Starter supplies for sits: how do you handle this?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

So here’s one dilemma I still haven’t quite figured out how to handle reliably:

I do a good bit of my own cooking on most sits. But even if I’m mostly planning to eat out, I like to have a few basic supplies to tide me over for the first day or two, so I don’t have to scramble + leave unfamiliar pets alone to find shopping on day 1.

When it’s a road trip it’s no problem, I just bring a bag of groceries along with me (and I always travel with my own spices) — but I hate that doing a pre-shop sometimes results in food waste if the host has provided a welcome pack & we’ve duplicated supplies.

So what to do? I’ve tried asking the host if I should plan to bring bread, eggs, coffee & cream with me for the first morning, but it still comes out sounding as if I’m requesting they provide these things for me, or expecting that they might. When it’s a flight and/or a foreign country it can be especially challenging to do shopping before I arrive.

Any experience with this? How do you handle these logistics, or phrase the question so it’s not so awkward? Would appreciate others’ experience & suggestions.

2

On some sits we arrive with longer lasting food, ie tinned tuna, packet of savoury rice, easy to prep things, things to last a few days before we go shopping. Just incase fresh food has been left for us.

3

Don’t know if this would work for you and your sits: I usually order groceries delivered the day I arrive.

I prefer that to anything a host might offer, so much so that my profile mentions that I appreciate fridge and freezer space. I know my hosts read that, because they bring it up or I find cleared-out space for me.

That’s been working even with sits I do off the books from THS as I wind down my membership, because I point prospective hosts toward my profile and reviews even when they’re not THS members (or we’re doing sits off the books as members).

4

If the hosts have not mentioned anything about provisions, I usually tell them that I will be bringing all my own non perishable food stuffs, and ask is there a grocery in walking or driving distance so I can buy fresh foods? and if I know there isn’t one, or it might be closed when I arrive, I just ask them can they please buy some semi skimmed milk for me to make a cup of tea on arrival.

This is usually met with an “Of Course, and we will also provide X, Y, Z for you”.

I often mention that I bring my own saucepan too for scrambled eggs, and often they will say - we will get eggs in for you for your first day.

5

When we are traveling in the US, we have a car so it is easy to bring supplies from one sit to another, but we often don’t have a lot. We usually only shop for one week’s worth of food at a time, and we aren’t ones to need a lot of variety, so we don’t end up with big ‘backlogs’ of unused food that we are lugging from sit to sit. We may have some cooking oil and a few items that are longer lasting that get packed up.

I don’t drink coffee but my husband does, and in our experience, most hosts drink it as well and offer us to use theirs. He will buy some too usually. If he didn’t have any for the first day, it wouldn’t bother him so we would’t ask whether it is available.

Most of the time, we don’t do our shopping until that first day we arrive–unless we are in a very rural area, a good supermarket usually isn’t far and it’s a simple trip-- or perhaps the next day, if we are doing an overlap, and arriving the night before the hosts leave.

We have been doing intermittent fasting for over a year now so we usually don’t eat until around 1130 or noon for the first time, so if we don’t have any food for that first morning, it’s fine since we aren’t eating yet anyway. And we will get to the store later on.

There are times we will do a full shopping on the way to a sit. For example, our current sit is in a pretty remote area where the closest major supermarkets are an hour away. So we stopped off in that town on the way and stocked up for two weeks.

As for international sits, we are almost always arriving the day before the host leaves, and they almost always prepare a meal that evening, and when they don’t, we grab something ourselves. and will usually just shop the next day.

So for us, this isn’t usually a conversation we have with the hosts. I get that some sitters don’t want to worry about shopping that first day for a variety of reasons, but we don’t find it an issue. I get what you mean about it feeling awkward asking,as you are right that it can come off as sounding like you are requesting they provide these items for you.

I guess depending on what someone prefers to eat, even if not traveling by car, there are lots of different things that don’t take up too much room and can easily be transported in a suitcase or backpack.

6

Hi @MerryPuppins :slightly_smiling_face:

We tend to handle it differently depending on the length of the sit. For longer sits, we’ll often arrange an online grocery delivery for later on our arrival day, after we’ve settled in with the pets. We always check with the HO first that they’re happy for a delivery to arrive, and it’s worked really well.

For shorter sits, it depends on our arrival time. We usually ask the hosts for their favourite pet friendly café or breakfast/lunch spot nearby, along with the closest supermarket. That lets us have a relaxed first outing with the dog, get our bearings, and pick up a few groceries on the way back without feeling rushed or leaving the pet for long.

We also find it avoids any awkwardness about whether the hosts might have left provisions, as we’re happy to organise our own food while still appreciating anything that’s been thoughtfully left for us.

:paw_prints::heart:

7

I always travel with my trusty jar of Vegemite :wink: Bread, butter, coffee and milk and we are good. Usually those things are available, but not always. It’s always easier with a car, but sometimes we are on public transport so we just work it out as we go.

8

I do not expect hosts to buy anything for me. About a week before each sit, I communicate that we eat “everything” and are happy to “use up” leftover dairy, eggs, produce— “so please do not feel that you have to throw away perfectly good food before we arrive.” When we arrive, we assess what is in the refrigerator and go from there, expecting to make a trip to the grocery store.

9

It’s hosts who should handle this, not sitters. Hosts who’ve given it any thought realize that easing a sitter’s arrival benefits everyone. The only thing tricky about it is what to get for arriving sitters. As hosts, we ask sitters what we can stock for them to get them through the first day or two. We’ve found that sitters arriving in their own vehicle invariably want nothing as they’ll be bringing everything they need. Sitters arriving via long flights invariably have a few modest requests we’re happy to arrange.

If a sitter were to preemptively inform us what they seek to have on hand on their arrival couched as a question about how best to handle getting those supplies, we would take the hint and gladly take care of it. OTOH, I suspect there are hosts that would be clueless and drop the ball. Such is the luck of the draw.

10

This tea towel just randomly popped up as an ad on my social media and I thought it funny, as an example of bring-your-own.

IMG_1792
IMG_17921251×1758 522 KB

11

It would be nice if hosts asked us “is there anything in particular you need for your first morning here?” But that has rarely happened (however, I do always ask hosts if there is anything they want us to stock for their return).

We travel mostly via air so a bag of basics is not possible. During our “video call” we ALWAYS ask where the nearest grocery store is and can we reach it on foot or via public transport. Some hosts will “get it” and offer options for us “you’re welcome to the eggs and coffee…” or whatever.

We have had one host take us from the airport to the public market AND the grocery store (she was amazing). Otherwise we’ve had to figure it out on our own.

I now pack a drinkable instant coffee (after many trials I found one I like) and even a shelf stable flavored creamer and my husband packs some tea and oatmeal. This gets us through the first morning.

Oddly, the sit we are on we arrived the evening before at dinner time. They graciously picked up at the airport but never offered as much as a glass of water upon our arrival or until bedtime (but we were all busy getting instructions for the house and pets). In the morning while hosts drank coffee and chatted w us in the kitchen, no offer of coffee or food was made and we didn’t want to pull out our supplies. They were busy getting ready to go - I get it. Once they left we took inventory (they said use anything in the fridge and spice/oil cabinet) and we walked the 15 min to the nearest store.

After that we rented a car bc it was going to be too hard to be without one here.

We always ask if bicycles are available and sometimes that’s all we need to do our shopping.

12

I don’t suggest ordering groceries online before even arrived as sits could be cancelled last minute (real life experience)

13

I don’t order them till I get there, because I check the fridge and freezer first. Not sure why you thought otherwise.

14

What a lovely thread! I love how differently everyone handles things depending on how they travel.

@carpediem16, the instant coffee and shelf-stable creamer combo is such a good bit of planning.

@WeRPAWsome, the tip about asking for a nearby café recommendation instead of asking about food directly is such a nice way to sidestep the awkwardness and get some recommendations for great local food!

@MerryPuppins, I hope this gives you a few good options… sounds like asking about the nearest grocery store on the video call might be the least awkward version of what you were after?

15

Because the OP’s question is food for the first couple of days. For grocery deliveries it’s hard to get same day or even next day delivery slot.(At least it’s the case in the UK) So if you arrived and they left nothing for you, you still run the risk of not having food for one or two days.

16

Actually, I have encountered no trouble at all getting same-day delivery in the U.K./Scotland and Italy, where I’ve sat repeatedly. I’ve ordered via Deliveroo primarily, but sometimes directly from grocery stores, when sitting.

I’ve also had no trouble getting same-day delivery even to hotels when traveling in various European and Asian countries when doing nonsit travel. Grab for instance is fast in Asia, because they usually deliver via scooters. Their times beat what I usually get even in the U.S., where I get same-day delivery all the time, at home, on sits and at hotels via DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats.

Glovo is good in Europe, too.

17

@MerryPuppins what about asking the HO prior to arrival about the location of the nearest grocery store, and if that store does delivery? You can clarify it’s for the first couple of days, and I can’t see any HO taking that as a request.

I do have a conversation with potential sitters about whether they want a 100% cleared out fridge or are ok with some perishables like milk, and am happy to discuss coffee/tea etc, but I also get that it can be awkward for the sitter to bring it up. The flip side of your dilemma is that I have often returned to find that the sitter has bought (and left) some dry goods items that I would be 100% fine with them using, and I feel bad that they spent their own money on things like baking powder.

18

Random fact and utterly unexpected. Food delivery - which is almost non existent in Türkiye outside of big cities (& many other places we sit) is the speediest ever in Oman. Talabat delivers groceries, takeaways, pharmacy and electronics within an hour if not sooner! We’re marginally addicted as we never usually have it! :joy: And I have a new MacBook too….. #mindblowing

19

Yup, that type of speed and product range are available in various countries. I’ve even had souvenirs and gifts delivered for kicks. Most recently for electronics, I ordered same day in Lithuania. Took them about 35 minutes. That was via Wolt.

In Italy I was surprised by how fast they could find me even having to traverse narrow cobblestoned alleyways uphill. The only thing was, they could take only limited-size orders, since they usually deliver on scooters. So when I was sitting for a friend and made a big order (including lots of drinks), they just didn’t deliver that part of the order and I had to get a refund. In the U.S., I place large orders and it’s never been a problem, because they typically deliver by car.

20

Lots of great ideas here; thanks to everybody who’s made suggestions so far. It’s also interesting to see that ‘best strategies’ differ from sitter to sitter based on the way they prefer to travel & the things that are important to them — much like so many other aspects of sitting, & the “matching” model itself.

I’ve taken on board getting more proactive earlier in the process & will likely introduce some variation of the topic to my pre-confirmation video calls going forward, and I appreciate all the ideas for strategies on phrasing! Also definitely going to consider making more use of delivery for initial supplies as well…don’t know why that hadn’t really occurred to me. (Doh!)

I agree it would be great if hosts thought to take this into their court automatically & asked, and definitely appreciate those hosts who do so. But I also understand people have a lot on their minds, so I never take it amiss if they don’t.

Again, part of my dilemma is not wanting to duplicate or waste things they already have, too…I’m just paranoid about being stuck somewhere and unable to procure even the basics for day 1.

Cheers to all, and please keep them coming if you think of more ideas…!