Hello and welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," pandemic edition! The virus is still raging here in New Jersey, and we've got an at-risk household here at Chateau Johnson. May all the Goddesses of all the pantheons known and unknown protect us! (Spreading a wide net as usual!)
I'm trying to stay as far from people as I can in this densely populated state. It's not easy. Go out for a walk, lots of people. Can't go to the park in the next block, it's closed.
Alas, there's no avoiding the grocery store.
In this big and busy county of mine, there are innumerable grocery stores, including Whole (Paycheck) Foods and Wegman's. If you haven't heard of the latter, it's a pinky-in-the-air gigantic place that I wouldn't set foot in even before the pandemic. You couldn't hire me to go in there now. Of course Walmart is out of the question.
The borough of Haterfield has its own Acme supermarket, a very tiny little store in what used to be a Friends meeting house. I have always given this Acme my custom, since its workers are unionized and it's a bearable size. Even though I am now doing two weeks of shopping in one trip, I won't go to the mega stores.
My local Acme instituted senior citizen hours from 7-9 in the morning, which was very kind of them. This morning I arrived there promptly at 7:00, hoping the store wouldn't be crowded. It was crowded. Worse, there were so many things out of stock -- bananas, oranges, salad greens, fresh spinach. The shelves were empty. Forget about toilet paper or paper towels or hand sanitizer. The paper products aisle was emptiest of all.
I was trudging around in my bandanna, thinking about how this is like a war. No fresh tomatoes, but they had the specific brand of apple that Mr. J likes. No fresh poultry products at all. (I think there's an outbreak at a chicken processing plant in PA.) And silly things like Pam spray all sold out.
But the place was crowded, and people weren't following the arrows and footprints the Acme posted on the floor to help with social distancing. Not only that, most of the people in the store were indeed senior citizens, way older than me, and they were buying a little this, a little that. For the love of fruit flies, why?
Then again, I filled two carts with stuff, and it took me over an hour to unpack it all and put it away. I sure wouldn't want to try that at age 80.
But soft! A wee bit of luck! As I was checking out -- a process that took 30 good minutes -- I saw that the green grocer was putting out salad greens and bananas ... eureka! The things I was going to miss the most!
Now it's another two weeks before I'll need any foodstuffs. Still teaching from home, so there won't be any need to biff about.
How do the grocery stores look where you live? I'm not sure my little Acme is typical.
Yours in the trenches,
Anne
PS - I have been writing letters to the Monkey Man and getting some back.
5 comments:
It's a bit hit and miss here concerning what will be on the shelves during any given shopping trip. Some things are never in stock -- alcohol wipes, latex gloves, etc. But yesterday I found a bottle of hand sanitizer (limit 1 per customer) for the first time since this all began! Toilet paper is often iffy too and rationed. High demand staples like flour, beans, pasta, sauce, stuff like that can be hard to find too, although if it's not there one week, it may be there the next. I haven't noticed any issues with fresh fruit and veg so far.
I saw an ad on philly.com that said "we're open! shop haterfield!" LOL
within a 2 mile radius from my house, I have a giant, a weis market, and a shoprite. the shoprite is expensive & dirty; no thanks. the giant is fucking YUGE; it's tiresome to go there. so I spend my $$ at weis.
people seem to be following the rules at weis; masks are mandatory as of yesterday. I also wear gloves. no mask, no service.
paper goods are still in short supply. as is soup. everything else on my list I can find. on saturday, spouse scored a 12 pack of toilet paper - WOO HOO! that will last us a while. one of us goes to weis weekly; tomorrow it's my turn.
stay safe and well; may the goddesses protect your loved ones.
My local supermarket has been pretty well stocked overall, but there are distinct shortages. TP, of course, hand sanitizer (or 'hanitizer' as a friend's son calls it), bleach and other cleaning products are all sold out all the time. There was a run on bread early on and I was searching for my dad's favorite variety. Found some! The produce has mostly been good. It's funny what will disappear unexpectedly. Bread, rice, soup, canned beans. At least it's getting restocked fairly quickly.
I've also shopped at Trader Joe's. They are doing a fantastic job of enforcing the social distancing. We wait outside in a spread out line and they only let X number of people in at a time. They also sanitize their carts after every use and are incredibly well organized. And, o.m.g. I love their potato chips!!! Lol.
All prayers and beseeching to the all the Goddesses!
Rodger C said:
I thought Hanitizer was what you use to repel Sean Hannity.
Our Grocery Stores looked quite Apocalyptic when the Panic Buying first began, which was quite unsettling. It calmed some, so now you don't think a great Famine will be preceding the Pandemic for those of us who didn't buy out everything we could Hoard for the End Times. No place has TP or Paper Products and thanks to the Orange Stable Genius, I suspect his Cult will be buying out all the disinfectants to inject and inhale? I opt for obscure Shops in the Rural Areas outside of Phoenix... or better yet, deep in The Hood since the affluent who can afford to buy everything in sight won't dare shop there. It's worked for me...
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