<p>Well, we won't really know until we get there, but the Bed Bath and Beyond 'pack and hold' system seems to work pretty nicely. It's all aimed at the kids - they are the ones that get the scanner. After they are done, the clerk checks to see that everything is available at the store nearest the college. And you get a custom list that shows which things your college does not allow.</p>
<p>Worked great for us. And when you pick up you can always decide not to purchase something.</p>
<p>We had great success using BBB. We had a long drive and no room in the SUV for some items. Plus even with online “tours” of the room, you really don’t know how things work out until you get into the room actually assigned your student.</p>
<p>D ordered things she THOUGHT she’d need/want ahead of time. We went to the BBB, recognized several items that wouldn’t fit or really weren’t needed after all and were able to just pay and take the truly relevant items. Plus, most importantly, it saved us the headache D’s roommate’s family went through. They spent ALL day driving around a city they didn’t know, looking for some items that roommate really needed, finding the selection ridiculously picked over. This was in a city with a couple of colleges. They commented that they wished they’d done what we’d done, just to save the time and hassle. </p>
<p>And we were able to use lots of expired coupons, which were accepted back then. Don’t know if the policy has since changed. Anyway, was a great decision for D. We didn’t do the same thing with S–he was much more a minimalist!</p>
<p>They have been sending out the 20% off coupon by email. Just sign up to receive email at their website and they will start sending them!</p>
<p>^ yes…every member of our family gets BB&B coupons. :)</p>
<p>We also had a very good experience with BB&B and used loads of old coupons to bring the price down. Also worth mentioning is WalMart’s site-to-store service for things not carried by BB&B. We ordered a television, rugs, ottoman, etc. from WalMart online and had them sent to the store closest to campus. They do have a limit though for how long they will hold items for pick-up (about 3 weeks if I remember correctly) so you need to pay attention to when you place the order. I called ahead to the store to let them know I was ordering a lot of large things for college move-in and what day I would be there. They had everything set aside for me, loaded the car for us and waved us off. Couldn’t have asked for more!</p>
<p>^^check with the Walmart you r sending to as to how long they will hold the stuff; last we heard was 7 business days. Glad to hear somewhere is 3 weeks; gonna call when I’m done posting</p>
<p>I found several items at Walmart at greatly reduced prices over my goto site which is Amazon. Many have free shipping to your home, or as other’s pointed out, pick up in another location.</p>
<p>I just checked Walmart’s website and the policy is once your order arrives and is scanned in at the store, you will have 21 days to pick it up before it is returned to the distributor. Certainly wouldn’t hurt though to call the receiving store to make sure they hold everything for your pickup day.</p>
<p>BBB works great. Check out your dorm room at move in and then go to BBB. By then you know what you really do need and what you don’t You have time to go through the bags before you check out. And remember, collect coupons form friends and relatives. They take all you have, even if expired.</p>
<p>Amazon for anything you can’t find on the shelves (ie we got a TV shipped to sons dorm and ordered it on line form our hotel when Target and Best Buy at near the school did not have what we wanted.</p>
<p>Does BBB add up the 20% coupons, or is it just one coupon per order?</p>
<p>One coupon per item when we did it.</p>