Praxair - Good Experience During these Crazy Times

[CalgaryPT]

I've been to a few stores in the past week (e.g., when our toilet needed parts), and obviously for groceries. But I ran out of Argon for my TIG welder yesterday. It was a bit of a shock; I may have left the regulator pressurized and I think I have a slow leak. I haven't used the machine in a while.

Anyways, I was pleasantly surprized at Praxair. If it had been busy or crowded I wouldn't have gone in—but they seemed to have there game on. You drop your used tank on the loading dock and leave it there. You go in and can easily stand 2 metres away from the only other people in the store, who are the sales staff behind the counter. They print off your invoice, but no longer make you sign and initial it in three places like they used to. I was going to look for a smaller gas cup and some TIG rod but they wouldn't let me—they said to tell them what I wanted and they would get it for me. They said they didn't want customers touching stock anymore.

I waited in the store for the guy to put my new tank out on the dock and did the rest myself. You help yourself to the power lift and you're out of there. Only bad thing is that tap doesn't work on the POS terminal above a certain amount so you still have to key your pin. But that's a VISA/Interact thing, not Praxair I think.

Anyways, I was impressed they were taking things seriously. So kudos where deserved.

And BTW, the "K" tank I use is 244 ft cubic feet, and cost me $179 all in.

 

[Chicken lights]

Traction (truck part store) had caution tape up to keep you away from the counter. Kinda dumb because I reached over it to hand them a box that I was exchanging, then they handed me one back
Also, they had a sign up “No cash”, not a big deal, it’s good to see them taking steps.
My local Praxair has been trying to order me in the right gauge for my torches since November I think. It’s almost to the point where it’s comical. I’ve been in 3-4 times to see if it’s in, finally last week I made it in, he was so happy to see me...then we opened the box and it was still wrong. His shoulders and face fell, poor guy is really trying hard on this.

He DID say I’d see it by Christmas, he just didn’t say WHICH year

 

[CalgaryPT]

Praxair was no cash as well. Is it true the USA uses mostly cash compared to Canada w/ our debit cards? I don't travel much; I just watch the dog when my wife and son go everywhere and have fun.

But I've heard USA is almost all cash, and Interact is hard to find. Is that correct?

 

[Chicken lights]

I think a lot more people use cash, but no, there’s debit terminals in every store. It’s weird the “tap” isn’t a thing down there, or at least it’s not common. And if you want to leave a tip, you manually write the amount on the receipt, add the two together. Then sign the slip.
A lot of toll booths are cash only. Some will mail you a bill.
The Skyway by Chicago gives $1 US coins on one end as change, then at the other end you throw $1.25 I think in a big barrel on the other end. That may have changed, but that’s what happened for me.

My debit/credit card usually works most places. If not I carry two Visa cards. They usually work anywhere.

I had one store where all three cards wouldn’t work, two weeks ago. So I went to an ATM and took out cash. Not knowing what was gonna happen, when I got home I grabbed $2000, half USD half CDN. But now if my cards don’t work and they won’t take cash....