This Week's Saturday Morning Supermarket Report

[MineralMan]

Once again, I ventured out to the nearest Cub Supermarket in St. Paul, MN at 9 AM. Unlike in past weeks, however, there are now large "Mask Required" signs on the entry doors. I was very pleased to notice that, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, that there were ZERO people in the store who were not wearing masks. ZERO!

That is a first at my local Cub. Now that Governor Walz's mask mandate is in place, everyone in the store was wearing a mask of some kind. Also, all store employees were wearing masks, which had not been the case before.

However, I also noticed that my local Cub was even emptier than it had been at 9 AM on previous weeks. The parking lot, too, was even less crowded. It made for an outstanding and quick shopping trip for my week's supplies. There was no line at the checkout aisle, either. Hoorah!

It looks like people in my area who are vehement mask-refusers are protesting by foregoing their grocery shopping. I wonder where they're buying their groceries now.

[Freedomofspeech]

1. We have had great experiences in our local Giant Eagle here in SW, PA....

Since this nightmare started they have been extremely cautious and require masks...nobody else around here because the hillbillies refuse to wear their masks a put up a fuss.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Best guess is,

with the extra six hundred going away,people really are pulling in their horns.

And your side of town has always been tight with the nickels.

[Blue_true]

3. I agree with you. A lot of people will see their income drop 66% instantly.

Most are probably trying to figure out what to do. My guess is food pantries will be seeing people who never thought that they would need to use a food pantry.

[MineralMan]

5. That's true, although the Cub I shop at is actually

in Northern Maplewood on White Bear Avenue. There's a closer one, but it's not as well-stocked, so I don't use it much.

Still, the reason for it's low shopper count today could have something to do with the -$600 issue.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Is the Rice Street store open?

As for the low traffic count,the Store Manager yesterday at our Winco(Cub)noticed his Register average ticket and Numbers were way off . And he had heard from his Corporate Office that the extra 600 thing was being expressed by shoppers at there other stores in Idaho,Washington,California,Utah as well as here in Las Vegas.

[MineralMan]

7. I don't know. I never venture that far down 36.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Curious,

Rice was the second Cub ever opened. Your go to store is one of the last opened. Larger square footage floor plan and was the model for their last expansion.

BTW,Niece said the Masks are more common as of yesterday in her South Western area of the State. She and others are waiting for a Virus Spike after a couple of Small Town Antique and Car shows the past two weekends where zero masks were not to be seen. Marshall and Redwood areas.

[MineralMan]

11. The newest Cub is on 10th Street in Oakdale.

That one's about the same distance from me as the one I frequent on White Bear Ave. I like it, but it's layout is very different, and I haven't bothered to visit it often enough to become intimately familiar with it. It's deli section also doesn't carry the line of Hispanic oriented ready-to-heat-and-eat products I like. My Cub's deli has some very good, authentic tamales from one of the best Hispanic restaurants in St. Paul. The 10th Street Cub serves a different clientele, so they don't have them.

I'm a speed shopper, so knowing a store layout well is important to me.

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Speed shopper also.

Glad to see Cub is incorporating local Restaurants into their Retail mix. That is what made Cub-Super Valu a major inventors of the new Grocery experience. Especially the Byerly's and Lunds segment which are the trend setters for new retail ideas.

[panader0]

4. I also went grocery shopping, as usual, this morning.

My store, a Frys (Kroger), also has a sign saying mask required and has for a few weeks now.
Today I saw two groups of people unmasked. I told the one guy "The sign on the door says
masks required." He said "look, I'll do my thing, you do yours." I told him that I would speak to the manager.
He seemed mad. Well, the manager was not available so I came home and just got off the phone with him.
I said a rule with no enforcement is no rule. I said the store would lose business if unmasked people are
allowed to shop there. He apologized and thanked me. I suggested that if they couldn't enforce the rule
at the door, they should deny the purchases at the register.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. We have a supermarket that is named after a company in the Road Runner & Coyote cartoons.

.

I walk in there often and there two people in the Deli Department who do not wearing a masks or have them pulled down. All the other co-workers in the area are wearing them. It's just these two who refuse to wear them.

Needless to say, I don't get anything from that area and it makes me question how the meats and seafood are handled, since the seafood section shares an common area. If these folks don't wear masks in public, are they wearing them in the back-end?

Corporate was notified multiple times and still nothing.

.

[LAS14]

10. I've been so glad to live in Massachusetts and, in particular, to shop at...

... Cambridge grocery stores. They've been super on top of things from the get-go.