Have you asked someone to get something for you from the store(excluding food or similar day to day items)?

All the time. It’s a common courtesy to ask others if they “need anything from the store?” Before going. Results vary, depending on the person going to the store.

No. Very few people I know would think to ask and I’m not one to ask for help.

“I’m going to Target/Costco/CVS/Home Depot. Need anything?”

“Sure! I need paper towels/toilet paper/lightbulbs/bandaids….”

All the time, and it works both ways.

My mom is desperate to come over to my crib. Even if she just hands off light-bulbs in the parking lot. And yeah, in the last week she has brought me Burger King, Windex, bleach, TP, paper towels, foil, ziploc, and columnar paper.

I can get this stuff on my own, she does make me pay for it. But she is old and was not the best mother when I was a kid so she is making up for it.

Yes. How well it turns out depends on what it is and whom I ask. I tend to only ask people who don’t mind and who I’m sure won’t get mixed up by the request, as people have asked me to get many things and I relate to having a hard time getting what the person wants.

@zenvelo: Wow. That is such a foreign conversation to me. I don’t know anyone who would ever ask me that.

^That’s how my “tribe”(network of friends)works. We all help each other. It’s cyclic, if everyone chips in.
My roommate and I were the last two remaining at a poker game once. It was 5AM. We just decided to cash out. All the money would have ended up in our house anyways. We left with a decent haul. No reason to play down to one of us…

My husband, but not often. Maybe 4–6 times a year. He usually gets it right, but I’m very specific.

In TN I used to ask a friend or two to pick up an item from Costco. I did it maybe twice a year at most. Two different friends. They bought the right thing, it was hard to screw it up.

If my mom is visiting, and she is going to the market anyway, then I ask her to pick up something I need. She’s probably the only person I’d do that with regularly if she lived near me. She always gets the order right.

Sure, from time to time. I ask, I get asked, a lot like @zenvelo

Venting Opportunity. Skip if not interested.

The last time I asked someone to pick up an item for me was when my mother died. The family was coming into town. My brother and his wife got there first. His wife wanted to get her nails done, so they booked an appt. at a salon across the street from a grocery store. I asked the brother if he could nip across the street and pick up a deli item that the family loves and wasn’t available in the store I went to before they arrived.

His wife got upset. She didn’t understand why he needed to get something when they brought a bunch of food. I explained that the family members loved this item and would be pleased to have it available.

It really annoyed me. As if my brother wants to sit in a salon for 30+ minutes while his wife gets her nails done when he can walk across the street and purchase one item. In the meantime, I’m at Mom’s house waiting to greet the rest of the family, including his children (not the wife’s).

@Pied_Pfeffer Did you brother pick up the item for you? The wife seems pretty self absorbed to be offended during such a difficult family time. The whole idea that she’s getting her nails done would be mildly obnoxious to me in itself (maybe it’s a Jewish thing on my part since vanity is frowned upon during the mourning period) except to say it sounds like she did make a big effort to help by preparing food in the first place, so I give her some credit for that.

@JLeslie Yes, the brother bought the item, a specific type of deli meat. They brought a big platter of deli meat, cheeses, etc. that was purchased at a store, so it’s understandable why she might question the need for more. This was explained.

I wasn’t bothered by the manicure bit. That is important to some people. It was that she got bent out of shape over a simple request that shouldn’t have any impact on her.

@Pied_Pfeffer, I get it. I have a sister like that.

I should clarify, I’m not including my wife when I say “Wow. That is such a foreign conversation to me. I don’t know anyone who would ever ask me that.”

Of course we help each other out.

@Pied_Pfeffer I might be projecting, but it’s possible she was really annoyed at her husband for not letting her know there was a particular meat the family prefers. I can see myself being pissed at my husband for not thinking of it and not letting me know when we were out purchasing the original platter.

@cookieman – That’s understood!!

This just Happened

Someone is going to be swimming in the Burger King soon.

Not that I can think of.