Probably too late to edit again, but adding in: Tops was allowing people to bring in reusable bags, but clerks weren’t allowed to pack into them; customers had to do their own packing if using their own bags. Fine by me.
Traffic lighter than usual but definitely significant people out. Most were trying to stay apart from each other; I did see one group of three walking two dogs with all the humans close together, but they may have been a family group. Not always possible to keep six feet apart at Tops as it was sometimes necessary to pass closer than that in the aisles; but easy enough to avoid contact. Nobody seemed to be coughing or sneezing. Two customers in Tops were wearing masks; one of the masks looked like it might actually do something.
Small neighborhood grocery specializing in meat but with a general grocery selection: looked normally stocked though I didn’t check the soaps etc. All meats looked normally stocked. Small number of shoppers, staying apart. One customer was complaining vehemently that at another store he’d been restricted to two packages of beef. Clerk told me she’d punch necessary buttons on card machine so that I didn’t need to touch them.
Also succeeded in picking up a bag of cover crop clover at a seed-and-grain store, and in dropping off a well water sample for required annual testing; having called first in both cases.
Am now not intending to go anywhere for at least the next couple of weeks except possibly to pick up potting soil.
My overall shopping suggestion: if you’re having trouble finding something, try smaller stores if you’ve got them. Call first; no sense in going in for something in particular if they haven’t got it anyway. And a lot of places are doing deliveries that didn’t use to. (I had to go into the relevant towns both those days for something that couldn’t be done that way, and since at that point we still had no confirmed cases in this area thought it was safer to shop sooner rather than later.)
Trader Joe’s was doing the same thing; they will pack your groceries in their paper bags or you can pack in your own bag. And they only let a few people in the store at the same time, so there was a long line outside. On the bright side, I found everything I was looking for.
The line was only as long as the store, and people were keeping about six feet apart. So relatively safe. Safer than a Trader Joe’s store full of suburban white people.
Went to Aldi and Jewel yesterday. Aldi was well stocked on just about everything. I got multi-roll packages of toilet paper and paper towels (limit one on each). Eggs were on my list – they had plenty. Limit was two dozen so I bought two since they were only $.88 each.
Jewel was almost out of toilet paper and completely out of paper towels. No hand sanitizer or antiseptic wipes of course but seemed well stocked in everything else except frozen vegetables.
Aldi is a “do your own bagging” store. I left my reusable bags in the car and then bagged straight from the cart to the back of my SUV. I made a point of putting all the perishables in one bag, everything else in other bags. At Jewel when loading my car I made certain that perishables were in separate bags from nonperishables. Perishables came into the house as soon as I got home; everything else is in quarantine in the garage for two days, which I understand is the time needed for the virus to die on cardboards, paper and plastics.
What I thought was an odd note: one of the things with limit-of-two signs out at Tops was frozen vegetables. That in itself wasn’t odd, though at a fast glance they had a pretty good stock (I have veggies in my freezer and asparagus and overwintered kale should be available soon in the fields, so I didn’t need any); but there was no equivalent sign on the frozen fruits. Why are people stocking up on frozen vegetables and not on frozen fruits?
– and I did something similar with my various purchases. Things that don’t care what temperature they’re at: left out in the car until I need them, or need the car, or it’s been a week or so, whichever comes first. Canned goods, which shouldn’t freeze, but don’t mind room temperature: set aside out of the way in the house until needed or I need the space for something else. Freezer items: I cleared a couple of baskets in the chest freezers, and all recent purchases are in there; I have other things I can eat first. Refrigerator items: set to one side of the refrigerator, left several days. Avocadoes, washed off with soap. Gloves I wore while doing this, set aside on sunny windowsill.
I feel kind of silly doing all that. But I’m doing it anyway.
went to the grocery store and then the warehouse store. I did this at 5pm to see how things were going. Grocery store still had toilet paper but no paper towels. They had everything else in stock except SPAM.
Warehouse store was out of all paper products, isopropyl alcohol and baking soda. I was surprised they limited purchases of vinegar. I use a lot of it for laundry.
Yeah, people have been going down a metaphorical list of cleaners. We’ve been cleaned out of hand sanitizer, alcohol, bleach, Lysol type cleaners, liquid soap, then bar soap, vinegar…
I expect at some point the baking soda will disappear for a week.
Fortunately, we’ve managed to get some stock on the shelves of all of the above except hand sanitizer.
They’ve also gone through the ass-wiping items like that - first toilet paper, then paper towels, paper napkins, “flushable” wipes, then folks figured out that adults could use the stuff in the baby aisle so that got wiped out…
I haven’t seen TP here in any of the stores; in fact paper goods are just plain gone. Safeway otherwise is pretty well stocked. Albertson 's was also pretty well stocked.
I’ve got 48 rolls of Charmin Ultra-Soft quadruple rolls in the basement (a 18-pack, two 9-packs, and a 12-pack). It all fits in a 20"x15"x17" cube, IOW, it all fits underneath the lowest shelf in the linen closet with plenty of room to spare.
But if someone has amassed a stash of hundreds of rolls, then I suppose they must have room in the basement or the garage. They better not have mice, though - they’d make a home in all that paper.
I was surprised to find wheat bran out of stock. I normally buy it on line from Amazon, they’ve usually got Bob’s Red Mill in stock. The stuff has a shelf life like cesium-137 so I buy a three pack of 20 ounce bags around once a year paying $15 for the five pounds, so three bucks a pound. I just looked yesterday to replenish my supply and all Amazon had was these little 8 ounce bags at $9.99 for a half pound.
Screw this I says and went directly to Bob’s Red Mill figuring even with shipping to beat that price, but Bob doesn’t have any either. Middle of June is when they figure to have more. I might have enough to last me until then, but it’s going to be close. Who the hell is buying up wheat bran in a pandemic? I figure a lot of people must be taking up baking in their copious free time.
I think home baking is a reasonable response to the current situation. If you can’t go out for fresh bread, you can make it at home. And although it takes some time, that’s one thing you now have plenty of.
Locally, the yeast was gone from the shelves long ago, along with flour and related baking items.
I had trouble finding corn meal. We use it just to coat the pizza stone when we make pizza. I had been running low before all of this and was just going to get some the next time we made a pizza. I’ve been looking for it for weeks and finally found one lonely package in Food Lion this week and I scooped it up!
The good news: still getting better. Had some TP, paper towels, etc. but shelves were still mostly bare in that area. Got a box of tissues and some wet wipes. Finally got some unsalted peanuts after weeks of being out. But that’s normal for this store for some reason. So a fairly good shopping trip.
The bad news: Our Idiot Governor. Announced Wed. that on Thursday that he would announce a shutdown starting Friday. (Couldn’t do it bang-bang because … reasons.) Now, grocery stores are excluded but I could tell that a lot of people didn’t get the message and were there stocking up before the shutdown goes into effect. Lots of people with overflowing carts (including bottled water :dubious:), even in the self checkout lines. Many more people than last week. Etc. Panic buyers are panic buying.
And the other idiots still abound. E.g., a guy with his cart parked smack dab in the middle of the aisle in front of the meat case talking on his cell phone. A cross aisle and in a busy area, so a lot of people trying to squeeze by him. Not the time to be forced to squeeze by someone. After the first 5 people trying to get by you’d think he’d have a clue, but no, cell phone more important, dude!
Was down to a quarter tank of gas. Usually my “get more” line. Was thinking of waiting since for now that’s going to be a month+ of gas. But habits die hard and I filled up. Well under $2 a gallon. (Or 19 cents in 1960 prices.) All this cheap gas and nowhere to go.
It’s getting easier to schedule grocery deliveries, although Walmart still has quantity limits on some items, such as sandwich rolls and Carnation Instant Breakfast. Still can’t get disinfectant spray or hand sanitizer. My 14th day of quarantine is tomorrow, so I won’t be venturing forth in person until Saturday.
I ordered today and I am getting a delivery tomorrow from Whole foods, last week I had to wait 5 days to get a delivery. Either less orders or more people doing the deliveries or both.
