My first errand came from a call on a Friday
night about 6:00 pm to my newly formed business,
Emerald Coast Errand Service. The caller said
they needed some grocery shopping done and that
they had just arrived in town and were staying at
White Cliffs condos in Santa Rosa Beach, a town
about 12 miles from me. (Little did I know that
this errand was more like 25 miles from me almost
to Panama City Beach) The woman caller said that
they needed this errand service done by 8:00 as
they were going to an important function at that
time. I figured "no sweat" thinking that the
errand was only 12 miles away and a Winn-Dixie
store was right up the street from me where I
could buy the groceries for this errand service
run and I assured her that I could get the errand
done by the 8:00 pm deadline. The caller said
that it was important that I meet the deadline
for the errand and gave me directions to the
White Cliffs condos I was to go up 30 A to a
white wall and a White Cliffs condo sign. Here
again, I was thinking she was talking about the
Santa Rosa Beach and Hwy 289 intersection. Which
was wrong by about 10 miles of two lane beach
road to get the groceries delivered from this
grocery shopping errand.

It was now time to take down the shopping list
for the errand run from her. It went something
like this: 3/4 lb. sliced roasted turkey breast
from the Deli; 1 small pack of sliced cheese
individually warped; 4 apples; 3 or 4 bananas; 1
loaf of whole wheat bread; 1 small Hellman's
mayonnaise; 1 six pack of Miller Light in the
bottles; 1 small Entenmann's coffee cake; and 1
half gallon of 2% milk. I took all of this list
down making sure I wrote the details so I would
be sure to do this grocery shopping errand right.
I was a little nervous it being my first errand.
I hung up and was enthusiastically off to Winn-
Dixie to shop for my first errand service job.
Time was short so I hurried, grouping the items
in my mind as to where they were in the store so
as to save me time by not having to go up and
down too many isles, but there was one thing I
could not hurry and that was the deli. Guess
what, there was a line at the deli so I was held
up to get the turkey breast. Even so, I still
finished the shopping part of this errand at 7:10
pm which (I thought) gave me plenty of time to
get to Santa Rosa Beach by the 8:00 pm deadline
for the errand service run. I zipped up Hwy 98
and turned right at the intersection of 289 then
about 2 miles and turned left on Hwy 30 A looking
intently on the right for a White Wall and a
White Cliffs sign. It was about 7:55 and I
thought I was going to be able to finish this
errand service run on time, or not more than 5
minutes late.

This is when I decided to call and tell them
where I was. When I told her where I was on 30 A,
she was upset and said that I had about 10 more
miles to go. Where this White Cliffs was would
not have been called Santa Rosa Beach by anybody
who lives around here and this was the biggest
part of the mix up that happened on my first
errand service run. If I had known this fact at
the beginning when we were first talking on the
phone, I would have told her that there was of
course no way that I could have shopped for the
errand and got to her before 8:00 pm. I told her
that I had just passed Criolla's restaurant on 30
A and I heard a guy's voice in the background
saying to go back to Criolla's and he would meet
me there to pick up the groceries. I was now
sorry I had misunderstood where they were located
in the beginning when I first accepted the errand
service job. It was embarrassing that this my
first errand was turning out so wrong. As I
waited for the guy to come to Criolla's parking
lot I looked at my watch and it was now 8:40 pm
and I was feeling quite self conscious the way
the errand was turning out. About that time the
guy turned into Criolla's parking lot. I was
standing at the back of my SUV and waived at him
and he saw me. Here is another embarrassing
thing that happened the night of my first errand
for my errand service. In all of this hustle and
bustle, I had forgotten all about change if a
customer paid cash with large bills. I had
hastily prepared an invoice showing the charges
for the errand. $68.50 for the groceries and two
hours for my errand service $60.00 for a total of
$128.50. After we "both" had loaded the
groceries into his car from mine, he remarked
that I had bought his favortie kind of Entenmann'
s cake and asked me how much it was and I told
him $128.50 including the groceries and forgot to
give him the invoice I had prepared, but did give
him the receipt for the grocery part of the
errand. He said all he had was $100.00 bills. I
was sort of red faced and told him I did not have
any change but could write him a check. However
I did look into my wallet and found a fifty
dollar bill. I do not usually carry large bills
and sometimes not even as much as $50.00 on me at
times. It seemed like God was looking out for me
because this particular night there was one $50.
00 bill in my wallet. I gave him the fifty
dollar bill and he said that he guessed that it
would have to do for the change. I again offered
to write him a check, but he said no. So, I
ended up with a $21.50 tip. And so ends the story
of my first errand with my very own errand
service.

About the author: Rodney Powell is the owner of
Emerald Coast Errand Service.

What is an Errand Service?
An errand service takes care of the details and
does all the chores that you do not have the time
to do for yourself, including the ones you don't
do and let build up that put pressure on you. We
do the all the actual running around. We will go
to the grocery store and shop for you. Stand in
line for you and get your new car tag. Pick up
gifts for others that you know what you want to
get for but can't take time to go and shop for.
In short, we are your extra hand.