Grocery Shopping

[Trooper]

Not a thread on hoarding or how often people are shopping. Wondering whether, when you do go to the store, if you are shopping inside, or ordering online in advance and picing up in the parking lot.

DW wants me to pick up and I want to go inside. We only shop every 10 days or so.

 

[aaronc879]

I go in and shop normally. I would order some stuff from Amazon but I just checked a few things and they were priced several times higher than normal. Out of principle I will not support price gougers.

 

[Jerry1]

I feel the shopping for groceries is the riskiest thing I do at this point. Still, I want to go in and get what I want. We went to the store a few days ago and found that, at least at the time we went, the store was pretty empty. We went around one hour before close. I'm guessing the shelves were not as full as they might have been earlier, but we got everything we wanted with no problem. Walked up to the cashier and there was no one else in line. After we paid, he was wiping down the belt and the area in general.

As we went in, they had wipes for the cart. Next time I'll bring my own. I think I may resort to wearing a mask. My Son-IL had to go to the store and he wore a mask for the first time a couple days ago. This area, southeast Michigan, is being hit hard right now so we'll stay in as long as possible now. However, at some point, you just can't eliminate 100% of the risk so I'm going to go inside and do my best to keep my hands away from my face and use the sanitizer before, during and after shopping. I'm one of those people who think that eventually most or all of us will get this but I'd really like to not have it happen while there's a run on the hospitals. Also, neither DW or I have any underlying health conditions - so, we expect to get through this even if that includes a few really bad weeks sick.

 

[Ready]

We buy all of our food at either Trader Joe’s or Costco. Neither offer curb side pickup or delivery. Costco has some form of delivery but for a very limited selection of items at much higher prices.

So we just limit our trips to one per week. We wear gloves and keep hand sanitizer around. And we don’t wait in lines. We try to find the times when it’s slower and go then.

 

[REWahoo]

We are ordering online and picking up curbside. Don't even roll down the window, just pop the trunk and let them load our purchases. Why expose ourselves to the possibility of infection when there is no need to do so?

 

[aaronc879]

We are ordering online and picking up curbside. Don't even roll down the window, just pop the trunk and let them load our purchases. Why expose ourselves to the possibility of infection when there is no need to do so?

You think that doesn't expose you to the possibility of infection? Do you wipe down every container of food that was touched by employees? Do you leave the groceries in the car for three days since that is how long the virus can stay on plastic bags?

 

[REWahoo]

I have everything irradiated prior to opening the trunk.

 

[Dawg52]

I shopped inside a store 10 days ago but next time I am going to try online ordering with home delivery. Will need to wipe packages down but has to be safer than shopping at the grocery store. Ordered a bunch of items from Amazon and Walmart today which should be delivered next week.

 

[REWahoo]

I shopped inside a store 10 days ago but next time I am going to try online ordering with home delivery. Will need to wipe packages down but has to be safer than shopping at the grocery store.

+1

We wipe down, wash or isolate (for three days) everything once we get home.

 

[stepford]

We're in kind of a delivery dead zone and most local grocery stores (except Walmart) don't offer pickup. So into the hot zone I go. Hopefully I won't have to go again for another 3 weeks or so and maybe other options will be available by then.

 

[Moemg]

We have delivery once a week .I start the order online at instacart and pick a date a week away and then just fill up my cart . I stay near the phone the day of shopping as they text with substitutions or any problems . We have been happy with the service . The produce and meat have been fine .

 

[W2R]

I haven't been to the grocery store since I went there in person (inside) on March 3rd.

I have enough food to last me until sometime in June with what I have today. If/when I need to go to the grocery store again, I'll choose delivery or drive-through if possible.

Frank and I live separately, as most of you know, and he is going to the grocery store every week or two for his food. He goes inside. I have been suggesting delivery and drive through services and he seems to be receptive to those ideas, so he says he will investigate online and might switch.

 

[Dtail]

Still shop inside, but the frequency is decreasing. I sanitize everything including my hands at every possibility and never touch my face while outside.

 

[statsman]

Watching perishables sitting on the racks as they move through the store is not what I want to see. I am OCD about keeping cold and frozen foods as cold as possible.

I've been using compact Igloo coolers and Blue Ice to do my grocery shopping for almost 20 years. Pick up cold and frozen last. Get the items to the coolers in the car ASAP. Makes running errands to multiple stores possible without spoiling some of the food.

Because of that, I don't think I could ever let someone else pick out my food items for pickup unless I become physically unable to walk a grocery store.

 

[REWahoo]

Watching perishables sitting on the racks as they move through the store is not what I want to see. I am OCD about keeping cold and frozen foods as cold as possible.

Because of that, I don't think I could ever let someone else pick out my food items for pickup unless I become physically unable to walk a grocery store.

So you think the health risk from foods exposed to room temperature for a short period of time (less than an hour?) is potentially more hazardous to your health than walking around a grocery store with other people who may be carrying the coronavirus?

 

[statsman]

So you think the health risk from foods exposed to room temperature for a short period of time (less than an hour?) is potentially more hazardous to your health than walking around a grocery store with other people who may be carrying the coronavirus?

Over the long haul, yes. Just my opinion and my preference. I am pretty certain I won't convince anyone else.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Once a month.

 

[Sunset]

I have done Walmart pickup last week, a nice no touch event.
I sprayed everything with bleach and wiped them wearing gloves, then rinsed off the bleach.
Some cans and broth containers I just left in a my cardboard box to age out.

I may have to go inside a grocery store, because there is really no meat everytime I look at Walmart ordering (other than wagu beef , and do I really want to buy that at Walmart?).

Prices are OK, not the cheapest place I could shop, but safety is not free.

 

[geeky_grrl]

I'm doing pickup when I have to go, I went twice in March and either avoiding the store for April or maybe going once. I do have a CSA deliver to my house every other week so I'll have produce even if I don't go to the store.

From what I've heard in my town the grocery stores are packed. It sounds like people are using it to socialize so I think it's probably the worst place to be. The grocery pickup was annoying (slow, lots of items out of stock) but you couldn't pay me to go there.

 

[mountainsoft]

I'm doing my usual in-store grocery shopping every 5-7 days or so. I'm trying to give people their distance, but otherwise I'm not doing anything different. I don't wear gloves or masks, and never wipe down the cart or anything. Seems pointless when everything else in the store has been touched. The employees touch everything and see more people each day than I do and so far I have not heard of any increase in cases for grocery store workers.

I'm not taking any additional precautions other than avoiding touching my face and washing my hands well as soon as I get home.

 

[sheldon cornped]

Where can I find one of the irradiator devices ReWahoo was talking about?

 

[Katsmeow]

Currently we are mostly ordering for Walmart delivery to our house (along with some Amazon stuff). DH has gone to the grocery store a couple of times during the last few weeks for stuff that couldn't be gotten through any of the above. As of now, I don't think there will be anything he will have to go to the store for until we run out of toilet paper (we have about 3 weeks worth at this point). None of that can currently be ordered online. You have to be there right when the store opens and have to be among the first few people in line.

I really dislike that people often have to make multiple trips to stores to try to find one that has any in stock.

 

[Amethyst]

The irony is that I am driving farther from home to go to the store more often, and spending more time in the store; exactly what I should not be doing.

We were going to BJs (30 miles away) once a month for staples, which I mostly ordered for in-store pickup. In between, we stopped occasionally at local stores, and I got many dry-goods groceries from Walmart.com at prices similar to what the store itself would charge.

BJs responded to the virus crisis by canceling in-store pickup. They don't offer free delivery. They will deliver, and say it's "Free," but the cost is as much as $1.00 or more per item, baked into the price.

Walmart.com simply ran out of everything, while Amazon either ran out or raised prices.

Local stores are perpetually out of TP, disinfectant, rubbing alcohol, butter, eggs, meat, spaghetti, canned goods. There is no point jockeying for a delivery when they don't have the items. Several stores have suspended not just delivery, but in-store pickup.

Thus, I am now going more often, and driving farther. In addition, I'm leaving Mr. A. home, because he is older. This means I can't send him to one end of the store to look for X while I browse the other end for Y.

And yes, the stores are crowded. We are a resort town, the six-month snowbirds have not yet left, and I doubt many of them will be leaving any time soon given the situation up North.

 

[athena53]

I really dislike that people often have to make multiple trips to stores to try to find one that has any in stock.

I know- if I hadn't picked up the pack I saw at Costco on 3/19, not knowing what I had at home but knowing that scarcity was a problem, I'd be down to 3 rolls now and I'd probably be one of the ones making multiple trips to stores to look for it.

I'm one of the people who like to choose my food and I like fresh vegetables, so I've been going once a week. Usually I go to Costco and the local grocery chain but last week I doubled up on fresh veggies- I'm stir-frying and freezing some for next week so I can skip a Costco run.

The local grocery chain has a donation barrel for the local food bank and I have a few bags of food from my last Costco run to donate there.

 

[CRLLS]

We generally shop every 2 weeks or so. DW ordered on the Walmart website for the first time ever this week. She ordered late afternoon on Thurs and we got a 10AM pickup slot on Friday. There were some items she could not order due to being out of stock, like TP. To our surprise, everything she did order was filled. Pickup went very well too. We never left the car and they placed it in the back. We may do this again. It eliminates the impulse buys.