Shopping and restocking updates

[MBAustin]

No line at HEB at 11:30am (4 people in line at 12:20 when I left). I had planned to go yesterday (before 1st of the month potential crowding) but had to take DH to the doctor (non-COVID - and he's fine) so I was pleasantly surprised.

Two items out of stock for the past 3 weeks were available today: Ben & Jerry's ice cream (normal supplies), Skinny Girl microwave popcorn (two boxes available, I bought just one to be nice to someone else craving it like me). Still no hand sanitizer. Coffee was very limited (maybe 30 packages of ground coffee total) but I found something acceptable. Same with pasta, but they had the whole wheat capellini and linguine I wanted. No brown rice but a decent amount of store brand white rice which was a change from completely bare shelves last week. Frozen veggies were decently stocked for the first time in awhile. Meat was pretty much back to normal. Produce is the one thing that has consistently been fine.

 

[gwraigty]

You do realize that this is why people with no TP in the house can't get any?

Thank you for saying what I was thinking.

 

[youbet]

If you buy too much you get blamed for hoarding. If you don’t buy enough you get blamed for making too many trips to the store.

That sounds fairly accurate to me....... if by "too much" you mean a lot too much and if by "don't buy enough" you mean needing to repeat shop frequently.

There is always something you can say to try to justify having quantities of a scarce item far, far beyond your needs in your possession. Hardly anyone has the integrity to just say "I'm hoarding."

 

[gwraigty]

To further explain my comment in post #177:

I went into Sam's club here in Illinois near Chicago and by accident, they were just putting paper towels and bathroom tissue on the floor.
I got one of each. Normally, that's just a daily occurence, but I felt as if I had just won the Lottery.


Anyway, I have more than I need, I have enough paper products til the end of the year, but more-so than ever,

Bolding mine and it's that part that gives me the impression that this latest purchase sounds a bit like hoarding. Maybe someone normally keeps a year's supply on hand, but when such products are scarce on a regular basis, it's unnecessary to add to such a stash at this time. It's probably preventing others from getting what they need to make it through a week.

That is not hoarding. He picked up one case. Just because his usage equates to that lasting a year doesn’t make it hoarding. Frankly, that’s about the only size readily available these days. I’d call what he did acting on good luck. When you see a penny, pick it up . . .

I did something similar. I have an extra case right now. My DD with three kids and a husband has already tapped into it as I suspected they would when I bought it mid March. I scored another case the other day on Costco.com and if it actually arrives, I’ll be giving some of it away to someone that needs it.

First, I have a daughter and three grand kids, so it's not like the need isn't there. I'm trying to balance having enough and not having any. So, as I get some, I'll release some and when I'm a bit over stocked, I'll give some away.

Also, you realize that there are people that can't go out of the house, right? If I post on Nextdoor and someone needs me to, I'll drop some on their porch. I'm quite confident that my actions are with good intent to first take care of my family and then to take care of the community around me.

What you're doing is different, IMO. You're buying for others, too and being generous.

It's hard to know when someone is hoarding or not. I'm shopping for a household of 4. Someone else may be shopping for only themselves. Before limits were imposed, if I had 4 times of something in my cart compared to that other person, it would look like I'm hoarding without that background information. But you really can't tell I'm shopping for 4 compared to other shoppers. I keep quite a variety in my cart.

It ticked me off a few weeks ago when 2 women were cleaning out the 3 lb. family packs of 80/20 ground beef on sale for $1.89. They had about 6 or 8 in the shopping cart already and were still taking more! I only wanted 1 or 2 packages. I told them the store had them on sale for great prices all the time. They said, "Oh, really?" I grabbed my 2 packages and they moved away. Maybe they were shopping for multiple households/had 10 kids between them/who knows? But it sure looked like hoarding to me and they stopped when I spoke up.

 

[JoeWras]

So DW has been preparing our on-line cart for 8 days from now. Suddenly, a slot opened up in 2 hours.

She just settled it with a 3 meat items, of which we are completely out. One each of beef, chicken and pork. We normally do low carb but have suddenly found ourselves in complete reversal by this event. So it would be nice to at least have a little meat.

Let's see if the cart can be fulfilled. I'll let you know. If it works out, the answer may be to check back occasionally. I suspect some people fill out these on-line orders a week ahead, get impatient and manage to get it live, then cancel.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Went to Sam's Club this afternoon. Tampa Bay area.

Parking lot was emptier than usual. They were controlling access at the door to limit the numbers of customers inside at any one time, but the waits were not more than a few minutes. The very minor inconvenience up front was more than made up for by shorter lines at the registers.

The vast majority of items were in stock, with typical and plentiful quantities as far as I could tell. Did not go down the toilet paper aisle so can't report on that item. A few sections were out of stock but I didn't go down those aisles.

Signs were posted limiting quantities of a small percentage of items to one, two or three.

Most people were wearing masks, gloves, or both.

Overall I was happy with the experience.

 

[RobbieB]

Going to Costco tomorrow during "senior hour" 8 to 9 am. Really need TP and paper towels. Just one pack of each please.

 

[ivinsfan]

Going to Costco tomorrow during "senior hour" 8 to 9 am. Really need TP and paper towels. Just one pack of each please.

So you smoothed things over with the Mrs. then

 

[REWahoo]

Just got back from picking up a curbside order from a Walmart Neighborhood Market we placed yesterday. Ordered about 25 items (no paper goods) and got everything but the spiral sliced ham.

 

[Clone]

Went to pickup groceries, at the last minute they canceled the paper goods. It feels almost like a bait & switch tactic...
Stopped by Walgreens to pickup a couple prescriptions, and they had paper towels and facial tissue. We are good on TP so didn't check that.

 

[Ready]

More good new from Costco. No more than two people per membership allowed in the store. Hopefully no more screaming kids running around!

Effective Friday, April 3, Costco will allow no more than two people to enter the warehouse with each membership card. This temporary change is for your safety and the safety of our employees and other members, and to further assist with our social distancing efforts. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

 

[socca]

Did my weekly visit to a local grocery for fruits & veggies & dark chocolate (especially the chocolate ). It's a small store, so social distancing is difficult. Fortunately, there weren't many people in the store (especially for high season). Plenty of stock. I avoided the cashier who was continually sniffling and wiping her nose with her hands while bagging other customers' groceries. Hopefully she just has an allergy, but who knows?

P.S. I've implemented an in-house food-supply pipeline / mini-quarantine (first-in / first-out). Newly purchased items go into the pipeline and emerge 3 days later ready for my use. The health advantage here isn't absolute but merely probabilistic, but why not allow any viral particles on food and containers 3 days to degrade if it's easy to do?

 

[Dawg52]

Just got back from picking up a curbside order from a Walmart Neighborhood Market we placed yesterday. Ordered about 25 items (no paper goods) and got everything but the spiral sliced ham.

Placed an order this afternoon with Winn Dixie(regional store) and will be delivered tomorrow around noon. Going to be interesting to see how many items are out of stock. They have a substitution line for each item so maybe one of the 2 I entered will be in stock.

 

[Sunset]

DW placed an order with Target, including the rare flour.

I think she was jealous of my Walmart pickup ordering and wanted to show she could do something about our food supply.

So for an order of approximately $35 , Target has delivered to us over 2 days a total of 5 boxes

 

[dvalley]

I must say as an early adopter of Amazon Prime I'm pretty disappointed in it in this pandemic scenario. They claim they're prioritizing the must-needed supplies but you can't even find TP or hand soap refills to order. Sure there are a few third party sellers selling whatever for however much but I don't see these products sold-by Amazon. However, they are available through Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods...except last time I tried it 3-4 days ago I couldn't even get a future deliver date. It just said 'no dates available for delivery, try again'. So yeah, pretty disappointed in Amazon.

 

[Ready]

I must say as an early adopter of Amazon Prime I'm pretty disappointed in it in this pandemic scenario. They claim they're prioritizing the must-needed supplies but you can't even find TP or hand soap refills to order. Sure there are a few third party sellers selling whatever for however much but I don't see these products sold-by Amazon. However, they are available through Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods...except last time I tried it 3-4 days ago I couldn't even get a future deliver date. It just said 'no dates available for delivery, try again'. So yeah, pretty disappointed in Amazon.

I’ve had the same experience with Amazon. But in fairness to them with virtually every non-grocery store now closed in the country, they have become the go to place to buy virtually everything that can’t be found in a grocery store. I think they are just so overwhelmed that they can’t possibly keep up with all of the business flowing their way.

 

[EastWest Gal]

More good new from Costco. No more than two people per membership allowed in the store. Hopefully no more screaming kids running around!

Effective Friday, April 3, Costco will allow no more than two people to enter the warehouse with each membership card. This temporary change is for your safety and the safety of our employees and other members, and to further assist with our social distancing efforts. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

What do single parents do if they have two kids?

 

[Ready]

What do single parents do if they have two kids?

I understand the dilemma for them. But kids are difficult to control at Costco. They don’t understand the concept of maintaining six feet of distance. They run up and down the aisles, play with the merchandise and create a nuisance.

Under normal circumstances, this is just part of life and we all deal with it. But with asymptomatic cases estimated at 20-25%, and kids representing at least a portion of the asymptomatic cases, this is not the time to endanger the public to address a small number of individuals with special needs.

 

[meleana]

A month now and I still can’t get any paper products like toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, nor can I get flour, yeast, Tylenol, aloe Vera gel, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and done other stuff.

 

[JoeWras]

So DW has been preparing our on-line cart for 8 days from now. Suddenly, a slot opened up in 2 hours.
...
Let's see if the cart can be fulfilled. I'll let you know. If it works out, the answer may be to check back occasionally. I suspect some people fill out these on-line orders a week ahead, get impatient and manage to get it live, then cancel.

It didn't go well. They only fulfilled part of the order. Then when DW arrived at the store, they said she'd have to come in to get them. The promise was it was delivered outside to your trunk. DW had no PPE so she left in disgust. This Florida based store is new to Raleigh. Probably will never see our business again.

She is very mad. Heard her drop a swear bomb I haven't heard in a while.

 

[ABQ2015]

I went grocery shopping for the first time in 3 weeks at Smiths (Krogers) because I was out of fresh produce and milk and getting low on cheese. As expected, there were no disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, bleach, TP, or paper towels. I can improvise on the first two and have plenty of the rest so not a problem.The store was well stocked except for parts of certain aisles - few beans, pasta, rice, certain cleaning supplies - but I was able to get the last package of whole wheat pasta in my favorite brand. I bought another 3 weeks of food but except for the pasta, everything I bought was plentiful and this was at night.

A few shoppers had gloves and/or masks and I wore gloves. My 62 year old sister in Dallas finally called me back. She got laid off of her waitress job and is now working for Instacart but has no mask. I am sending her an N-95 3-pack tomorrow. I realize we have been told not to wear one unless we are ill or tending to the ill but am worried about her spending her days in grocery stores without one.

 

[audreyh1]

I must say as an early adopter of Amazon Prime I'm pretty disappointed in it in this pandemic scenario. They claim they're prioritizing the must-needed supplies but you can't even find TP or hand soap refills to order. Sure there are a few third party sellers selling whatever for however much but I don't see these products sold-by Amazon. However, they are available through Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods...except last time I tried it 3-4 days ago I couldn't even get a future deliver date. It just said 'no dates available for delivery, try again'. So yeah, pretty disappointed in Amazon.

All the hand sanitizer which was not available is now is reserved for hospitals and government agencies, but I’m not disappointed in Amazon.

I did manage to order some hand soap a couple of weeks again. Should finally get it in a couple of days.

 

[Retch The Grate]

A month now and I still can’t get any paper products like toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, nor can I get flour, yeast, Tylenol, aloe Vera gel, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and done other stuff.

my wife ordered a couple pounds of yeast on Amazon that arrived yesterday, its a brand americans are less familiar with: saf-instant

We were in Safeway in Mountain View on monday, pretty well stocked, no yeast, the liquid soaps were gutted (i took the last three refill bags to leave the entire shelf area stripped, but bar soap was plentiful. Paper goods were completely gone, like an entire giant empty aisle. Pasta was heavily depleted but had more variety still than our shopping trip back on the 16th. Mexican coke was sold out (Sob), but other sodas were generally no more depleted than an average day. We emptied the store of their supply of Gazella (my wife's preferred Vinho Verde), but that's a normal every couple of weeks thing we do their stock.

People were not doing a good job of social distancing, I was glad for our vogmasks and wished we had eye protection, but the burning man boxes are at my friends' house in their shed so...

 

[fh2000]

I went grocery shopping for the first time in 3 weeks at Smiths (Krogers) because I was out of fresh produce and milk and getting low on cheese. As expected, there were no disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, bleach, TP, or paper towels. I can improvise on the first two and have plenty of the rest so not a problem.The store was well stocked except for parts of certain aisles - few beans, pasta, rice, certain cleaning supplies - but I was able to get the last package of whole wheat pasta in my favorite brand. I bought another 3 weeks of food but except for the pasta, everything I bought was plentiful and this was at night.

A few shoppers had gloves and/or masks and I wore gloves. My 62 year old sister in Dallas finally called me back. She got laid off of her waitress job and is now working for Instacart but has no mask. I am sending her an N-95 3-pack tomorrow. I realize we have been told not to wear one unless we are ill or tending to the ill but am worried about her spending her days in grocery stores without one.

Los Angeles mayor announced today that all citizens should wear some kind of home-made face covering, so your state might follow soon.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, Bag on Head with eye holes, the unknown comic!