Not thinking, just doing as instructed - recipe for disaster?

 So, one evening I decide to order myself some more hold up stockings from my favourite supplier, FALKE in Germany. (I am in France.)  I confess to getting a little confused on the web-site as it has been some time since my last order and web-sites are not my favourite wandering places....However, I managed - found what I wanted despite seductive offers of other things - and duly ordered four pairs of hold-ups.  As always I paid using Pay-Pal...so far, so good. Proud of myself for I had even remembered to have one of my mobile phones next to my laptop in order to receive the necessary code..My French address was clearly stated on the order - and was recognised.

But then a very long silence, no delivery via La Poste, no news from any local delivery companies.    I look again at my order and its confirmation - there I spot the initials of a delivery service unknown to me.  Then I remember that favourite place for deliveries of online orders which are then collected by clients is my local hardware store in St Astier, some 9kms down the road.  So I checked with its manager to find how I could contact this delivery service....no phone number, not a very enthusiastic report on the company's services. A check in their office and no, there was nothing for me...

In a considerable bad temper I take myself off to the local SPAR in Mensignac which is only 4 kms away from home. There I buy bread and other necessities, grumbling all the while. Apart from a post office there is nothing else of interest in the village.

 Lots of sympathy from the staff, the majority of whom know my face and my shopping habits, a very few know my name.  I have been going there for about 40 years...Someone addresses me by name, looks at me and says 'I think we have a parcel for you....'. The parcel, a  box larger than my post box, is duly handed over.   Perhaps I was not in when the delivery service came by - and felt unable to deliver the box safely? It could have left me a note, I thought....

Once home I open the box to inspect my stockings - a pack of three is banded together and the fourth one is just loose.   I ponder the oddity of this - then think 'perhaps the company expects clients to purchase in packs of three...' Had I done so, they could have been put into a standard A4 envelope and sent by post...I shall know better next time.