PANDEMIC SHOPPING

“Kathy, where’s the rest of the paper,” Mike called.

“That’s it, Mike,” I replied. “What you see is what you get.” With no sports section and limited news – well, the paper is just pretty thin.

And how about the mail? On an ordinary day, we get a pile of catalogs and begging letters, but our incoming mail is significantly decreased. Fine by me – refreshing, in fact.

Having organized my list of supplies for the farm, I decided I should probably shop while the community is still clear (we think) of the dreaded virus. Mike offered to go with me. “I have a long list,” I said, trying to let him down gently; “you wouldn’t enjoy it. Maybe I should go by myself.” He might have been a little disappointed, but he gets impatient with the process, which makes me nervous, and then I don’t do a good job. I just wanted to mosey along, think things through, make good decisions, and go around the store twice if necessary.

As planned, I went to Albertsons. The prices are higher but there’s less traffic and the store feels cleaner. Well, I say it’s cleaner, but I immediately noticed that they don’t provide sanitizing hand/cart wipes, which I think is the least they could do. Several shoppers were wearing gloves. Why didn’t I think of that? One person had disposable gloves; another was wearing cotton garden gloves.

I resisted the urge to start throwing things into the cart, something I tend to do when I feel unsure of what we'll need. “Is this something you would usually buy,” I would ask myself. However, I did buy a few unusual items, such as powdered egg substitutes.

I couldn’t find Bisquick or powdered milk. For the most part, there was plenty of produce, but the russet table was empty. The toilet paper shelves were empty, the facial tissue was nearly depleted, and the napkins were sparse. They were out of Dawn (dish detergent), but other brands were available.

Oh! – another interesting observation – depleted coffee creamer. They say we have good lines of distribution in our country, but shoppers keep depleting the supplies.

The cashier said it had been chaotic and she was tired. I didn’t say anything, but I hardly think it could have been like the chaos we see at other stores with deeper discounts. Shoppers were polite but kept to themselves. It was easy to obey the six-foot rule.

I see that Albertsons, along with other grocery stores, is opening the store to the mature and at-risk from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I appreciate that this is when the store is cleanest, but how many of us get up and around that early? Well, I will on Tuesday. My gloves are ready. KW