'Round these parts, we use Skip the Dishes. Normally, I order from them about once a week… but i’m not sure if it’s a good idea anymore. Especially sushi. I’ll miss sushi.
What do you think- safe, or not?
Good question.
Having gotten my food safety and epidemiology degress from the University of Google, of course, I am an exspert on the topic.
Presumably the restaurants use standard food safety procedures, which should be enough to ensure that the food iself is safe.
If the employees are keeping away when feeling under the weather, that helps.
Presumably the packaging could be somewhat contaminated if the driver is contagious, though your contact with that should be minimal.
All in all, it’s better than going to the restaurant, but not as good as eating home-prepared food. My WAG, anyway.
I don’t know if we’ll get restaurant food delivered (though we will probably order takeout one a week or so because we want to support some family owned places).
We will probably get groceries delivered.
Do you mean restaurant meals, groceries or both?
We’ve loaded up on supplies for the two of us and the three cats, so we’ll have a few weeks to evaluate the situation.
I should have been specific. I’m taking about restaurant meals.
nm
Yes, we do this at least once a week. Last time I discarded the outer packaging, and then washed my hands. Fair or not, I expect that the food handlers probably have a higher degree of hygiene than the driver. Although perhaps not, after all the drivers don’t want to get sick either. All in all, I think it is an acceptable level of risk. And I do want to help some local places stay in business. I think my next order will be Ezell’s fried chicken, any fellow Seattlieites will know them as very worthy of support.
Duplicate post
The local Domino’s Pizza has started offering an option for people afraid of coronavirus infection. The delivery guy places the pizza box on a small stand and ring your door and stand two metres away to watch and confirm you’ve gotten your pizza. I don’t know what they’re supposed to do if it’s a cash transaction.
Only DeFex (aka FedEx) and UPS deliver on our dirt road and they don’t haul food except Mormon eat-for-a-year kits and those bogus Kansas City beef ripoffs. An eatery ten mountain miles (a half-hour) away is offering to deliver meals as far as a parking lot out on the two-lane highway for a few bucks extra. Family have offered to haul us groceries and takeout food after our deep snowpack diminishes. Otherwise, we await aerial drones. Maybe by 2028.
The mayor just announced that all venues are closed for eating-in for at least 2 weeks. Since I typically eat lunch out, I had my last meal out, went to the grocery store, and bought supplies to make sandwiches for the next few days (which wasn’t easy - they were pretty picked-over). But, we normally eat at dinner at home, except for Friday and Saturday, so I will be going for take-out on those days.
I do not see how the current food delivery systems can possibly handle the large volume of business if many people suddenly decide they want their food delivered to their homes.
Possibly. We did order delivery on groceries today, as we are in the “high risk” category. The less direct contact with people, the better. But then I feel like that most of the time anyway. I saw today that germs on packaging can survive up to three hours, but:
- Open the pizza box
- Wash hands
- Eat pizza
- Take box out to garbage
- Wash hands again
From the sound of it, you should have self-propelled “meal kits” wandering through the front yard pretty regular. 
It’ll require some flexibility for sure. But traffic is insanely low, so the time for one delivery just became time for three. and employees who drive to work may be willing to make deliveries for a small premium. Everyone is chipping in; that’s how we survive these things.
I really don’t see how a pizza box or pho container is any more dangerous than a loaf of bread or a box of cereal. The shelves are being re-stocked so often, if you found food, it’s been touched in the last two hours. And the checker is going to touch it too.
In fact, I think it’s easier to leave a couple of clean boxes int he garage, meet the delivery guy in the driveway, and transfer the food to clean boxes before entering the house. Then just wash your hands before you eat.
Wash your hands either way. It’s not that difficult.
I’ve noted that our forest’s nearly tame deer can be easily netted from the house porch. Wish my SIL was near. Before he was a celeb chef, that backwoods boy shot and skinned caribou and badgers. But he’s a few hours away and we’re snowed in. Life ain’t fair, init?
the big hangup for delivery is not traffic, its the restaraunts. either they get swamped, or quite a few have policies of not starting the order until the driver arrives. None of the delivery services pay for that wait time in any meaningful way.
I’ve tried to arrange a delivery from Amazon Fresh just to get a feel for how well it works as a backup option for keeping our supplies stocked – no go; all delivery windows were indicated as “unavailable”.
No. I go to the grocery store as I always have. I’ve kept things like canned soups and dry pasta and rice on hand for some time, but I’m starting to run low on the pasta (after having had a ton for months). I have a fairly small freezer, so stuff like hamburger and frozen veggies are a little limited. Hoping that after my next shopping trip I’m good for awhile. I don’t have the money to buy everything I need for a month or two at a time.
I just placed an order for groceries with Peapod.
Our usual ‘anytime ~24 hours after placing the order’ became ‘anytime ~240 hours after placing the order’.
CMC fnord!
There is a Chinese takeout place just down the street that is very good and I would have no hesitation in placing a pickup order with them. I don’t see a need for grocery deliveries. I’m fairly well stocked and can self-isolate for two weeks if I develop symptoms. But being asymptomatic, I have no hesitancy in foraging among grocery stores and drugstores for stuff that I need or might need.
Interestingly, after my heart issue and operation, the cardiologist at the hospital issued a no-driving order for two weeks, and where I live, if you can’t drive you are essentially stranded. It actually turned out to be no big deal as I had just laid in a ton of food supplies, and a friend came by a few times to take me out to lunch in case I was getting “cabin fever” (of course that last bit wouldn’t be possible for coronavirus isolation, and restaurants are closed anyway). I found the two weeks of being forced to stay at home to be no issue whatsoever, and never even used the grocery delivery service that is available here.