I suggest meat-eaters stock up and freeze meat: Covid-19 is very common in meat packing plants so there is a lot of absenteeism and plant closures–and the situation is getting steadily worse.
I went to Tesco yesterday morning at 8:30. They have an OAP hour from 9 to 10. Looking around the queue (about 20 minutes) I saw very few masks, maybe 2 or 3%.
Stock in the store was nearly back to normal and I got everything on my list. TP/tissue shelves were full, even some reduced price multi-packs. The only shortage I noticed was flour and yeast. We don’t need any yet so that was no problem. There was a guy on TV explaining why flour was still in short supply, even though the flour mills were running at capacity: Apparently flour in small retail-sized bags is only a tiny part of their normal production. The vast majority of their output goes out in tankers or 50Kg bags. Apparently, some small retailers are now bagging it up on the premises.
It looks like at least another two or three weeks before we will see restrictions being relaxed. The latest worry is the sick (non-COVID) people who won’t go to hospital, even though they should.
I’ve been doing that already, along with fish. Also laid in a supply of non-meat protein like tofu (which you can freeze) beans, and nuts.
Our customer level was falling off for the past week, but yesterday it just exploded. Found out later that a bunch of people in Illinois got their unemployment, including the extra money per week, which would certainly account for that (the store is about 5 miles from the state line, so we get a lot of Illinois people shopping in Indiana).
Unfortunately, this coincided with a coworker being officially diagnosed with covid-19, meaning anyone who worked closely with that person is now in 2 week quarantine, which has decimated available staff. Meaning we had trouble keeping register lines open.
One customer was really digging into me about the lack of register staff, about how [expletive] stupid we all were and how incompetent management was and so on. I finally snapped, looked her directly in the eye, and said:
Me: “Do you really want to know why we don’t have more registers open?”
Her: “Yeah. What [expletive] excuse could you have that isn’t stupid?”
Me: “We’re no more immune to illness than anyone else, and today half our staff is out sick. Yes, half the people scheduled to work today. And bunch of them are out sick because they’re in quarantine because of this virus. If you know anyone looking for work right now tell them to apply because we’re hiring to replace the people going out on sick leave”
Her: shocked silence
So, please, everyone, if the store you’re at is short-staffed please be patient. Unless you’re prefer people with this virus to be handling your food. WTF is with these people who think essential workers are magically immune?
Oh, and mask-wearing is now mandatory for staff. Wish it was mandatory for customers, too. Also wish people could figure out how to wear a mask. Pro-tip: it is not a hairnet for your beard. Don’t get me wrong, avoiding dropping beard hairs in the food is a good thing, but it’s not helpful for viral illness prevention.
Yeah, a friend of mine every year organizes a few of us to share half a cow from a small family farm and goes to the small family processing plant in Wisconsin to pick it up. She is going in a couple of weeks. I hope there is a lot more of that kind of thing - people should know where their food comes from. (And the price can’t be beat!)
I went to CostCo during their geezer hours the other day and they were using cart snakes to channelize the the entrance. Just short of the entrance someone was doing a dual ID check – membership and age – and folks would automatically grab for a cart from the snake at her side. “Nope. Get one inside the store – they’ve been sanitized.”
Inside was another diminishing snake and when I left just outside someone was wiping down a snake prior to shoving it inside the store.
I ordered toilet paper from costco online. Since I did not get it get I was going to go to the local store. But I got an email saying it was ready to ship, saved me a trip.
I went to the local grocery store today and for the first time in 6 or 7 weeks, I didn’t see anything that was unavailable. There was toilet paper, hand soap, flour, rice, paper towels, etc. These things were limited to 1 each, but for the first time I felt like the stock was getting back to normal. I bought a 12 pack of Cottonelle and breathed a sign of relief!
The one thing I have not been able to find at all since this started is Kraft Honey Mustard dressing. I don’t even really love the stuff, but with the restrictions of shopping I wanted to pick some up for a change of pace. And now it is a forbidden fruit, I must have some.
But I have not seen any in 6 weeks now at several stores. 2 places have a constant hole on the shelf, and the other 2 have no existing trace of there ever having been Kraft Honey Mustard dressing, with full shelves of the rest of the dressings presenting row after row of unbroken phalanxes.
Ken’s Honey Mustard dressing sucks. Newman’s is good, but just a whole different non comparable thing.
That is the most bizarre thing. I went and checked on Amazon, Target, Walmart…sure enough, sold out. What in the world??
A lot of companies are using their machinery to make the most popular products. Any change over time means a loss of production. That’s why you see like three types of Oreos in the store instead of the usual twenty or whatever. They are probably full time making stuff like mayonnaise.
Along that line, my local Safeway is selling lots of bulk liquid hand sanitizer - not gel but liquid - it’s in wine bottles! I think the cooking sherry manufacturer has re-purposes their alcohol and bottles. 
Probably. Distilleries around here are switching to hand sanitizer production. Sherry itself isn’t high enough alcohol, but it’s fortified with high-proof brandy, so the sherry manufacturer probably has either a distillery or a stock of high-test.
I managed to escape with a 30-roll package of TP. Yes, the shrimp in herbs. Yes, the almonds and seaweed. The tuna. The cherry juice. The beer. The water. The juice.
Costco is pretty weird all right. I’m a hoarder all of a sudden, and they cater to it.
Sometimes you can buy like a $1000 container of Mountain Home there. People were joking about it just a few months ago, I bet it sounds like a decent idea right now.
Do you mean Mountain House?
I call my stash of Mountain House food my “Armageddon food”. For really dire emergencies. Shelf life of 30 years. Doesn’t taste too bad either. Not as good as fresh, but if you’re eating it you’re probably in a situation where access to fresh stuff and/or gourmet restaurants don’t exist anyway.
The beef stroganoff is, IMO, the best of the flavors. Apparently a lot of other people agree since even before the pandemic it was often sold out.
I don’t have a huge bucket it of it, but enough for me for a week or so. Not the cheapest but you only have to buy it every three decades or so, it’s compact, lightweight, and only needs hot water and a few minutes to get ready to eat.
Yes House of course. Some of it is delicious. The desserts are really pretty good, maybe breakfast is the weakest point but still serviceable.
Went to Costco early this afternoon, hoping to score some higher-quality meat than what Kroger offers via curbside pickup. I left moderately disappointed in the meat selection (four ribeyes and something called pork loin tip roast), but got all my favorite junk food, eggs, milk, coffee, and other staples that are usually better than Kroger or Meijer, too.
Stocked up on some wine, but our Costco isn’t allowed to sell liquor because they’re in a stupid, protectionist city (both Costcos are in the same city!), so I may still go a Kroger pickup order that I have a reservation for Thursday. I’ll have to ask the neighbors if they need anything, though, because I feel a little bad using a coveted pickup slot for Mumbai Sapphire and tonic water.
Huh when I went to Costco last they were overflowing in meat.
Before all of this started, my stash consisted entirely of leftover Mountain House from backpacking. Now, I pick up something to add to the stash every time I go out, cans of stuff or boxes of tuna helper. The Costco trip yielded me an 8-pack of pork and beans.
The difference now is I am living off the stash. Cans for lunch. Beans for dinner. My personal spending has just about collapsed- I am living like a homeless person who got a few handouts.
Anyway, if my Costco sells Mountain House, I have never seen it. But hooray for cheap beer!
Costco liquor is magnitudes cheaper than anywhere else, that defeats part of the purpose of a Costco membership!
It’s mostly an online order thing, but sometimes the bring it in the store to advertise, I don’t know how regularly but coworkers were discussing maybe in Jan or Feb this year. There’s only one online right now, 90 pouches for $490.