<p>Being OOS we are hoping to do most of DD school shopping on-line and just pick up once in T-town. We will arrive several days prior to her move-in but are hoping to minimize the running around in the stores time and use the time that we do have to explore the town, campus and restaurants more than we have on past visits and to get her comfortable driving in the area etc. Does anyone have suggestions/experiences in ordering ahead from stores like Target, Walmart, JCPenney, Belk, Home Depot etc.</p>
<p>Specific quesitons: </p>
<p>-Do you need to call the store ahead to arrange for holding items until arrival or is there a time frame they will hold for on their websites (obviously haven’t checked that yet.)
-How far in advance have people ordered/do you suggest.
-Which Walmart do people suggest -Tuscaloosa or Northport for service/quality etc. </p>
<p>The Northport Wal-Mart is less much busy, but is far away from the other stores you’ll be shopping at. I haven’t done site-to-store shipping at Wal-Mart before, but I assume that there won’t be many lines at pickup as it is usually located in what used to be the layaway section in the back of the store. </p>
<p>If you are picking up at the stores, you’ll likely have a week to pick the items up, which means that now is too soon. If it isn’t much more, I recommend shipping to the Paty Package Delivery Center on campus. Amazon has their Student Prime account (free for the first year) that includes free 2-Day shipping and is tax free when shipping to Alabama.</p>
<p>Hmm, how far is the Northport Walmart? I have used site to store here before and it was great. The only(I think) thing I haven’t gotten is the under bed storage because I thought it would use up too much space in our small suv. So I was going to have H pick them up when he dropped S off, but that might not happen and S will end up stuffing his clothes in his duffles under his bed as I’m sure he’ll run out of drawer space quickly and apart from button down shirts and a couple of pairs of dressier pants, what else is he going to hang in the closet. But, if I pay for them before-hand they will feel they have to pick them up before H leaves. So we think 3 of those plastic drawer things will work?
Things do take a week or so to get to the stores, so I would order soon.</p>
<p>I hang everything up in my closet except for boxers and socks. That said, buy a few of those stack-able plastic bins at walmart and use that as an extra dresser.</p>
<p>No Sam’s club. But, if I do site to store I can just do the T-town walmart, what am I thinking it won’t be sold out as it is pre-ordered and it will be waiting for them.</p>
<p>Don’t know if this helps, but we ordered online from Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, JC Penney, Office Max, and several other companies. We had everything delivered to Paty on campus, which made for a 1-stop pick-up. </p>
<p>Everything we ordered arrived in perfect shape, including a monitor/HD TV, and the folks at Paty were as nice as could be.</p>
<p>The only shopping we ended up having to do was at Wal-Mart for consumable things like laundry soap.</p>
<p>you have 30 days to pick stuf up at walmart site to store.</p>
<p>we drove there and we brought most everything with us with the exception of a tall bookshelf (target - $25) and two plastic drawer sets. everything fit in my DDs ford escape.</p>
<p>ldinct - not sure which drawer things you are looking at but i don’t think you will need three for a boy. we did get two three drawer sets (about 11 inches wide, maybe) to put in the closet underneath the higher hanging bar.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the great tips! I admit I was being lazy in checking with all of you prior to doing my own research…but I did look into some things last night…thought I would share for others who may need the info (see links below.) Appreciate the info on the Paty Center Seatide and melania. Do either of you or anyone else know if you can pick up at the Paty Center prior to early move-in on Aug. 13th? I’m thinking about the things (sheets, towels etc.) that we would like to launder prior to move-in. We will have a washer/dryer where we are staying so it would be easier to do the laundry ahead at a time of our convenience. Plus as girls go… I think the more she can get her hands on all her items ahead of move-in/be sure she has everything on her list vs. opening packages on move-in day will create less stress.</p>
<p>Here is what I found about site-to-store pick ups:
Walmart: On-line (see link below) it says about 5-8 days for items to arrive to the store and you have 21 days for pick-up. When I called the Tuscaloosa store a gentleman told me 30 days for pick-up as MW posted also.</p>
<p>Home Depot: Online it says most orders are ready within two hours of ordering (unless a specialty item) and you have 7 days to pick up once received at store</p>
<p>Target: Does not have site-to-store shipping </p>
<p>JCPenney: You have 7 days to pick up once the order is processed. They will call you to be sure you don’t want it if you have not picked up by 7days.</p>
<p>Like Malanai - we found JCPenny and stores with the free shipping to be a great option and had everything sent to Paty - convenient, nice and left room in car for other stuff. </p>
<p>We flew into Birmingham and so I did the store to store order for Bed, Bath & Beyond; you just tell them the day you’ll be picking up and our selections were ready. The nice thing also is that there were a couple items that we no longer wanted so they removed it from the cart. You pay when you pick up - so no return hassles. Also if you have a Costco membership, it’s located down the street from BBB and we stopped and got the TV there. </p>
<p>Note - If you do JCPenney it’s better to send to Paty, JCP only holds the store to store orders for a week (that’s what they told me last year).</p>
<p>travlbug - We did early move-in last year and Paty was open. We even arrived before their set hours and the nice lady saw us and opened the door earlier and gave us our stuff.</p>
<p>socal2bama: Thanks for info! H & D are driving her vehicle down but she is working right up until the wkend before they leave and just hasn’t had time to do any shopping this summer (has been having too much fun on days off) so she doesn’t plan on bringing much in her vehicle other than her cloths, personal items, a bedding set she did order, a small TV and our travel bags. I will fly into B’ham the following day where they will pick me up (I had vouchers from a bump and mess ups on a trip to AL in Feb. with her so it is only costing me $28 to fly in and even better…saving my back from that long drive!) We had considered a stop at Bed, Bath Beyond in B’ham which I will add to the shopping list given your good experience. She had just sent some links to shower curtain choices she likes from BBB so that will work well. Could you clarify if you picked up your packages at Paty early on the actual day of early move-in or were you able to access Paty prior to the early move-in day? We move DD in on the 13th but would like to get all packages on the 9th-12th (12th at latest) so we can launder if needed and aren’t fussing with opening too many packages on move-in day/can try to have things all organized ahead.</p>
<p>Think walmart is the best option for us. Y’all have no idea how many clothes/shoes S will want to bring, ha ha. Plus since he is driving this one time and then flying home for Thanksgiving & holidays he will be bringing a lot of winter-ish stuff too I presume. And boys shoes are big and clunky, so no cute on the back of the door racks. Oh well, maybe I’ll repurpose one of our shoe racks and pack it.
What is the usual plan? Summer clothes are brought home over Winter Break, winter stuff is brought back and summer stuff is brought back over spring break? It might get a little cold from Nov-Dec 15, or does it not?</p>
<p>We did the pick-up on the move-in day. However, I believe they are open before that, given that there are other groups and volunteers arriving during the week. </p>
<p>I remember they made special hours for the weekend move-ins. I’d give them a call to double check their hours.</p>
<p>Would y’all recommend picking up packages from Paty before or after I officially move in? Once my move in time is over, will I not be able to drive up close to the door? And in that case, would it be better to pick everything up ahead of time and move it all in at once?</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t think they will be able to fit the walmart site to store stuff in the car before move in, so they will have to empty the car and go back. Will they not be able to get close to the dorm?</p>
<p>The simple answer to “will I be able to pull up close to the dorm after I move-in” is to come back after move-in is over for the day. Before then, you will have to park away and walk a little bit. I’ve also found that when shipping boxes to Paty, it is best to pick up one box at a time and walk it back to my dorm room. If you have two people, take two boxes at a time. For items you just bought at stores, you’ll be surprised at how many bags you can carry at once.</p>