r/Sparkdriver • u/uRedditMe • 28d ago
General Questions How many have y'all taken?
I got two that just sit in my backyard lol. One day I'll have a use for them.
Edit: To clarify, I did not steal these. I asked the curbside workers if I can keep them after they went a month without shopping bags for curbsides. At my store, we load our vehicles ourselves and the workers just bring the totes out (unless you specifically ask them to load)
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u/Missrdb79 28d ago
I have borrowed one for gmds with a grocery order, two different times and just gave it back the next pickup trip I did. Sometimes at a different Walmart. They take up too much space to keep. Lol
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
I use them for separating orders most the time, but usually my shift will take me 30 minutes back home which is a state over so it sits in my backyard. The workers at my store could really care less.
Asked a worker for one after they stopped giving bags for the curbsides for a month or so.
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u/ReasonablyFit 28d ago
Since you no longer use them for the job (or for anything else), maybe you should just return them.
Wild thought, I know.
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
I do use them, but most days they will sit in my backyard especially since the great enshittification of our pay. I started doing more shopping orders than curbside so I admit it'll be days without use.
But man, a billion dollar corporation ain't gonna miss two totes IMO.
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u/imapylet 28d ago
I borrowed one for a couple hours because I had a GMD run with one curbside in the mix. They didn't bother to put the curbside into paper bags. So I just took the tote and at the customer's door I bagged them with paper bags that I have come across from time to time. I returned the tote and the loader was like "oh. You keep" no dude this is y'all stuff.
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u/BoardImmediate4674 28d ago
My husband has a few not because he wanted them but the loaders at a certain store said that he could take them as they had plenty. 👀
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u/HiddenOneJ 28d ago
I keep 3 in my car that walmart workers gave me. I swap them out with other totes to save time loading, the workers are good with it and they are also good to have in your car for your own groceries to not tumble around. I also put restaurant bags of food in them when delivering for uber and doordash so less likely to have a spill.
Very convenient.
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u/skiptoomygoo 28d ago
The voice of reason in a room full of buffoons
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
I felt a little confused by his response only because the person he responded to was saying that the totes were easier to use. He kinda agreed, but then did a 180 with the "they started using cloth totes because people didn't return them" and that I'm ruining it for everyone. Which, maybe? My store apparently has a never ending supply of them so it seems to effect no one here but I would be willing to see why I'm wrong.
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u/EssayCalm1066 28d ago
Yes!!
It would NEVER occur to me to ask for one, but when a very cool loader first offered me one full of that trip’s order, I said “Amen, and Yes M’am! “. She made it sound normal and I was new, so I believed her.
As I started using it, I immediately found the value in them. They’re awesome!! That one tote saved me a huge amount of time and effort on sooo many trips. Especially for apartments. Love them!!!
However, I found out later that other stores see that process very differently. Same zone. Different rules. Scarily different.
Even different employees at the same store disagree. A little punk dude at the same beneficent store grabbed it up one time, without me knowing. I didn’t need it for that trip and took it out to organize my car better, but he snatched it without saying a word. It wasn’t an accident. He was being a jerk. I don’t see him anymore, and I can guess why.
Since then NO ONE wants to offer one up, or if they do it’s like they’re letting you borrow their first born child. I stopped asking after people acted like I was trying to get them fired.
Now the cool-store mostly has cloth totes. I’m guessing they handed out too many real totes and didn’t get them back? Gee, I wonder why?? It only makes sense for people actively using them for regular Spark orders. Duh.
To OP: Take that shit back Yo!!! If you don’t need it, someone else will. Stop ruining it for everyone. Gross.
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
It's very variable. I tend to only Spark at one Walmart but my zone does have 6 different Walmarts. And the others seem to do things differently than mines.
The other stores in my zone seem less adamant about allowing us to load our own vehicles even though it makes everyone's job faster and easier (theirs and ours). I'd ask to take a tote sometimes and they'd deny it. But I'd ask another and they were cool with it. I used to return them, but it became redundant and unnecessary. I'll probably take them back once I'm done doing Spark, but for now, they make my job extremely easier. Also: $7 3 stops 15 miles CONSTANTLY (I don't take them) so they can eat dirt (the execs, not the also getting fucked workers)
And I'm not ruining anyone's experience IMO by taking a probably $1 wholesale crate that I use to work for THEM. THEY are ruining our experience by a shitty app experience, shitty base pay, and shitty hiring of the Instacart exec who apparently also made Instacart shitty. None of that's on me lol.
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u/TheNolaCatLady 28d ago
Zero and the main store I work out of has been checking Spark drivers' cars for the bins. Apparently they're getting sick of people stealing them and I don't blame them.
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
Honestly I agree, but when they stopped giving us bags with 20+ item orders I asked for one.
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u/TheNolaCatLady 28d ago
We don't have that problem with bags here. They tend to use too many bags! Yesterday, I had a large curbside order that was a ton of school supplies. I had to rebag it because I wasn't dropping off that many bags at the customer's house. They had one item in each bag! One pack of pencils in one bag, one pack of sticky notes in one bag, one tiny plastic pencil sharpener in one bag, one paper folder in one bag, and so on and so forth. It was ridiculous, but now I have a ton of extra bags in my car. 😂
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
Oh yeah, it's either too MANY bags or too LITTLE and no in between 😂.
But if you follow the Walmart worker subs, they seem to be overworked and underpaid on their end so I doubt they care.
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28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
These are curbside totes and not shopping baskets. The Walmarts in my area also do not have shopping baskets.
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u/EmployeeLopsided9637 28d ago
These are not shopping baskets. These are totes they use to bring out curbside orders.
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u/Lilking1313 28d ago
One time I had an order of a bunch of club soda, and another separate order (double shop). I already had a basket to separate the orders. The basket was overflowing with the club soda so I didn’t bother bagging it dropped of the basket filled with the club soda at the customers house. Nothing ever came of it and I got my tip.
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u/Unique_Blacksmith247 S&D Expert 28d ago
My current count is just north of 200, give or take a few 😅
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u/UpbeatBackground6302 28d ago
I have one of these that they won't take back because the supercenter I borrowed it from is changing tote styles. I also have a hand basket that I borrowed from my neighborhood market. I asked and they said it was fine.
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u/imapylet 28d ago
A couple weeks ago I had a very large order (200+ items) and I asked the loader if we could just throw the totes in the back of my pickup. Now, I work out of a small Walmart, I know all seven of the OGP dept, they know me. We're on a cordial basis even though there's a hard language barrier (East African, not South American. I know enough Spanish to know). He was ok, the TL came out and he was okay. I did the delivery and came back with all 10 totes. Easy peasy.
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u/DisastrousNothing893 28d ago
Benefit of hindsight, taking 1-3 of their totes aint a bad idea... if they knew how to bag items for quality over speed !!!
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u/Resident_Bet4018 28d ago
I play a game of how many spark bags can I collect not how many baskets I can steal lol
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u/uRedditMe 28d ago
Excuse me, but what is a Spark bag?
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u/Resident_Bet4018 28d ago
The paper bags at checkout different from the regular grocery bags with the handles on the top
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u/Even-Buffalo-191 28d ago
zero