Grocery Shopping

[geeky_grrl]

Safeway recently added curbside and delivery to the store near me. They had a coupon for the first order so I used it as an excuse to stock up. It went much more smoothly than my last grocery curbside order from Fred Meyer in the Spring. Only one item out of a large order was out of stock and the delivery was right at the beginning of the time window.

My freezer is stocked up enough now to make it through winter. Maybe things will be getting better by then.

 

[RocketGirl]

During height of the pandemic we exclusively did contactless pickup but now that we live in a place with super low cases we've been heading in more than I like. As winter hits and we inevitably see cases here we will probably go back to not going in. Masking indoors has been the rule here since July but I find there are a lot of masks below noses (or some without) and it makes me so unsettled. I am the type to always smile and be friendly and Covid has turned me into a person that gives the stink eye to anyone not "following the rules". I don't enjoy that - I hope we return to an easier way of like by the end of 2021

 

[ivinsfan]

During height of the pandemic we exclusively did contactless pickup but now that we live in a place with super low cases we've been heading in more than I like. As winter hits and we inevitably see cases here we will probably go back to not going in. Masking indoors has been the rule here since July but I find there are a lot of masks below noses (or some without) and it makes me so unsettled. I am the type to always smile and be friendly and Covid has turned me into a person that gives the stink eye to anyone not "following the rules". I don't enjoy that - I hope we return to an easier way of like by the end of 2021

My county is really strange. We had a spike from our meatpacking plant in early May. It took around 5 or 6 days to get a Walmart pickup spot.

Now we have pretty wide community spread with some plant spread too. I can get a pickup spot at Walmart in less then 24 hours. Last time I did a pickup I was the only car in 12 spots the entire time. The WalMart parking lot was full of cars..

 

[tmm99]

My county is really strange. We had a spike from our meatpacking plant in early May. It took around 5 or 6 days to get a Walmart pickup spot.

Now we have pretty wide community spread with some plant spread too. I can get a pickup spot at Walmart in less then 24 hours. Last time I did a pickup I was the only car in 12 spots the entire time. The WalMart parking lot was full of cars..

Same here. I could only get a spot a week ahead at the beginning but I believe it was because masking in stores wasn't mandated yet. Once the masking was mandated, pickup spots for the next day became available.

 

[ivinsfan]

Same here. I could only get a spot a week ahead at the beginning but I believe it was because masking in stores wasn't mandated yet. Once the masking was mandated, pickup spots for the next day became available.

I still don't get the change in behavior. My last order was a big one as we had been busy farming and were really low on food. It would have taken a minimum of an hour inside the Walmart. I spent 10 minutes online clicking my favorites into my cart, and 3 minutes waiting in the pickup area. I don't care if you wear a mask and sanitize, there is no upside to going inside the store for that long.

 

[Sunset]

I still don't get the change in behavior. My last order was a big one as we had been busy farming and were really low on food. It would have taken a minimum of an hour inside the Walmart. I spent 10 minutes online clicking my favorites into my cart, and 3 minutes waiting in the pickup area. I don't care if you wear a mask and sanitize, there is no upside to going inside the store for that long.

I agree, time spent grocery shopping was such a waste in the past, now that I've tried Walmart pickup I know better.

Thankfully what holds most folks back is they want to personally pick the banana and are afraid of getting a mushy one. Over the past months I've only been disappointed a few times and nothing serious, and nothing where I've thrown out the item.

I've probably saved about 24 hours of my life by not shopping inside since Covid

 

[Rushmore]

I agree, time spent grocery shopping was such a waste in the past, now that I've tried Walmart pickup I know better.

Thankfully what holds most folks back is they want to personally pick the banana and are afraid of getting a mushy one. Over the past months I've only been disappointed a few times and nothing serious, and nothing where I've thrown out the item.

I've probably saved about 24 hours of my life by not shopping inside since Covid

Same here. Actually the only time the produce was marginal was when I ordered two avacodoes . I would have personally picked one riper and one harder. They picked two harder one so I had to switch my menu around a little

 

[geeky_grrl]

I'll probably go back to in person shopping once I feel safe. I bargain shop a lot - I did a lot of my shopping at Grocery Outlet to get good deals, and I'd buy most of my bread at the Franz bread outlet store. Even at Fred Meyer I would end up getting a lot of marked down items. I'd find a lot of produce that still seemed perfectly good on the $1 a bag rack or find meat that was near its sell by date marked way down.

I don't feel like I save that much time doing my grocery shopping online if I count ordering time plus time waiting for them to bring my groceries out. But my trips to the store generally were under 30 minutes.

I will probably continue to buy some things online to be delivered though. I've found Target online has better prices for a lot of dry goods than my local stores do so I may continue to get those items shipped.

 

[iloveyoga]

Same here. Actually the only time the produce was marginal was when I ordered two avacodoes . I would have personally picked one riper and one harder. They picked two harder one so I had to switch my menu around a little

Overall with my Walmart deliveries they have picked out produce that was as good or better as what I would have picked. I have wondered if they can get some of it in the back room before it comes to front....my bananas have been very nice.

 

[Koolau]

<SNIP>

I don't care if you wear a mask and sanitize, there is no upside to going inside the store for that long.

I very respectfully disagree. It's not for everyone and I don't recommend it for anyone else. For ME, going to Costco for groceries and other odds and ends makes me feel NORMAL, even if only for a time. I DO shop somewhat by sight and feel. I make a list, but I always see something I had forgotten to list.

Since the great TP and sanitizer debacle, Costco (at least "ours") is rarely "crowded." If it is, there is a LINE just to get in - and I just go back home until the next day. I've not seen that line for a couple of months now, so INSIDE it's no longer crowded. Even the check outs move more quickly!

Having some "normalcy" in my life is worth the very small risk of Covid. We are doing well on Island though I'm not sure how long that will last now that tourism is opening a bit. BUT at Costco, and less-so SafeWay, I feel relatively confident that I can social distance AND everyone wears a mask or they don't go in. It's da law!

Okay, what's this concept of "normalcy?" Probably not even an issue for vast proportions of the population, BUT it must be an issue to some. Suicides, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, undiagnosed illness, etc. etc. are rampant. The 15 year old daughter of a friend recently committed suicide so it does seem close. Can't blame everything on Covid or 2020 but it would not be wise to ignore the effects of lock downs, wearing 'funny' masks, social distancing, lack of hugs, no dinners with friends, no church, etc. etc. (I threw away my 25 year old button I used to wear to church. It showed a cartoon bear, obviously very cross, saying "Don't you dare hug me!") Heh, heh, in the face of Covid, I threw away my "defining" statement. I am CHANGED! YMMV

 

[Amethyst]

That's horrible. I am so sorry! Poor little girl, poor parents.

The 15 year old daughter of a friend recently committed suicide so it does seem close. V

 

[ivinsfan]

Koolau, I get your point and my post before the post you quoted mentioned that my county is in an outbreak right now. Around 40K population running at 225 new cases a week. I meant for my local Walmart that there was too much risk to swap out one hour of in person shopping for pick up.

So I don't consider the risk "very small" , it might not be high, but it certainly isn't "very small"..

 

[tmm99]

I still don't get the change in behavior. My last order was a big one as we had been busy farming and were really low on food. It would have taken a minimum of an hour inside the Walmart. I spent 10 minutes online clicking my favorites into my cart, and 3 minutes waiting in the pickup area. I don't care if you wear a mask and sanitize, there is no upside to going inside the store for that long.

I'm one of those people with changed behaviour with new mask mandates in stores. It was way too risky to shop inside stores and my grocery pickup locations were quite limited. And the prices where I could do curbside were relatively high (the curbside pickup prices were slightly higher than shopping inside as well) and they were very often out of items that were on sale. It was quite frustrating. Now that everyone must wear a mask in stores, I go in to shop at discount grocery stores or stores with wide aisles. Before I go, I make a list by category and go through stores quickly. I wear masks (double with a filter in the middle), goggles, a baseball cap and gloves.

I enjoy grocery shopping and finding/picking up great buys, etc. With the pandemic slated to stay for a while, I opt to go inside stores (when it's not busy) for my mental health.

Having said that, I wouldn't go shop at Walmart as it seems really crowded all the time.

 

[jollystomper]

I very respectfully disagree. It's not for everyone and I don't recommend it for anyone else. For ME, going to Costco for groceries and other odds and ends makes me feel NORMAL, even if only for a time. I DO shop somewhat by sight and feel. I make a list, but I always see something I had forgotten to list.

I agree with this. I feel as safe grocery shopping as I do driving. I can be the safest driver in the world and can still get into a car accident. But that does not stop me from driving. I take my precautions when shopping, and see the majority of other folks taking precautions as well. Those that do not - well, like driving, I have learned how to look all around and "in the distance" to anticipate and hopefully avoid situations. Again, this is me, your mileage may vary.

I went to Costco at noon, it was a little more crowded than I had seen in a while, but it was easy to distance and the checkouts were moving quickly. My "spidey sense" tells me with cases rising and next weeks election, there is enough fear/uncertainly/lockdown potential (or however the media chooses to portray it ) for the upcoming weeks that it is good to be well stocked. I did our quarterly PT & TP purchase. They also had hand sanitizer on sale, 32 oz for $4.99.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm one of those people with changed behaviour with new mask mandates in stores. It was way too risky to shop inside stores and my grocery pickup locations were quite limited. And the prices where I could do curbside were relatively high (the curbside pickup prices were slightly higher than shopping inside as well) and they were very often out of items that were on sale. It was quite frustrating. Now that everyone must wear a mask in stores, I go in to shop at discount grocery stores or stores with wide aisles. Before I go, I make a list by category and go through stores quickly. I wear masks (double with a filter in the middle), goggles, a baseball cap and gloves.

I enjoy grocery shopping and finding/picking up great buys, etc. With the pandemic slated to stay for a while, I opt to go inside stores for my mental health.

Again in post 1678 I mention my county is in the middle of another big outbreak and I'm referring to the habits of the people living here. This is the complete opposite of what happened during our first big spike in cases.

 

[Koolau]

Koolau, I get your point and my post before the post you quoted mentioned that my county is in an outbreak right now. Around 40K population running at 225 new cases a week. I meant for my local Walmart that there was too much risk to swap out one hour of in person shopping for pick up.

So I don't consider the risk "very small" , it might not be high, but it certainly isn't "very small"..

Gotcha! Do be safe.

I also keep close tabs on what's happening (Covid-wise) here on Island. If we have a big surge, I too will avoid Costco like, well, the plague. Aloha, and YMMV.

 

[tmm99]

Again in post 1678 I mention my county is in the middle of another big outbreak and I'm referring to the habits of the people living here. This is the complete opposite of what happened during our first big spike in cases.

I know. That's what I'm talking about as well. I am just stating my rationale for going grocery shopping indoors now although our numbers are going up. In fact, the numbers in Canada are worse now than last spring... Despite that, the curbside pickups are empty.

As I said, I think the fact that the region-wide mask mandate in all indoor spaces is making people feel more comfortable shopping indoors. Other reasons I can think of are people are getting COVID-19 fatigue with too many activity restrictions so even with the numbers going up, they want to shop indoors. Another big reason for me is that there have been no outbreaks in grocery stores among store workers. We've had a couple of stores that reported COVID-19 infections, but they have been isolated to just one worker and do not seem to infect the other workers in the same store despite that they spend 8 hours on the floor together (For some reason, the media and some grocery chains report infections by store workers in Ontario, so I know which chain store/locaion has had an infection.) That makes me feel quite safe to go grocery shopping indoors.

 

[cathy63]

I went to Costco at noon, it was a little more crowded than I had seen in a while, but it was easy to distance and the checkouts were moving quickly. My "spidey sense" tells me with cases rising and next weeks election, there is enough fear/uncertainly/lockdown potential (or however the media chooses to portray it ) for the upcoming weeks that it is good to be well stocked. I did our quarterly PT & TP purchase. They also had hand sanitizer on sale, 32 oz for $4.99.

I also went to Costco today and was surprised to see there was a line to get inside since I hadn't seen one for several months. It was a short line and it was moving, so I decided to go ahead and wait in it. I did get stopped for a couple of minutes right at the door, so I asked the employee there about it and he told me it's always like this on the first day the monthly sale mailer prices are valid. OK, lesson learned. Pay attention to the dates on those mailings and avoid the first day from now on. At least everyone ahead of me seemed to have cleared out by the time I was ready to leave, so there was no line at the checkout.

 

[braumeister]

Pay attention to the dates on those mailings and avoid the first day from now on.

Sounds like very good advice. Thanks for that.

 

[KB]

The Costco in my town still has senior hours from 8 - 9. I only go during that time and there are not many people shopping, so it is no problem to distance from other people. My county is still only open 25% capacity in restaurants, and cases are increasing. So I mostly get Costco deliveries and only go inside once every month or two.

 

[Gumby]

In Connecticut, SNAP benefits get paid to one's EBT card on the first three days of the month, so the grocery stores are always most crowded on those days. I will go mid-morning this Friday, which should be relatively quiet.

 

[Bamaman]

Just got in from Aldi's @ 5:00 p.m. All the old folks go in the a.m. There were no more than 3 others in the entire store.

You just have to choose your hours to go to remain as safe as possible.

 

[jollystomper]

I also went to Costco today and was surprised to see there was a line to get inside since I hadn't seen one for several months. It was a short line and it was moving, so I decided to go ahead and wait in it. I did get stopped for a couple of minutes right at the door, so I asked the employee there about it and he told me it's always like this on the first day the monthly sale mailer prices are valid. OK, lesson learned. Pay attention to the dates on those mailings and avoid the first day from now on. At least everyone ahead of me seemed to have cleared out by the time I was ready to leave, so there was no line at the checkout.

Interesting, I had not thought about that, I tend to ignore their mailers. Thanks. The latest mailer I received indicates their holiday sales (already??) beginning November 5th. I will be sure to avoid that day.

 

[youbet]

Just got in from Aldi's @ 5:00 p.m. All the old folks go in the a.m.

That seems like an oxymoron. How can ALL the old folks go in the a.m. if you went at 5:00 p.m. ?

 

[Calico]

With cases rising quickly around here I decided to do an extra "stock up" visit to Harris Teeter tomorrow. For several months I've only been doing express lane pickup every two weeks, but I'm adding this extra trip to restock the freezer a bit; lay in some snacks; and pick up things I can't afford to run out of if people start hoarding during a surge - things like the all-important kitty litter!

My gut tells me that after Thanksgiving we will see an even bigger increase in cases here, because almost everyone I talk to is planning to celebrate together with their extended families, and/or travel for the holiday - you'd never know there is a pandemic going on by talking to them. My family "units" will all be celebrating separately, as we have been doing since March.