Grocery Shopping

[ATX78701]

I have now done curbside twice at a local H-E-B. The first time was easy. I pulled directly into a space, sent a text that I was in a particular spot, waited 7 or 8 minutes and received my order. Yesterday was much more chaotic. The parking lane with most of the curbside spots is very near the entrance to the parking lot. With all the spots full, the curbside shoppers queued up as best we could. There was a security officer helping direct non-curbside pickups to go around or continue. Additional chaos was from cars that came from the opposite direction trying to get into the curbside line and that decided to simply turn in front of the queued cars and block the parking lot at that point (no more going around with the security officer´s help). H-E-B had people in the lot telling drivers not to block the lot but to no avail. Overall, I think H-E-B is handling it well. There is a great Texas Monthly magazine article about them (it is available on the web without a subscription).

One note if you do curbside - be sure to eyeball the cart after they finish loading your trunk. I saw at least once that an item on the bottom (big bag of dog food) wasn’t loaded and the driver left before the employee noticed.

 

[Ready]

Just back from Costco.

Long line to get in but I got in line at 9:55 and was out and done by 10:30. Still a bit peeved by the number of couples shopping- I'd say maybe 1/4 of the membership cards had 2 people. That increases waiting time by 25% and adds to the number of people the employees are exposed to.

When you join Costco as a couple each of you gets your own Costco card. So if both members bring their card, each one can also bring a guest into the store with that card. So in reality they are only limiting families to four shoppers per membership with this new restriction. I agree it would be helpful if they restricted it further but I don't think they will.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Still a bit peeved by the number of couples shopping- I'd say maybe 1/4 of the membership cards had 2 people. That increases waiting time by 25% and adds to the number of people the employees are exposed to.

I noticed this too when I was shopping at WM the other day. You would think that with so many couples being FORCED to be around each other so much, they would want a nice break from each other for an hour or two.

 

[youbet]

Waiting for a Whole Foods delivery right now. The two hour delivery window just began. I grabbed this 3PM to 5PM slot last night.

We've used Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh a number of times now. It bugs me that things cost more than when I shop myself (I'm a long time, addicted bargain hunter known to hit multiple stores to save a few bux!), but this really has been easy. Quality and packaging are good. Some effort required to get a delivery slot, but I always have been able to after a few tries. Today is all fresh stuff since we have enough non-perishables on the shelf that getting more might categorize us as "hoarders!"

Yesterday, I had Ace Hardware deliver lawn fertilizer and lawn waste bags. They deliver free if your purchase is $50 or more. Sale prices from their flier are honored. They delivered within three hours of my online order. So easy. If only applying the fertilizer and cleaning up DW's flower beds (under her watchful supervision!) could happen like that!

It's turning out that, so far, getting groceries and most household supplies is one of the easiest things to accomplish during our self-imposed isolation. I'm sure there will be an end to this good fortune one of these days.........

Edit: The delivery arrived ten minutes prior to the beginning of our two hour slot. No problem. We're home! DW reports most everything looks OK except they substituted shredded mild cheddar for shredded mozzarella. In my application (grilled zucchini) that'll probably be OK, just a different taste. I OK'd the substitution when they text'd it. I thought they were just subbing a more expensive "organic" mozzarella for the regular. But now looking closer at the pic, it's the mild cheddar. Well darn. My bad. Gotta pay attention.

 

[dvalley]

Absolutely nobody offered to help, even a man standing by his car two cars from mine. I guess they didn't want to get close.

That and gender equality works both ways!

 

[audreyh1]

Went to a smaller rural grocery in GA today which is rarely busy mid-morning, and it wasn't busy today. The vast majority of the shoppers wore masks which I really appreciated. It was empty enough that I was usually the only shopper in a section. They had plenty of eggs finally. They were even stocking some TP. Most of the employees were not wearing masks but they weren't near me. They had installed plexiglass screens at the checkout counters, and had circles for people to stand on to keep apart in the checkout lanes. It was well done.

This little grocery has limited selection, but takes ApplePay which I really appreciate being able to pay with my Watch. Never an option at Walmart!

 

[audreyh1]

Absolutely nobody offered to help, even a man standing by his car two cars from mine. I guess they didn't want to get close.

This help from a stranger I would not have expected - especially not now! But Costco might have been willing to have an employee help you.

 

[statsman]

I need to grocery shop for a few items, but I don't have a mask or even a makeshift one. The best I could do was with a white t-shirt I had stuffed away, and I couldn't breathe with it. So, I'm sitting here at home wondering what to do next.

I feel like a criminal now if I don't have a mask.

Speaking of criminals: https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/stop-throwing-gloves-masks-on-the-ground-232634742.html

 

[iloveyoga]

Just back from Costco. I was a little wary because a friend on FB had posted a copy of a letter to the employees of the store I use (Independence, MO) noting 7 cases of COVID among employees. I thought they did a good job of giving as much info as they could while leaving out personally identifiable info: department, typical shift, last day at work. I realized, of course, that all the ones in "Member Services" were probably the people working the cash registers. I reminded myself that this place was not any more dangerous just because they provided data that other stores did not.

Long line to get in but I got in line at 9:55 and was out and done by 10:30. Still a bit peeved by the number of couples shopping- I'd say maybe 1/4 of the membership cards had 2 people. That increases waiting time by 25% and adds to the number of people the employees are exposed to.

Great selection of fresh vegetables, which was my main goal. Didn't look at the paper goods- I had enough. Good food bank stuff, too- canned Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup (2 weeks ago all they had was Cream of Mushroom) and chili, as well as canned tuna and chicken. There's a drive-through food bank event tomorrow- you drive up and pop they trunk. volunteers gather it and close the trunk, you're on your way.

Glad I'm done with Costco for 2 weeks, though.

Our local Hy-Vee now has lots of signs saying one person per cart.

 

[youbet]

I need to grocery shop for a few items, but I don't have a mask or even a makeshift one. The best I could do was with a white t-shirt I had stuffed away, and I couldn't breathe with it.

I feel like a criminal now if I don't have a mask.

Speaking of criminals: https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/stop-throwing-gloves-masks-on-the-ground-232634742.html

The article is a testimony as to why a diverse and often individualistic and self-centered population like we have in the USA isn't going to do as well, all else equal, as a more homogeneous, like-thinking population such as South Korea. We sometimes really struggle to pull together for the group's good and vehemently resist efforts to make us comply.

 

[youbet]

Our local Hy-Vee now has lots of signs saying one person per cart.

I think Amethyst's problem was two carts per person.

 

[Amethyst]

You have to be kidding me. You are saying the man was punishing an obviously overburdened older person for being female? If I see a man or woman struggling with something, I ask if I can help. It's simple decency.

As I said in my post, I prefer to think it's because they didn't want to get too close, or touch someone else's items.

That and gender equality works both ways!

 

[easysurfer]

You have to be kidding me. You are saying the man was punishing an obviously overburdened older person for being female? If I see a man or woman struggling with something, I ask if I can help. It's simple decency.

As I said in my post, I prefer to think it's because they didn't want to get too close, or touch someone else's items.

Hope my story makes you feel better. This was before the Covid-19 days so can't use that as an explanation.

About a year or two ago, I had a flat tire. I had to change the tire myself. I parked the car into a lot for safety. Lifted up the hood and was working away. Temperature was about in the mid 60's but sunny so I was working up a sweat.

Observers passed me by either just taking a glance or not even at all. Then as I was sitting on out of view, this guy in his car stops, takes a look at me then quickly pulls off.

My conclusion, he was probably hoping to see a hot college co-ed in short shorts but instead got his guy just looking a bit flustered working away.

I'm not sure if that was the exact reason why he took off so quickly. I'll never know. But that was my conclusion.

 

[Sunset]

I have placed three orders at Aldi using their delivery service via Instacart. Each order in the $30-50 range. Each time I started the order the delivery forecast was 1-2 days out. The fee was only 2.99 plus suggested tip of 5%. There is also an optional expedite fee which was 3.99 in two cases and 7.99 on the 3rd order. The pricing through Instacart is slightly higher than in the store, but the service is very reasonable IMO. The 3rd order was for my oldest brother who lives alone in lieu of me delivering groceries to him on the other side of town. He is reluctant to stay and home and likely to just dine on hot dogs from the dollar store since Golden Corral is take out only.

In every case the order was taken up within one hour and delivered within 2 hours. I raised the tip from 5% to 20% but in one case instead of putting in $10 I missed the decimal and only tipped $1. I have inquired but no response from Instacart on fixing the tip error. That is a flaw in their system IMO since you wont know how tip-worthy the service is until the delivery is complete. Two of the three order had minor selection errors and I don't know what the remedy is. I'm just mixing in the fat-free milk they selected in with my 2%.

I had read, you could adjust the tip in the instacart order retroactively, which would be pretty important if for example no groceries showed up.

 

[Amethyst]

Since he couldn't see you, he was probably curious about the car just being left open like that. Once he saw a person, he lost interest.

I have AAA. If something goes wrong, I make a call and stay in my car. In years before cell phones, strangers sometimes stopped to offer help. But they have also stopped to aid my husband when he was on his own.

One interesting thing we found when comparing notes about Good Samaritans, was that the people who stopped were disproportionately African American. Coincidence? Dunno.

Hope my story makes you feel better. This was before the Covid-19 days so can't use that as an explanation.

About a year or two ago, I had a flat tire. I had to change the tire myself. I parked the car into a lot for safety. Lifted up the hood and was working away. Temperature was about in the mid 60's but sunny so I was working up a sweat.

Observers passed me by either just taking a glance or not even at all. Then as I was sitting on out of view, this guy in his car stops, takes a look at me then quickly pulls off.

My conclusion, he was probably hoping to see a hot college co-ed in short shorts but instead got his guy just looking a bit flustered working away.

I'm not sure if that was the exact reason why he took off so quickly. I'll never know. But that was my conclusion.

 

[bluelight]

I did not get a full refund on the item I ordered but did not receive. Instead, they put a credit back into the Costco Same-Day delivery system.

The credit doesn’t appear when I log in to InstaCart, only when I log in to Costco Grocery, so I cannot use it anywhere else.

I really don’t want to use Costco Same-Day again because of the jacked-up prices, the risk of another wrong order, and the tip-picking that is going on, so I guess I’m out the $$$.

In the grand scheme of things, though, I have decided it is not worth worrying about.

I just posted here so people can see how the “refund” works.
I also do not plan to use InstaCart again.

Thank you for posting that. I finally received an email tonight that I received an $18 credit for my missing item and they are still reviewing the other item issue. I had expected to see the refund on my Costco CC, guess not. Most likely I won't use it again unless I'm desparate.

 

[NW-Bound]

The post below was made on 4/5/2020.

We are in a suburb area of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

We had to go to Walmart to pick up a prescription for MIL. I was waiting for my wife in the parking lot, so do not know how it looked inside.

I observed that the parking lot was not as full as on normal Sundays. Obviously, people have finished hoarding, and only shop to replenish. I saw about 1 in 30 or 50 wearing masks, with quite a few masks looking homemade like my wife's.

There was a police car parked right at the front. The store had only one entrance opened and with a cordoned line, so that they could do metering to keep people from crowding inside. However, traffic was lighter than normal as I mentioned earlier, and there was no line waiting to get in...

Today's 4/10/2020. We went to Safeway to get some fresh produce. Got in/out really quick just to grab what we needed. Saw shelves full, and it did not look like there was anything missing, though we did not linger on to check things out. Walked by the meat section, and saw that there was plenty to choose from. Did not need paper products or sanitizers, so did not look to see if they were in stock or not.

All workers of the market wore a surgical mask. Between 1/2 and 2/3 of the customers had a mask on, same as we did, with quite a few looking homemade. This was in contrast with just 5 days go, when most people did not wear masks. Store traffic looked as a normal pre-COVID day. Vehicle traffic on the streets was light.

People here took things seriously, although we had only 1,700 cases with 39 deaths for a metropolitan area of 5 million. Good!

 

[MRG]

Are they as thick and juicy as the photos make them look?

Been a customer for years and they're consistently good. I've taken to cooking steak sous vide and they're great. DW loves the filets and doesn't care for most any other steak.

 

[FreeBear]

DW hit the dollar store for the first time in weeks. Saw that they had 4 packs of TP, limit 1. We’re more than good since we have a bidet and commercial jumbo rolls. Down the road at Costco, folks we waiting in a long line for the TP to even make an appearance. To be fair, I bet the Costco stuff is probably nicer, but with a bidet we are “comfortable” with less than deluxe TP.

 

[harllee]

I just set up my Walmart pick up order for next Wed. They were letting you reserve only 2 days out now you can go 5 days out so that is better. Still out of all paper products and most non diary products (I am allergic to diary).

 

[Amethyst]

She sounds like us. We love filets, but are not big steak eaters otherwise. Don't care for anything with fat on it or a bone in it.

Been a customer for years and they're consistently good. I've taken to cooking steak sous vide and they're great. DW loves the filets and doesn't care for most any other steak.

 

[mountainsoft]

My wife went grocery shopping with me today. It was the first time we've gone as a couple since COVID started. I have gotten used to face masks, empty shelves, and social distancing. It was all new to her, and I think a little scary as well. It's one thing to see it on TV, it's another to experience it in person. I guess I've adapted to the new normal.

We both wore the face masks she had sewn, certainly nicer than the suffocating dust mask I wore on my last trip. Most of the employees were wearing masks this time, but still only 20-30% of the customers had masks.

The store was extra busy on a Saturday. The clerk told me they were gonna start limiting how many people can come in to the store this next week. No families or couples allowed, only one person will be allowed to shop. So, today was the last time my wife and I will get to shop together for a while. I asked if they were going to implement the one way traffic rules, and he said they already did pointing to one way signs on the floor. Oops, I didn't see those, and judging from all the people passing each other on the aisles, no one else was observing the one way directions either. They're the same size and color as the "6 foot distance" signs, so I think people just assuming they're the same thing.

Stock was about the same. No TP, flour, or rice. Limited supplies of pasta, soups, and baking goods. Everything else fairly well stocked.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I used Instacart very successfully on 4/7. Substitutions were all appropriate. Only 4 items out of stock. On time delivery. Notifications realtime during shopping window. I used Instacart because all other stores had temporarily stopped curbside pickup. However Walmart grocery(you have to download their new app) is up and running again and their prices are so much cheaper. I have a pickup scheduled for this Wednesday.

 

[TeeRuh]

HEB Favor for seniors.

So yesterday I mentioned to DW that we should schedule a curbside for next week. (Sugar Land HEB) Well they only allow scheduling out to one week and there were NO available slots for either curbside or delivery service! However, HEB has a new special "senior" service (60+) arrangement with Favor. (Favor was acquired by HEB in 2018.) We entered our order (maximum 25 items) and it was delivered in less than an hour and a half. This is the second time I've used Favor and I am very pleased with their service.


There is no delivery fee on the HEB senior program but you are asked to tip at least $10. This info probably only helps people in Texas but we need any help we can get what with all the mosquitoes, hurricanes, droughts, ... (Help me out here REWahoo.)


t.r.

 

[gwraigty]

The clerk told me they were gonna start limiting how many people can come in to the store this next week. No families or couples allowed, only one person will be allowed to shop.

They started limiting the number of people in stores last week Monday in Ohio, per the governor's order. I haven't had to wait in a line yet, but I was only out to grocery shop once in the morning since the new limits were put in place. On the sign outside the store, they had a notice with the new rules. On the sign, they ask people not to bring along unnecessary shoppers, but it's not a mandate. I wish it would be. I've seen more couples and entire families in the stores since the stay at home order went into effect. It's unnecessary and only makes it harder for everyone to shop efficiently and try to maintain social distancing. Now it's worse, because it'll cause lines to form outside during busy times.

I got some take out pizza from a small shop yesterday. They had a sign on the door that said only one person was allowed in at a time. No one was there and my pizza was ready, so it worked out well. I don't know what would have happened if someone had been waiting inside for their order and it wasn't ready yet, while mine was. It's not unusual for people to order in person and wait inside while it's being cooked.