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By Steve Benoff Beaumont and Banning are now home to many well-known stores. When I first moved to Four Seasons there was an Albertson's, Rite-Aid, and K-Mart south of the freeway. K-Mart has been replaced by three big stores (bye bye Party City). Banning and Beaumont now have lots of choices with more coming. Many of these stores have apps. Over the next several months I'm going to try these apps and report my findings. I'm going to start this odyssey with two apps I've mentioned before – Walmart and Home Depot. I regard both as outstanding and will use them as measuring sticks against the others. I'm a regular Walmart user, and every time I go there I use their app. (A reminder to novices: you can download an app by going to the App Store on your phone, entering the name of the store, finding the correct app, which may not be the first on the list, and pressing GET.) The Walmart app is quite comprehensive. I often use it to find the location of an item. To start with, you want to make sure the app knows which store you're in. If you can't see your location on the screen, press the Services icon at the bottom of the screen and select Store Finder. You'll notice fifteen other services available including Weekly Ads and Custom Cakes. But you don't need any of these services to search for an item, just go to the search bar on the Home screen and enter the item. If I enter "copy paper," I get a long list of items but not a location. That's because at the top of the screen I see that Walmart.com is selected. But if I select At Your Store, I see lots of choices at location H8. Every aisle in the store has a unique location and is so labeled. Want to know how much an item costs? Press Services and select Barcode Scanner. Use the camera on your phone to scan the item. Want to return an item? Press Start a Return on the Services page. A feature I use every week is Walmart Pay from the Services menu. I had to set it up by entering my credit card info, but once it's enabled, I can scan a code at the beginning of the self-checkout process and never have to pull out a credit card. Furthermore, I have a record of all my purchases. So, if I need to return an item, I can scan that item and the app will find it among my purchases. I love the Walmart app and give it a grade of A-. Why the minus? Because the next app demonstrates the best method of locating an item in a store. Home Depot also has an excellent app. Shopping online is a breeze with the app. You can also see local ads and special offers. Need help? You can chat with a Home Depot representative on the app. This app does best in locating an item you're searching for. Unlike Walmart, which gives you a 100-foot aisle to search for your item, Home Depot gives you the aisle and, within that aisle, it gives you a bay about eight feet wide. Of course, you want to make sure the app knows your store. I was recently directed to an aisle that didn't make sense. I realized the app was assuming I was in Brooklyn, NY instead of Beaumont. If I search for Velcro strips, I'm directed to the specific spot and told how many strips are in stock. If the item isn't in stock, I can go to the top of the screen and select Nearby Stores. But the app doesn't speed self-checkout by giving me the option to pay through the app, therefore, this app also gets an A-. Next month, I'll try a couple of apps from other neighborhood stores. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. 16 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2019 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! APPS FOR AROUND TOWN: PART 1 As many of you know, we are very fortunate to have such a fully-stocked library! We had a meeting and we have now formed a "Library Team" to handle book returns and library upkeep. Since we have full shelves, we are asking that new donations have a publisher's date of 2005 or later. We are in great need of large-print books. We would love to be able to keep all the books, but we are at capacity. It is important to remember that this is a lending library and we do ask that books be returned. Thank you for your assistance in returning books to the cart provided and we will shelve the books for you. Library Update

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