[Bmorris111]

To continue a previous thread started by GracieGirl....

We are building new in Sanibel. Won't be able to live there full time yet so our time to set up the house is limited. We've already made our furniture purchase at Showcase Direct and it will be delivered and set up the day before closing. What a great buying experience!

Now we need to think about the basic househould stuff (dishes, utensils, small appliances, etc). Got the list from TV Property Management. Just having this list is going to make it easier. But here's what we're thinking...

We're going to pick out as much as we can online at Walmart.com and save it to our cart. They have a free "ship to store" option and they will hold it there for up to 14 days. About a week before we come down is when we'll make the purchase. Then we'll rent a Uhaul van and pick it all up in one visit. We figure this is going to save us a ton of time of having to go through the store.

Has anyone else tried this yet? We'll let you know how it goes in August.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Bmorris, congrats on your new home-away-from-home!

Your idea with the ship-to-store thing makes good sense if the quality of things you're ordering meets your expectations when you pick them up. Otherwise, it'll be a hassle returning/exchanging things, I'd guess. Aside from that, it seems like a good concept.

We bought our place in TV "furnished" (not totally "turn-key") which made things easier as we're just snowflakes. But we still had to buy bed linens, towels, kitchen small appliances, silverware, plates, glassware, etc., etc., etc. We actually enjoyed the in-store shopping experience - we changed our minds on several things we thought we'd like once we actually saw them in person!

We did as you're planning to do with the televisions we needed to buy, though. We shopped Best Buy online, selected and paid for what we wanted, and arranged to pick them up at the store in TV on 441/27 when we came down for closing. Loaded both into the back of Sandy's RAV4, took them to the house, set them up - no problem-o! Sure beat picking them up locally in OH and hauling them clear down to TV!

Bill

[kfierle]

I have used the "ship to store" option from Walmart.com for several small purchases. Keep in mind that everything will not arrive at the store at once. I ordered 3 items last year and they all arrived at different times. In fact, it was 28 days between the time the first item arrived at the store and the last one arrived. Ship to store is a very easy process and I would do it again.

[Bmorris111]

Good point Bill re: expectations. We'll definitely make a trip to our local store up here to see those items that we need to see first. Thanks.

kfierle - The good thing about shipping to the store is the order can be cancelled any time. If the item isn't there when we arrive we'll probably cancel and pick something else in the store that week. Hopefully this will be for a small percentage of the items.

Brian

[asianthree]

I drove down on Thursday afternoon and left to go back to michigan Saturday morning. I bought everything for the house from furniture to soap dish for the bathroom. I drove up to Ocala and then some to find everything I wanted to make this our home. I used multiple stores because not everyone had what i wanted. Its my personal best of shopping

[Happinow]

We brought very little with us when we moved to TV and initially thought we would purchase most everything from furniture to dishes when we arrived in TV. But, as we went out and about we started picking up towels, silverware, toaster oven and anything we thought we could ship on the moving van. It turned out to be a smart move because when we got down here we had contractors lined up from day one. Having at least the necessities to be able to eat and shower at our home was the best thing we did. We had no time to shop for about a week so it was a good move to purchase things and ship them. Plus, the days were very tiring and we were glad we didn't have to go out for a bit to shop.

[shcisamax]

I have used BB and Beyond and it worked really well.