Shopping and restocking updates

[Calico]

DW drove to CVS today (twice) to get some allergy meds but the parking lot was packed so she skipped it. It is right outside our neighborhood, actually in walking distance. She's going to try again when they open in the morning.

Problem is so many "non-essential" stores are closed that the "essential" stores are swamped for essential and "non-essential*" items.

*who has the POWER to decide?

I received an email tonight from my local CVS, where I have several prescriptions on file, that they are now offering free delivery of Rx and some other items, in an effort to cut down on traffic in the store. Currently the offer is in effect until May 1, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was extended when the time comes. Apparently the offer varies by store, but you might want to check with your local CVS to see if they are offering this service.

 

[6miths]

Stopped in at grocery store to pick up a few things. Pretty well stocked even with TP. I picked up a 24 pack in case the kids need some. Costco has been low on TP but always seems to have kleenex, paper towels and baby wipes. Not the Lysol wipes it seems. Not many people out these days except walking for exercise.

 

[Chuckanut]

Problem is so many "non-essential" stores are closed that the "essential" stores are swamped for essential and "non-essential*" items.

Yup. And you will notice that it is the small businesses that are shut down, the clothing shop, the hardware store, the brewery, the craft store etc. Meanwhile the mega-stores that sell groceries, can also sell anything else.

Meanwhile the banks and the Feds still can't get the aid to small businesses straight. Apparently, the banks think there is something in the new regulations that make them responsible if a loan to small business goes bad. So I've been told. Perhaps more knowledgeable people can confirm or refute this.

 

[USGrant1962]

DW went back to CVS at opening this morning and there were only one or two customers there, so solved.

 

[MBAustin]

Went to the farmers' market as usual. Not crowded because it is 45 and raining this morning - we were supposed to be done with cold weather until fall but I'm really not complaining as I'm sure it will be hotter than hades soon. My regular vendors were all there and the farmers said their crops are in great shape.

Went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for DH but forgot that the pharmacy didn't open until 10 so had some time to kill. No hand sanitizer or disinfectants (except toilet bowl cleaner, which doesn't seem to be scarce anywhere). I bought some hair bands to improve my makeshift mask and some floss for DH. Then I realized I needed one picture printed for a scrapbook project and it was on my phone, so I ordered it to be printed. Got the prescription and then the photo - score! Store was not crowded.

Unless something unexpected happens, I'm in until Wednesday grocery shopping except for dog walking. Getting tired of this.

 

[gwraigty]

In my area, I noticed that store shelves are much fuller this week, looking almost normal across most of the store. Exceptions were paper products, of course, and maybe some empty places in fresh meats. It lifted my spirits some to see this. Then I learned that there's been an incredible surge in the number of people lining up for the local free food giveaways that are now taking place regularly in my community. At one, they reported that they served over 800 families, up from over 200 the week before. Wow.

I have a friend who works for a local school district in food service. We were chatting on Facebook the other day. At first, they were giving out free meals daily for kids in the district. It got to be too much logistically, so they switched to giving a few days worth of meals at once on just 2 days per week. They had to pack the allotment of meals into boxes, which led to the district telling parents they didn't need to bring their kids anymore. So my friend said there is no verification that the people they're giving these meals to even have kids in the district. She said that they ran out of food during the last meal distribution, because more and more people are coming all the time. Some people are claiming they have as many as 5 kids, which she knows isn't true, but they have to give it to them anyway.

Now the food banks are running out of food because they're not getting the normal donations from the grocery stores. That won't change anytime soon, since the grocery stores are trying to make sure they can keep enough food in stock for their paying customers. The food banks have just made an appeal to the state for over $21M so they can buy food.

So I now suspect that our local grocery shelves are getting back to a more normal supply only because of the large numbers of people hitting up all the free food giveaways. I've read local comments that some are doing this only because they're tired of seeing empty store shelves, or they're shopping for others who are afraid to go out shopping, and not because they (or the people they claim to be shopping for) don't have the money to buy food, which is not who these acts of charity are intended for. If the food banks run out of food to supply these giveaways, these people are going to be right back at the grocery store again, causing a fresh strain on the grocery supply.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I braved Kroger early this Sunday morning. Lots more people wearing masks, the store has installed the shields at each cashier, and there were people at the entrances sanitizing carts (but only the handles, not the edges all around where one is likely to grab - I asked for that).

Anyway, the TP and paper towel aisle was still barren, as was the flour section. No acetaminophen to be found. A sign said limit two cartons of eggs per customer but there were plenty in the cooler. Produce was a bit skimpy, but probably no more than usual after getting picked over on a Saturday.

 

[6miths]

Everything but Lysol wipes at local Costco now and even some bonus items like bottles of 99% alcohol. No Kirkland brand TP but lots of Charmin. Not many people buying it anymore. The rush on that front seems to be past. Gorgeous spring day!

 

[jollystomper]

Sometime you find things when you are not looking for them. I had to go to Walmart yesterday to get a part to fix a minor (thank goodness) plumbing issue. Fortunately that area of the store was empty. after getting that part I went down the paint aisle on my way out, and noticed a few boxes of latex gloves where there. 1 to a customer, at a "normal" price - box of 50 for $3.00.

 

[audreyh1]

Wearing a mask while shopping is a good idea. But not to protect you from the virus. It’s to protect others from you in case you cough or sneeze and release droplets onto surfaces. But again, even if others do this, you will be fine as long as you don’t touch your face and frequently wash your hands. So the mask is to protect others from you, not the other way around.

I do believe that wearing a mask (plus eye protection and gloves) protects me as well as others. It keeps me from touching my face while out, which is a biggie. But I also think it will reduce my exposure to things other people spew into the air inside a store, even from just talking. Maybe not 100%, but a lot. I don’t think our public health officials have been honest about masks not protecting us. Of course I’ll be careful with removal and always clean my hands ASAP.

 

[stepford]

I just had my first grocery delivery experience, from Von's in Southern California (Safeway/Albertson's chain). As others have warned it was only a qualified success. Staples like fresh fruit, meat, cheese, milk and eggs came as ordered, but miscellaneous specialty food (yogurt, dried fruit, juices) was very hit or miss. I got about 2/3rd of what I ordered. I didn't even bother trying for unobtanium like paper or cleaning products.

Fortunately I've already signed up for another delivery slot later this week from a competing grocery chain in town from which I will attempt to make up the shortfall. I suspect that similar gaps will occur there as well and I'll just need to play the trial and error ordering game.

To be fair this is strictly a comfort rather than a survival issue. The delivery is plenty to live on. It's just nice to have some of one's favorite treats when trapped.

 

[SumDay]

I can't find Borax (20 Mule Team). Target is out and Amazon is selling it for four times what I paid a couple of months ago.

What are people doing with it? I use it in my laundry.

I use it in my laundry too. It used to be ~$2 and now my store has it for $5.99.

DH used to have a blacksmith forge and used Borax when he was blacksmithing. He says they're probably hoarding it in case we have to go back to horse & buggies.

 

[MBAustin]

Went to Home Depot to pick up an order I'd placed online (their pickup locker system for small items is very slick, much better than Lowes' disorganized shelves). On the way home stopped at HMart (large Asian market) to see if I could get some brown rice, which has been out of stock at my normal store for 3 weeks. Score! Plenty of various types of brown rice. Store looked well-stocked and nearly everyone (staff and customers) were masked. Unfortunately, they are still stocking during the day so many of the aisles were half-blocked with boxes and stock clerks, making social distancing difficult.

 

[mountainsoft]

Went grocery shopping today. TP out of stock again, but fully stocked on Kleenex if you were desperate. Still no flour, rice, or dried beans. I finally found a pack of yeast this trip, but I took the last one so they're out of stock again. Pasta still low stock, but had the essentials. Oddly enough, most of the potato chips were gone. Otherwise, the store seemed well stocked.

 

[Ready]

Someone took a photo of our local Costco yesterday with 75 pallets of toilet paper all lined up on the floor. It looked like 1/4 of the store was toilet paper.

I got there today around noon and it was all sold out. No paper towels or cleaning supplies either. Everything else looked like normal inventory levels though. And the majority of people were wearing masks.

 

[brewer12345]

Met my pastured pork dude and loaded up the freezer. He ended up with over 60 pounds of cuts, more than he estimated. I think I cleaned him out. Poor guy is a boat mechanic at a local dealer and he said he is about to either go on greatly reduced hours or get laid off.

 

[ncbill]

Met my pastured pork dude and loaded up the freezer. He ended up with over 60 pounds of cuts, more than he estimated. I think I cleaned him out. Poor guy is a boat mechanic at a local dealer and he said he is about to either go on greatly reduced hours or get laid off.

There was an article in the local paper here about people going to butcher shops for the first time ever because they couldn't find he meat they wanted in the local grocery stores...I bet this generates repeat business for those shops.

 

[audreyh1]

We have a wonderful country meat market that raises their own heritage pork - Berkshire and it’s very tasty. Wherever they get their chickens the chickens are smaller than the monster sized chickens you see in a regular grocery store.

It’s a super popular meat market anyway. People come from far away to stock up. The week of Mar 17 when we first arrived it was insane. We stocked up big time.

 

[Midpack]

Went to Costco yesterday afternoon, and they had quite a bit of TP, both Charmin and Kirkland Signature - though it was still limit 1 per customer. That's the first time I've seen TP there since the hoarders started their nonsense. And I didn't study every shopper, but I didn't see TP in every shopping cart this time. Unless I just got lucky hitting a restock, hopefully the hoarding nonsense will be over soon...

 

[donheff]

We have a wonderful country meat market that raises their own heritage pork - Berkshire and it’s very tasty. Wherever they get their chickens the chickens are smaller than the monster sized chickens you see in a regular grocery store.

It’s a super popular meat market anyway. People come from far away to stock up. The week of Mar 17 when we first arrived it was insane. We stocked up big time.

I read an analysis that said the bulk of the problem is mismatched supply chains. Commercial TP for work and hotels is a different beast than our retail rolls. The former is piling up. More people are moving their movements home so the retail demand is legitimately high. There are some similar mismatches in the commercial and retail food supply chains.

 

[donheff]

Went to Costco yesterday afternoon, and they had quite a bit of TP, both Charmin and Kirkland Signature - though it was still limit 1 per customer That's the first time I've seen TP there since the hoarders started their nonsense. And I didn't study every shopper, but I didn't see TP in every shopping cart this time. Unless I just got lucky hitting a restock, hopefully the hoarding nonsense will be over soon...

I read an analysis that said the bulk of the problem is mismatched supply chains. Commercial TP for work and hotels is a different beast than our retail rolls. The former is piling up. More people are moving their movements home so the retail demand is legitimately high. There are some similar mismatches in the commercial and retail food supply chains.

 

[Sue J]

We picked up an order from Walmart yesterday. A few items were satisfactorily substituted and a couple were out of stock. Biggest disappointment was a pork loin that was out of stock. Darn!

The Walmart pickup ordering site is very easy to use and even after you submit you have plenty of time to edit, add, delete, change anything you want. But paper towels, toilet paper and napkins are always unavailable. As "stepford" said in an earlier post, "unobtanium".

We got everything home and had a few things we did not order, two bags of frozen items that included a tub of raspberry sherbet, fudge caramel ice cream bars and a box of 20 orange creamsicles! It's like the Lucky Grocery Lottery! Last week it was a bag of 4 Teriaki Noodle Bowl kits. We let them know that we got someone else's stuff and they did not want it back. I haven't had an orange creamsicle in decades so I don't know what we are going to do with these.

I wonder if a family with kids is missing these items or if Walmart is offloading stuff from their inventory to make room for more important stuff. I should look for a family with kids in the neighborhood since this is taking up a lot of room in my freezer.

On April 1 we ordered postage stamps from USPS. DH used to get these at checkout at the grocery store. We also can go into the local USPS lobby and use the self serve kiosk. Easy enough, but now that involves door handles and kiosk buttons, etc so I decided it was worth it to pay the $1.30 shipping to not have to go there. According to USPS Informed Delivery these left Kansas City on April 3rd, expected here yesterday. Nope, they are still in transit, arrival unknown. My postage stamps, purchased from USPS, are lost in the email! Eh, I'm sure they will turn up and we still have a few stamps left.

 

[youbet]

Made a trip to Sam's yesterday morning. They were limiting access and had a private security guard monitoring the waiting line. I was able to go straight in because I had pre-ordered on line and had been notified that my order was ready for pickup.

Once inside, I asked the clerk if I could add to my pre-picked order and was told that would be no problem. So I charged off and grabbed TP, paper towels and facial tissue for my son's family and meat (nice selection available and even some items on sale), wine and beer, flour, sugar, lactose free milk, yogurt, peanut butter, fresh fruit and some other odds and ends for us all.

Still no yeast or disinfectants on the shelves that I noticed.

Frankly, we've been eating rather high on the hog since this all started. Amazon Fresh and Whole Food deliveries have been very good. And this trip to Sam's ensured we're good for the next 2 - 3 weeks during which I plan to stay isolated as both DW and I are high risk.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Dunno, but here you go: https://www.bulkapothecary.com/product/raw-ingredients/other-ingredients-and-chemicals/borax/?sku=M-015-chem-89&gclid=CjwKCAjwvZv0BRA8EiwAD9T2VWZiUKym27IhD8gZQPvyHHB3ise0iT3GlChNsT0PgwOoOrGI9avreRoCCpQQAvD_BwE

I too am (now) curious as to its use that would make it 'scarce'.

Follow up to my own post. One use (I wasn't aware of) is that it is used as an Ant killer (and it is Ants in the house season here). https://www.mashupmom.com/yes-borax-got-rid-of-the-ants/

 

[Sojourner]

Follow up to my own post. One use (I wasn't aware of) is that it is used as an Ant killer (and it is Ants in the house season here). https://www.mashupmom.com/yes-borax-got-rid-of-the-ants/

Yep, that's what I use it for. Actually, it works really well at controlling cockroaches, too. Cheap and effective... a 16 oz. bottle usually goes for around $3 at Lowe's.