My local grocery chain always had sanitizing wipes in the cart area; in the last month each of the four stores I’ve been in* had the wipes-kiosks removed.
Possibly the wipes were being stolen, but I suspect they were removed on the advice of the corporation’s legal team. They may anticipate lawsuits based on “I depended on your sanitizing wipes but they failed to protect me and I got COVID-19, so I’m suing for $10 million” or the like.
*looking for a particular product needed to care for a family member, one visit per week or so.
Between the staff members organizing the cars in the lot, those carrying the food out and taking payment, and those inside–taking the orders, as well as assembling the orders once the kitchen finished dishes–it may be that some of these restaurants haven’t had to lay off any of their workers! Hope that’s the case.
The Baby Spinach container, wiped down regularly, with one end cut out, and alligator clips and elastic for straps makes a fairly good face shield. The spinach is good for you too.
My friends are making a Costco run tomorrow morning… leaving at 5:00 to make the beginning of the lineup for the opening of the “senior’s hour” at 8:00. Yikes. The local grocery stores here, NoFrills, The Independent, FreshCo, etc, have instituted rigorous physical distancing requirements. I do not know what Costco is like these days…
I survived Geezer Hour at the local Costco this morning–got there right at 0800 and there was a fairly long line but it moved quickly and I was in the store within ten minutes. They’ve set up pallet stacks to keep the lines orderly and had someone monitoring things to kick out those under 60, which they did not hesitate to do. It was odd seeing the place so empty but I’m okay with it. Still no boxes of exam gloves but there was TP and paper towels. I stocked up heavily on pet food so I won’t need to hit the place again for at least six weeks. They maintained social distance at the registers and every other lane was closed to keep people from bunching up. All in all I think they’re doing a good job accomodating quarantine protocols, kudos to Costco!
It is apparently impossible to obtain any cleaning products if one actually has to work and does not qualify for senior hours. (grouch) Can’t get disinfectant wipes for my desk no matter how hard I try, and I’m nearly out.
We are under 24-hour curfew. Nonetheless, we are allowed to go to the grocery store, so I did. Oddly the selection of toothpastes is not what it was. They are out of coffee filters, but that is an endless problem here.
There were two police checkpoints on the main roads. I managed to avoid both of them, a natural instinct of mine. The electronic signs on the highway has Big Scary Arabic letters “TWENTY-FOUR HOUR CURFEW! GO HOME!” So I did.
Now comes the scary part. When I reentered my compound, the guards ran my ID card through some sort of app. Someone is watching.
I made a run today to our nearest Costco (Folsom CA), over an hour away, for a prescription pickup since they’re way behind on mail orders. Not a lot traffic to get there but I’m not familiar with 7-8 AM traffic so I don’t know if that was significant. Costco parking lot was full, even in “senior” hours. Every cart leaving the store had two bales of toilet paper. I headed straight back to pharma, was told no isopropyl, gloves, or masks were on hand. Many unmasked staff were keeping the mostly masked patrons socially separated. I was glad to be gone.
Week 5 since the Fun Stuff started. First trip with facemasks on all the time.
Very little change. Meat cases still sparse. Mrs. FtG got a big package of chicken breasts by standing there until the guy with unpacking the boxes gave her one.
One oddity I have noticed lately. In the TP shelves there’s hardly been anything there. And yet I see TP in a lot of people’s carts. I.e., there is more TP on wheels in the store than on the shelves. Which implies a frequent restocking but I don’t see anyone doing that.
The looks on people’s faces have changed when someone gets too close. Before it was a look and a shrug. Now it’s more of a glare. This is just going to get worse.
I had to keep reminding Mrs. FtG: If you pick it up, you bought it. And she was in the germ business!
One new thing at checkout: Giant decals on the flooring indicating separation points while waiting.
I mentioned the small plastic shields at checkout last week. I looked closer at them. Yup, too small and in the wrong position. The normal clerk and customer positions are not separated. OTOH, there are now “bank” type shields at the customer service counter. Quite large with just a slot at the bottom for handing things thru.
Ran four errands today and hope to be done with all outings for at least two weeks.
Went to the vet to pick up my dog’s heartworm/flea/tick medicine. Called ahead and paid over the phone. Called them when I got there and they came out and dropped the medicine in through my open passenger side window. Perfect.
Went to Trader Joe’s. Waited in a well-spaced line outside while they only allowed a few people in at a time. It was still more crowded than I would have liked inside, but mostly easy to keep 6 feet between people. Everyone had masks on.
Went to Wegmans. It was a war zone. Nobody giving two shits about where they were in relation to other people. Saw one entire family with both parents and three kids. Many couples. Way too crowded. About half the people with masks on. As I was leaving, they had a security crew setting up to only allow a limited amount of people in at a time. I think that’s in effect for our state starting tomorrow for all grocery stores.
Went to the ABC Store (state liquor store). I was the only person there with a mask, but there were only about 10 people in there, so not crowded at all.
Now I’m done. Plenty of food, snacks, and bourbon to get us through for a minimum of two weeks. I don’t plan to leave our property at all, except to walk the dog.
Went to Wal-Mart this morning in New Hamp-shaa. There wasn’t any toilet paper on the shelves and there were signs saying for customers to buy one package each. The food was largely back in stock unlike a few weeks ago when ramen and pasta was all sold out.
I was wearing a bandanna as a makeshift mask. I would say roughly 2/3rds of the customers were not wearing any sort of mask. The store really wasn’t that busy though.
Similar to my experience yesterday at the supermarket. Didn’t look like they were missing anything except there were not disinfecting wipes and no TP. Plenty of meat, frozen goods, etc. As another poster noted, there was sign saying 1 package of TP per customer, but nothing on the shelf. There were even some cases of ramen!
That was my first trip to the store wearing a mask, I would say 1/3 of customers were wearing masks. My mom sewed my whole family masks including the kids, but they’re never going to get to wear theirs because they’re not going anywhere until this is over!
I haven’t been hoarding, but I have been doing a lot of grabbing an extra one of something I’m getting anyway. Keeping an eye out for meat to freeze, etc. Buying two loaves of bread and freezing one. My shopping trips are getting expensive, between stocking up and having to feed 2 adults, a teenage boy, and a 4 year old 3 meals a day plus.
On the bright side, yesterday I gassed up my car for the first time in probably 3 weeks.
ETA: Oh yeah, and tape at the end of each aisle indicating direction of travel, alternative every 2 aisles. I didn’t notice initially and felt like a dick when I realized I had been going against the flow a couple times.
Finally got my new eyeglasses - ordered them nearly two months ago after an eye exam, it’s taken this long to get them in. Curbside pickup, went smoothly. Fortunately, they are a backup pair and not a needed new prescription.
Finally got ahold of the eBay seller I use - they’re still in business of a sort, selling stuff on line. Still selling the stuff I left with them two months ago (are you sensing a pattern here? I am). Arranged to get a check from them early next week.
OK, business is still sort of getting done…
I go back to work tomorrow. The five days off has been nice, now it’s back to the grocery store, this time with facemasks in tow.
I went in to work to clean up and please the Fire Marshall after our building was disinfected, then to Kroger wearing my mask. About half the customers were masked. No limit on entrance. No shortage of meat. I didn’t check on toiler paper, Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) takes care of that. No glares, but I apologized to people I got too close to. Check out clerks were wearing masks, but not the folks stocking shelves, which surprised me.
Do you suppose the folks with a cart full of toilet paper offer to sell it to other customers?
My eyeglasses BROKE a couple of weeks ago! It was a minor sort of break, but it alarmed me. But I emailed the optician, and she called me back a couple days later, when she stopped by her office to pay the rent. She rustled up the parts I needed and mailed them to me. I fixed them the other day. Much happier, now.
Either stores are not enforcing their alleged limits on certain products or they’re just not restocking. FIVE stores this morning, within an hour of their opening, and not a pack of cleaning wipes to be had. No way to get them online without paying price-gouging hoarder locusts, either.
