Reflections on a Sealift order

So while I sit here and gulp down bottle two of FORTY of Cranberry COCKTAIL (Horray! Got the right one!)... I thought it might be fitting to evaluate the stack of no-name cream soda boxes that have set up camp in my kitchen.

I did my sealift through Sealift Express. That's the sealift set up by the Northern. I did this for three reasons:
- You could order online (and they had little pictures of the items - I'm a visual person)
- You didn't have to pay upfront.
- I (naievely thought) it seemed simpler

And the boy and I did ours together, which we THOUGHT would be easier, but in reality just turned out to be more difficult, and probably wasn't worth the measly $100 bucks we saved in crating fees.

The first problem was that while our order had to be in for the beginning of August, we only received it yesterday. That seemed like an AWFUL long time... but maybe that's typical.

The second problem is that MONTHS after making our order - and 3 days before the final sailing date for the ENTIRE YEAR leaving Churchill - they sent an email saying that we weren't going to get all of our Diet pop (aka, all MY pop) nor the kitty litter we ordered. I was NOT impressed. I did sealift for two reasons: Dog food and pop. Now I wasn't getting any pop. And it was too late to try and get any on any other sealifts. We were screwed.

So I had accepted that, and moved on... the sealift arrived at the end of October... * and they just got around to delivering mine this week - guess they had a lot of orders.

We waffle a bit on a delivery day, and finally pick Monday night. When the grocery guy calls he asks which batch they can deliver first: mine or Jeff's. I think how amazingly organized they must be to know which items from our combined order go to his place, and which goes to mine. Keep in mine the boy's still on vacation until next week.

Waaaait a minute. That's not possible. There is no way they know that HE ordered cream soda, and I ordered kleenex. That the bleach is his, but the toilet paper's mine.

Turns out when Jeff was figuring out what items he wanted, he created a "basket" on the site. Then, the Northern approved and shipped his shopping basket, even though he never fully "checked out".

So we have doubles of some things: like air freshener and grape juice... and they gave HIM diet pop - - MORE than I had ordered, but they couldn't send me because they "ran out."

But I have to say, the Northern took care of it, and told us we could have whatever we wanted from the accidental order, and that they'd absorb whatever we didn't want. So I'm going to buy the diet pop back, and I think Jeff's going to keep some garbage bags or something... and then they will keep the rest.

And another really great thing about the Nothern's sealift is they take it right into your house for you. Four poor sweaty teenage boys lugged all my cranberry juice (and MUCH MORE) into my place after work on Monday. I put most of it away, but a bunch still sits in my kitchen, blocking my way to the sink. That's okay thought, its not like I like doing dishes anyways.

So, would I do it again? I'm honestly not sure yet. What COULD have been a really big hassle turned out to be no big deal, so that was nice. But I'm not convinced that we're really saving all that much money. Shipping after all was .55 cents/lb . But we'll have to see. I definitely don't regret buying all that cranberry juice, and it's nice to have paper towel again... and the dog food is really nice to have too...

But I think I'll just have to reserve judgement until I find out how long these supplies will last me.


*PS, Thanks alot Megan, I've now become hyper aware of every time I do that little "tap tap tap" with my right ring finger.