. So in your case I am thinking perhaps you applied for a job where at your store the 2022 person stopped shopping it in November. I do not know if they are shopping all stores again for 2023 but I have seen openings for the stores around me.
Bottom line I would continue to try to contact your scheduler. Some have been very busy over the holidays. I found that going thru the contact us on the website is better than sending an email to the schedulers email address directly. Check to see what your score was. These do get scored 1-10 so make sure you got a decent score too. Good luck.

Thank you! I didn't actually apply for the WF shops in the board. I just learned who the scheduler was and emailed him directly in late October to let him know I would be interested. He contacted me in mid-November and asked me if I could take several jobs starting the next day. He ended up giving me 14 jobs and a couple of weeks later contacted me to see if I could complete seven jobs in 7 days! It may be that I was never on the official list but just picking up some dropped jobs. All but 1 of my scores was 10/10 and that one was 9/10. I'll try going through the contact route in the website.

@sandyf wrote:

Hello rmkeith, This is only my take on what is going on and I have no idea if I am correct. I was an original shopper on this project back in the beginning of 2022. It was billed as a one year project. It also said you needed to do one to four per month. I was not able to do 3 or 4 a month and evidently my scheduler, who is very nice by the way, wanted someone to do it more often so I was not given any more assignments. As the 2022 year wound down around the end of November I started to see ads for this same job for 2023, I expect that some of the shoppers are continuing for another year but others are not interested in doing it for an additional year. I took a job in early December but my first assignment was scheduled for January. So in your case I am thinking perhaps you applied for a job where at your store the 2022 person stopped shopping it in November. I do not know if they are shopping all stores again for 2023 but I have seen openings for the stores around me.
Bottom line I would continue to try to contact your scheduler. Some have been very busy over the holidays. I found that going thru the contact us on the website is better than sending an email to the schedulers email address directly. Check to see what your score was. These do get scored 1-10 so make sure you got a decent score too. Good luck.

I just did my first report for 2023 yesterday. The only thing that changed as far as I could tell were some additional questions about the brands ordered.

I was almost going to cancel my Prime account which expires this month but these WF shops are covering enough groceries that it's worth it to keep. I was also able to donate tons of cleaning supplies to charity drives. I wish there were more but my area must have all of the shoppers covered because they aren't on the boards anymore.

I did more than a dozen shops in Nov/Dec (many on short notice and back to back to help out the assignor) and all were approved and 10/10 except one 9/10. I didn't get any this month! I even emailed the assignor twice and got no response.

@rmkeith wrote:

I did more than a dozen shops in Nov/Dec (many on short notice and back to back to help out the assignor) and all were approved and 10/10 except one 9/10. I didn't get any this month! I even emailed the assignor twice and got no response.

It sounds like you were just an end of year helper rather than being assigned a shop. I think most of us have one location we shop 2-4 times a month.

Thank makes sense, but makes me sad nonetheless! If I bailed them out, I would have hoped they'd throw me a bone. Congrats to those of you who are the regular shoppers!

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

@rmkeith wrote:

I did more than a dozen shops in Nov/Dec (many on short notice and back to back to help out the assignor) and all were approved and 10/10 except one 9/10. I didn't get any this month! I even emailed the assignor twice and got no response.

It sounds like you were just an end of year helper rather than being assigned a shop. I think most of us have one location we shop 2-4 times a month.

I would choose the one location where your home is in the delivery zip code as they will only use people who live within the range of a store. They may have made an exception at the end of the year. For pick up jobs which I think are for locations that do not deliver it does not need to be in the store's delivery area. In my area there are five or so stores within 5 miles but only one delivers to my address. That is the only one I can shop for delivery. So do a little research into which stores you can get delivery from where you live or a friends address or whatever They will not assign you to a store if it is not delivering to your address.

Thank you! My job were delivery jobs. In the beginning they had me order from WF but 2-3 shops in told me the instructions were wrong and had me change to ordering from Amazon Fresh. I was able to get deliveries from both. I'll try to stay in contact with the assignor and maybe pick up some more one-off jobs until there is an opening in the regular rotation.

The more I know the more - the more I know! Thanks!

@sandyf wrote:

I would choose the one location where your home is in the delivery zip code as they will only use people who live within the range of a store. They may have made an exception at the end of the year. For pick up jobs which I think are for locations that do not deliver it does not need to be in the store's delivery area. In my area there are five or so stores within 5 miles but only one delivers to my address. That is the only one I can shop for delivery. So do a little research into which stores you can get delivery from where you live or a friends address or whatever They will not assign you to a store if it is not delivering to your address.

rmkeith ..The instructions have always said to order thru Amazon Fresh and I have been in since the beginning. Perhaps they had special instructions for your clean up 2022 jobs. And I think they prefer Amazon Prime members as we do not need to pay for delivery so if you do not have an amazon prime membership it might be worthwhile to get one or to "borrow" one from someone willing to let you use their password. Or indicate you have one available and then be willing to buy a membership if given the job on an ongoing basis.

Thanks!

I am a Prime member and they actually told me they gave me the wrong instructions! Thankfully they paid for the WF jobs and then provided me with revised instructions for Amazon Fresh. Maybe I'll get to do some clean up at the end of this year!

@sandyf wrote:

rmkeith ..The instructions have always said to order thru Amazon Fresh and I have been in since the beginning. Perhaps they had special instructions for your clean up 2022 jobs. And I think they prefer Amazon Prime members as we do not need to pay for delivery so if you do not have an amazon prime membership it might be worthwhile to get one or to "borrow" one from someone willing to let you use their password. Or indicate you have one available and then be willing to buy a membership if given the job on an ongoing basis.

@sandyf wrote:

rmkeith ..The instructions have always said to order thru Amazon Fresh and I have been in since the beginning. Perhaps they had special instructions for your clean up 2022 jobs. And I think they prefer Amazon Prime members as we do not need to pay for delivery so if you do not have an amazon prime membership it might be worthwhile to get one or to "borrow" one from someone willing to let you use their password. Or indicate you have one available and then be willing to buy a membership if given the job on an ongoing basis.

You bought up the delivery being free if we have prime. Am I missing something? I always get charged a 9.95 delivery fee. I get reimbursed for it with no issue but is it not supposed to be charged since I have prime?

I have been doing pick up lately but when I did delivery I did not pay the fee. Make sure you follow the directions closely that tell you how to start the order. When you put in the order you need to make sure you are on your Amazon prime account page, not on the Whole Foods page. For pick up my store charges a pick up fee if the order is under $35. This will be reimbursed as well but if you add a few pennies to the order there will be no fee. Check with your scheduler.

@sandyf wrote:

I have been doing pick up lately but when I did delivery I did not pay the fee. Make sure you follow the directions closely that tell you how to start the order. When you put in the order you need to make sure you are on your Amazon prime account page, not on the Whole Foods page. For pick up my store charges a pick up fee if the order is under $35. This will be reimbursed as well but if you add a few pennies to the order there will be no fee. Check with your scheduler.

Ahhhh!! I always use thé Whole Foods page and I’ve been none the wiser! Thank you so much

Did anyone else automatically get signed up for the round of shops for this year? I thought maybe the scheduler would’ve asked if I wanted to keep going because it has been a year since the program started

I did, but I didn't consider that odd. We didn't sign an agreement for a finite number of months, so I don't know why they would want to poll everyone again, when they would be a lot of work for them, and we can opt out at any time anyway.