waited 15 minutes to get into Whole Foods but it was not crowded at 10:30 am today
Hey, people - “keep six foot distance between you and others” applies to the store employees, too - we are not magically immune to the covid cooties.
I went to Costco Thursday. Got there at 8:20 or so – geezer hour is 8 to 9 on Thursday. The line snaked, doubling back on itself three times, around the corner of the building and at least halfway to the back. It moved reasonably quickly. I don’t know how long I waited – I didn’t want to deal with my phone with gloves on.
As I peered nearsightedly (my glasses were on top of my head since the mask kept causing them to fog over) at the others there, I found myself wondering what I would have said last Christmas if someone had told me that by Easter I’d have to wait in line to get i to Costco, with others who like me were wearing latex gloves and face masks.
It didn’t take long for the world to go topsy-turvy, did it?
We were daring yesterday and today.
Went to our regular “A” store yesterday. Not much change. A bit more meat on the shelves. Token amounts of TP, etc.
The “vibe” from our fellow shoppers is starting to feel Twilight Zone-ish. People walking around slowly, wearing masks, keeping away from others.
Jerk of the week: Slowly going down the center of the aisle ahead of us with a cart. Talking on the cell phone. Not wearing a mask (no surprise). No space to go past him. Had to just creep slowly behind him until the end of the aisle. OTOH, a lot of people were leaving their carts near the ends of aisles to quickly grab stuff and come back. That makes sense. Carts just slow you down, create bottlenecks, etc.
But we’re running low on stuff the “A” store is out of. Went to the “B” store today. Some odd differences:
They implemented a “one-way” system in the aisles. Signs and tape on the floor indicating which direction was allowed. Somewhat makes sense. Less of people passing other people, etc. But for people like us where we wanted just a few things in scattered aisles and Mrs. FtG is not terribly mobile, this couldn’t really be obeyed all that much. There’d have been too many near loops.
They had frozen veggies! Not a ton, but enough to allow Mrs. FtG to get stuff for her soups and such. The other store still only has “winners” like artichoke hearts and riced/creamed cauliflower. Why? This store has a 1 of each limit on frozen foods.
Another difference that’s odd. I told the bagging lady at store B I wanted to bag my own groceries and she smiled, said okay, and went to help someone else. But at store A I got a dirty look. Um, I always bag my own groceries anyway so this should never be a problem. And … given the situation this should be quite common. And she gets into a snit???
[QUOTE=ftg;22255629
Another difference that’s odd. I told the bagging lady at store B I wanted to bag my own groceries and she smiled, said okay, and went to help someone else. But at store A I got a dirty look. Um, I always bag my own groceries anyway so this should never be a problem. And … given the situation this should be quite common. And she gets into a snit???[/QUOTE]
Perhaps she thought you insulted her abilities or her health.
When I went to the grocery store two and a half weeks ago, you could bring in your own bags but if you wanted to use them you had to bag your own groceries. A while ago they waived the ten cent per bag fee. Yesterday, they didn’t allow you to bring your own bags in the store nor did they allow you to bag your own groceries.
The changes in stores from week to week is amazing.
I go to Trader Joe’s after my allergy shots. Last week you could use your own bag and they would hand you your item and you would put it in the bag. This week they would put your item back in the shopping thing and you would go to an area and bag your items away from the check out.
2 weeks ago there was an express lane in Whole Foods. This week the registers were gone and it is now self check out. The ice cream aisle has been hit hard.
Each day I count more people with mask. I live in a condo building and more people are wearing masks in the halls.
At my office the supply places stationary and line are showing June for cleaning supplies. We have taken to grabbing them when we see them in regular stores.
Instacart never manages to score paper goods, so yesterday I hit geezer hour at our primary grocery store. Everybody was masked and maintaining distance in line. Maybe a dozen of us. They had a presterilized rack of carts ready for us. Everybody headed straight to the paper goods aisle where, miracle of miracles they were fully stocked with product! Grabbed a 24 pack of Charmin megarolls and a 4-pack of Kleenex, which takes care of our paper needs for another couple of months. Still bupkis in the frozen veggie department however. Grabbed a handle of Tito’s and a handle of Bacardi, OJ, V-8, Coke and I was out the door and home to shower. Plastic shields between checker and customer now. Removable plastic film over the keys of the card reader. Can’t bring your own bags any more, so the garage now has a stack we will use as trash can liners for the next few years or so.
I went to Kroger for the first time in, I think, two weeks. For the most part everything looked pretty good. Meat, produce and fresh seafood all looked plentiful. Had TP, several brands and types, sign said one package per customer. Had paper towels, same restriction. I took my own Clorox wipes for the cart, nothing available from the store. Forgot to check for Lysol concentrate, still have some so OK on that.
Still unavailable:
Isopropyl alcohol
Hand sanitizer, checkout lady said they had some earlier today.
392 batteries to fit my digital thermometer.
I would say that fewer than 30% of customers and store employees were wearing masks. I had one in the truck, it’s a heavy duty one with replaceable screw on canister type filters and it’s kind of a bitch to deal with so I didn’t wear one either. If it had looked like most people entering/exiting the store were wearing masks…I probably would have worn mine. Most of the people wearing masks seemed to have homemade ones with poor fit and often pulled down off the face.
I went to Krogers also and they had everything except Spam. Maybe it’s because they’re always out but I have wanted to make a Spam and roasted potatoes casserole. they use to sell it as a shelf-stable meal and it was great. Clearly the sound of it was off-putting and nobody bought it.
I waited until 1:30 to see how things were going. There was still TP left so I bought some. It’s the most I’ve ever spent for groceries. My kitchen is well stocked.
Went to the liquor store. Wow, I had no idea how expensive alcohol was. Spent $140 and that will probably last me for years but I wanted some variety.
Went to Loews. It looked a family reunion or a school outing with all the kids. Got what I needed and left.
I’m ready for another month of hibernation.
That’s one high wattage thermometer you’ve got there. 
(Took me a second to realize the meaning. Shouldn’t have with my background.)
The store I shopped at yesterday has that set up, plus cones and yellow tape in all the open areas – like by the deli – to channelize the traffic. I had gone out of my way a bit to go the proper way down one aisle I knew I needed and this young couple goes by the wrong way jabbering at each other.
I gave them the stink eye but they were oblivious, then in the next aisle we met again. I said, “Hey, there are arrows on the floor for a reason, dum-dums.” They looked startled and scurried on past. I didn’t see them again.
Went to Costco yesterday. There were two full length aisles between the freezer sections filled with pallets of toilet paper. So maybe 20 pallets of toilet almost completely full. The optical department is closed except for pickup so I couldn’t get my sunglasses repaired. I’m tempted to take advantage of the seniors hours because the line was about 45 minutes long. I’d feel kind of bad because I’m not disabled in any way, but I think I’m kind of losing my mind, so maybe that helps.
Charmin or Kirkland? How old do you have to be to be considered senior?
I haven’t been to our local Costco in over a month but my boss was there the Friday before last and he only waited ten minutes to get in and there was plenty of everything.
Geezer age limit for Costco is 60.
A great thing about shopping at Costco right now … no kids and their self-absorbed parents! All the local Costcos have a two-person per membership limit inside the store.
A not so nice thing about Costco right now … too many self-absorbed people blocking the aisles and taking their sweet time. I go in, get what I need, get in line to pay, and get out as fast as possible. However, my efforts are often stymied waiting for people to just grab an item and move on.
Went to the local supermarket the other day. At the deli counter I ordered a pound of ham. The worker slicing the ham wore no mask and her face was maybe 8 inches from each slice of ham as it peeled of the slicer. To top it off, she was talking to a co-worker as she sliced.
I interrupted and told her I was not going to accept that product because she was not wearing a mask. She looked confused, then a bit huffy as another (masked) worker stepped in and re-started my order.
I noticed that they did plop the hunk of breathed-upon ham back into the deli display counter, presumably to sell to some unsuspecting ham buyer of the future.
mmm
Went to Kroger, first time since 4-17. Got there at about 3:30PM on a Friday.
Things looked pretty good but still no…
Isopropyl Alcohol
Lysol or any other disinfecting cleaners
Hand sanitizer
Didn’t look for disinfecting wipes but would bet they didn’t have them.
Had toilet paper, still limited to one package, paper towels with same limit.
Percentage of people wearing masks was about 30%. Some employees were wearing them, some not. An employee was spraying carts with something but I wasn’t sure if all the carts had been sprayed, just grabbed one.
Baking supplies at both Walmart and FoodsCo were devastated. Didn’t bother checking paper products, cleaning supplies, or alcohol/sanitizer. Walmart had gaps in the spice section and bread had been hit pretty hard. Both were pretty low at FoodsCo, but I got what I needed.
Did errands today for the first time in three weeks. It wound up being late afternoon.
Mennonite-run grocery: looked stocked as normal except that it had sprung a small display of paper towels, boxes of food-safe disposable gloves, and a couple of types of what looked like some kind of cleaning sanitizer, but I couldn’t figure out from the labels just what it was without picking up a bottle so I didn’t buy any. Maybe I should have bought a box of the gloves but I don’t need them yet. These are all items they don’t carry usually, though I expect they usually have the gloves and maybe the other stuff for their own use; but they don’t generally carry either paper goods or cleaning products. There seemed to be plenty of eggs, dairy, nuts, baked goods, frozen fruit and veg, and so on; and some fresh fruit and veg – they wouldn’t usually have much this time of year as the local stuff isn’t on yet.
I didn’t think to double check the baking aisle; I don’t need flours or yeast yet, and am near (I hope!) the time of year when I’m too busy outside to bake much.
Tractor Supply: plenty of cat litter and cat food. At a fast glance the rest of the place seemed normally supplied.
Tops standard grocery: about three 4-roll packs of toilet paper, a couple of paper towels, and a few odd-sized or off-brand boxes of facial tissue scattered around a whole lot of empty shelf space. I didn’t take any, not that low yet. No rubbing alcohol, no hydrogen peroxide – but locally made 80% alcohol hand sanitizer! (we have small distilleries around here, they seem to have mostly converted to making hand sanitizer; most of it’s gone straight to health care people so far, often as donations.) Several dozen bottles of it in an area of otherwise totally empty shelf; no limit sign; fairly late in the day. I had none in stock and took two, one to keep in each vehicle. (At home I’ve got soap and water; and still a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean off doorknobs etc. after errands or deliveries.) Clorox disinfecting bleach! in the middle of otherwise empty shelf space, probably a couple of dozen. One jug per customer. I’m about out of that and took one, I only use it occasionally but I do want some around. Meat aisle looked back to normal; ditto dairy. Limit sign on frozen vegetables. Fresh produce looked about normal. Plenty of cat food, almost no cat litter. Some other scattered gaps on the shelves, some of them seeming to follow no particular pattern. They didn’t have the corn chips I wanted. Plenty of potato chips, which I didn’t get because I have trouble stopping eating them. I can live without corn chips.
Nearly everybody wearing masks, or at least scarves or tube necks pulled up over their faces. Signs on stores pointing out that this is now legally required. Nearly everybody cooperating in staying apart. Traffic lighter than usual, but definitely traffic.