Shopping and restocking updates

[dixonge]

Texans know about the H-E-B grocery chain. These guys seem more prepared than the government!

Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic

 

[REWahoo]

Texans know about the H-E-B grocery chain. These guys seem more prepared than the government!

Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic

A great story, thanks for posting!

 

[gwraigty]

I made a shopping trip to Meijer this morning. No TP, low on rice, low on most cleaning products, no dried beans. Overall, they're nicely stocked with most things. The meat department was full, although a few things I wanted weren't there. I do so like to buy meat on sale, but it may not be possible for awhile.

I had a couple of interesting conversations, properly socially distanced, of course. They have senior shopping 2 days a week and employee only shopping 2 days a week. This morning was senior shopping, which I don't qualify for anyway. As far as TP, on senior shopping days, like this morning, they have about 50 seniors standing around outside waiting for the door to open. Then there's a mad rush to the TP where the lucky first few get 1 package each and then there's no more for anyone else until the next load is delivered. I mean, really? They don't even get 50 packages in one shipment? This appears to jive with what other forum members are reporting. So now, the spry seniors are hogging all the TP!

A 35-year-old man told me that he works for Instacart and is in there literally every day grocery shopping for others because he figures he's not likely to die from the coronavirus. He said that 3 days ago, there was nothing to buy. The shelves were bare after all the new panic buying caused after the stay-at-home order was issued on Sunday. Yet today, you'd never know it.

Last week, I was there on Friday morning to take advantage of their periodic special 2 day sales. The aisles were more crammed with shoppers than food. Everything that was on sale was stripped bare at 11 AM.

It depends so much on when you go, whether it will be feast or famine.

 

[harllee]

There is toilet paper, paper towels, wipes, etc for sale on eBay. A little pricy but it is available.

 

[athena53]

Back from Costco and a local grocery chain (HyVee) in a suburb of KC, Missouri.
Similar to what a lot of others have posted, it seems the crowds have subsided as everyone stocked up and maybe now they're looking to curb further spending if their finances look shaky. Costco was unusually quiet. No TP but plenty of paper towels. I wanted to buy canned soup for the food bank but they were down to broth and condensed cream of mushroom so I bought other food to donate instead. I found most of the other things I needed although I had to switch brands/types (dishwasher detergent in pods vs. a bottle, for example). Costco limited their 18-egg packages to one pack per customer. Flour gone in the grocery store. Has everyone turned into Betty Crocker?

I got paranoid about shopping after someone reposted a tribute to someone's 87-year old mother on FB- she was going out ONLY for groceries once a week and died of COVID-19. I'm 67, but scary stuff. I used hand sanitizer after leaving each store (and refilling my gas tank) and followed this video for sanitizing my groceries. I'm pretty much swearing off raw vegetables and cooking everything just to be safe.

 

[Sunset]

Back from Costco and a local grocery chain (HyVee) in a suburb of KC, Missouri.
Similar to what a lot of others have posted, it seems the crowds have subsided as everyone stocked up and maybe now they're looking to curb further spending if their finances look shaky. Costco was unusually quiet. No TP but plenty of paper towels. I wanted to buy canned soup for the food bank but they were down to broth and condensed cream of mushroom so I bought other food to donate instead. I found most of the other things I needed although I had to switch brands/types (dishwasher detergent in pods vs. a bottle, for example). Costco limited their 18-egg packages to one pack per customer. Flour gone in the grocery store. Has everyone turned into Betty Crocker?

I got paranoid about shopping after someone reposted a tribute to someone's 87-year old mother on FB- she was going out ONLY for groceries once a week and died of COVID-19. I'm 67, but scary stuff. I used hand sanitizer after leaving each store (and refilling my gas tank) and followed this video for sanitizing my groceries. I'm pretty much swearing off raw vegetables and cooking everything just to be safe.
....

After I got my grocery order via Walmart pickup, I sprayed my vegies with bleach mixture, rubbed the vegies with gloved hands and then rinsed off the bleach in the sink.
Did it to the packaged stuff too.

At first I was reluctant to bleach my vegies, but figured any smell will be washed off, and then evaporate off in the fridge.
I washed: cucumbers, green peppers, bananas, celery (the bag it comes in).
If it turns out I can taste bleach in a day or two, I'll post back to let everyone know.

 

[Boho]

After I got my grocery order via Walmart pickup, I sprayed my vegies with bleach mixture, rubbed the vegies with gloved hands and then rinsed off the bleach in the sink.
Did it to the packaged stuff too.

At first I was reluctant to bleach my vegies, but figured any smell will be washed off, and then evaporate off in the fridge.
I washed: cucumbers, green peppers, bananas, celery (the bag it comes in).
If it turns out I can taste bleach in a day or two, I'll post back to let everyone know.

Now's a good time to put baking soda in the fridge. In addition to removing odors maybe it helps kill viruses by keeping it drier.

 

[Gumby]

I went on my weekly grocery run to Aldis and Shop-Rite this morning, starting around 10am. Neither store was crowded. Both had tape on the floor in 6 foot increments so that we could social distance properly. I saw only a couple masks. Everyone was friendly and polite.

As far as stock goes, Aldis had no TP and Shop-Rite was down to about a dozen single rolls of some weird brand. The pasta, sauces and canned tomatoes were seriously depleted but not yet exhausted. Seemed like plenty of eggs, but there was a one dozen limit. Plenty of milk, with no purchase limits. Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Plenty of packaged meat. At Shop-Rite, the seafood and butcher cases were both operating. (Got a nice piece of sockeye salmon for dinner.). Stock seemed a little thin in the aluminum foil and plastic wrap aisle. I didn't check the baking aisle.

We're good to go for at least another week.

P.S. - This is in Milford, CT.

 

[John Galt III]

Went to the grocery store today in eastern Pa at 10 AM. Not many people shopping! A recorded voice coming over the intercom told people to please stay 6 feet apart. A few people wearing masks, one lady wearing gloves. Store brand spaghetti sauce and pasta sold out. More expensive stuff available.

 

[txtig]

We placed and picked up our first curbside order at H-E-B this week. There were a few items we weren’t able to get, but overall it went very smoothly. We pop the lift gate from inside the car and they load everything up. No touching. We’ve got another order scheduled for next week. I can foresee shopping like this if necessary until this thing gets under control. My hat’s off to the H-E-B folks for making this work so well.

 

[scrabbler1]

I shopped at my local King Kullen store here in Rockville Centre (western Nassau County, just east of NYC) a few hours ago. Compared to the last time I shopped here on March 17th, the store was much better stocked. Breakfast cereals are back, along with pastas and meats. The paper products aisle is still barren. Some varieties of other foods are not present, so I have to buy some different ones. I bought less than 20 items, so I didn't have to venture down every aisle. Nothing on sale, no store circulars any more.


As a slight safety precaution, I went through self-checkout because there was no waiting, keeping me away from prolonged, close proximity to other shoppers on checkout lines. The store was no busier than it usually is on a weekday morning around 11 AM.

 

[Delaney]

Instacart shoppers are set to have a nationwide walk off on Monday. Instacart provides home delivery of groceries from stores like Aldis.

 

[Helen]

Instacart shoppers are set to have a nationwide walk off on Monday. Instacart provides home delivery of groceries from stores like Aldis.

From the article:

"The shoppers will stop accepting deliveries until Instacart provides cleanliness products at no cost to workers, hazard pay of $5 per order and an extension and expansion of pay for workers affected by the coronavirus."

None of this seems unreasonable to me.

 

[Ready]

Instacart shoppers are set to have a nationwide walk off on Monday. Instacart provides home delivery of groceries from stores like Aldis.

I can’t blame them. They never signed up to perform such a dangerous job for such a small amount of pay.

It’s the same with the grocery workers. We talk about how long we can go without visiting a store, and how we wear gloves and masks and spray down our packages with bleach. But these employees go into the store five days a week for 8 hours a day and spend their day surrounded by thousands of people coming through the stores. None of these people signed up to work in such a hazardous job and I doubt many of us would be willing to expose ourselves to a potential infection day after day to earn a living. I feel bad for them.

 

[fh2000]

Instacart shoppers are set to have a nationwide walk off on Monday. Instacart provides home delivery of groceries from stores like Aldis.

I ordered a delivery from sameday.costco.com few days ago. I believe it is operated by Instacart. I picked the earliest delivery schedule which is Monday but now they will go on strike.

I tried to log on to sameday.costco.com, and see the website crashed. I seriously doubt they will deliver my order on Monday or anytime soon. I may have to find the best hour to go to Costco after all.

 

[ocean view]

I’m in the San Jose area. I tried Safeway’s curbside pickup this week with limited success. My order was large, nearly $300 in my cart. When they charged my card it was less than $200. Uh oh. Nearly all of the protein items were unavailable, no garlic, onions or potatoes. So I ended up going out again to a different, smaller Safeway (that doesn’t do online orders) and was able to get most of the previously omitted items. The exceptions were garlic and hoisin sauce. The “ethnic food” aisle was empty and garlic in any form seems to have gone with the TP people. Safeway would not allow me to use my own bags.

And as a caution to others, check expiration dates on your perishables. I grabbed two large cottage cheese containers from a nearly empty refrigerator case and was surprised at home to find that one was six days beyond the pull date! I’ve been eating it since it should be good for another few days, but I expect it will turn before I get through the thing.

I probably won’t do online shopping again since I ended up going into the store anyway.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Got a tip from someone a couple of days ago that a small rural location of a local chain is ridiculously well stocked. I told him to keep quiet. They have a phenomenal meat department. Also we have several direct farm to consumer places around here. Maybe I’ll finally buy a chest freezer. But where to put it?

 

[tmm99]

A friend of mine lives in Tustin, CA (Orange County) and she said they were giving out rolls of TP for free in front of Grocery Outlet. She took one but they offered more, so she took two.

 

[youbet]

I've ordered online from Amazon Fresh twice (I believe fulfilled by Whole Foods) and it's worked OK. We haven't needed any of the so-called "unobtainium" stuff like TP or disinfectant wipes and most everything else is there. Little on sale but no gouging. Everything was nicely packaged. The delivery folks just sat it on the front stoop and then we brought it in.

When we returned from Florida three weeks ago, I restocked at Sam's Club where buying large quantities is the norm. I wasn't planning for the pandemic, just restocking after being away for a couple of months. That has helped.

As geezers with underlying medical issues, DW and I plan on not visiting a grocery store for a long time as long as we can arrange delivery. Right now, I project we could eat well for a couple of weeks and reasonably (from a health and caloric intake standpoint) for 2 - 3 weeks after that.

 

[bhoferp]

Instacart is the only grocery delivery service in our small suburban town. Yesterday there were no delivery times available until Monday evening, but when I checked early this morning, I got a delivery time. Got almost all the things in our order. I'm ok for eggs, but thought I would get another dozen just in case. All they had for eggs were 18 for $4.99! Had to say no to that. Also, I wanted a smoked turkey breast. I saw one listed with a picture of a whole breast so I ordered it. What I got was deli sliced turkey. I was rushing to get my order together, but should have read that a little closer.

 

[Masquernom]

I needed one small item from a sporting goods store. I was surprised it was open. Ordered online and paid online. Went today to pick it up. I thought they would have curb service. When I got there, they were allowing 25 people at a time to go inside and shop. Pretty much business as usual. They brought my order outside to me.

I'm guessing community spread is going to be the norm everywhere.

 

[scrabbler1]

My ladyfriend and I were at our local microcenter, a large PC and electronics store here on Long Island. My LF needs a better PC so she can work from home this week. They are well stocked, but they limit the number of people who can be in the store at one time. At the front door, they asked us for our names and a cell number so we can wait in the car until they text us. Not bad, but it was raining outside, so by the time we made it back to the car they texted us to let us in, making us make another walk in the rain to the entrance.


One the accessories we bought is the wrong one, so I have to go back there tomorrow to exchange it. No rain, but probably another short wait to be let inside.

 

[W2R]

I went on my weekly grocery run to Aldis and Shop-Rite this morning,

Went to the grocery store today in eastern Pa at 10 AM.

I shopped at my local King Kullen store here in Rockville Centre (western Nassau County, just east of NYC) a few hours ago.

F is planning to go to the grocery store and go inside to shop, today. Scares me silly, but it is comforting to see that at least several forum members that I regard as relatively sane are doing the same thing. I know he will be cautious and disinfect/sanitize as much as is humanly possible.

I told him to buy some cheese for me if he sees any. I can live without cheese, but as long as he is going anyway I figured why not ask.

I will not be going inside a grocery store myself, for the foreseeable future, because I have plenty in my freezer and pantry and I am coronavirus-phobic which might not be too crazy these days. Plus, Amazon Prime Pantry is sending me a box that will be delivered on Thursday. Along with a few things for me in that box, I ordered some soups for F that he thinks he can tolerate, so maybe that will delay his next trip to the grocery store.

 

[REWahoo]

I will not be going inside a grocery store myself, for the foreseeable future, because I have [-]plenty in my freezer and pantry and I am coronavirus-phobic which might not be too crazy these days[/-] a healthy appreciation for life.

FIFY

 

[Sunset]

F is planning to go to the grocery store and go inside to shop, today. Scares me silly, but it is comforting to see that at least several forum members that I regard as relatively sane are doing the same thing. I know he will be cautious and disinfect/sanitize as much as is humanly possible.

....

That is the quandary a number of us are in, need to shop, but could be infected by some asymptomatic covid-19 carrier, and bring it home along with the groceries.