Our local grocery

[MissMillie]

Monadnock region of NH (We go there, even though we live in MA. It's less than 20 miles away, and we like the store.) They have "senior hours" early in the morning, and since my guy is 65, we went then. Most people wearing some kind of protection, but not all. Employees sanitizing carts for people to take as they walk in the door.


Based upon what we were looking for,...


NO:

toilet paper
Lysol spray or cleaning products
flour
sugar
canned crushed tomatoes




VERY LIMITED:

Paper towels
napkins
ramen noodles (only available in the cup)
tortillas
chicken (both whole and parts)
pasta





I had been worried about eggs and butter. There was plenty of both, however the price of eggs has skyrocketed (double what it was before this mess). I was also concerned about ground beef (my sis and I couldn't get any for her household over the weekend--except for 96/4) but that was OK too.

[True Blue American]

1. I was lucky at Kroger.

Went a little after 7. Huge skid of Kroger toilet paper compared to Great Northern Plush.

Fresh stocked meat case, I bought chicken breasts on sale. Trying different varieties of bread. This week they had sugar and flour. Dairy Products. The only thing I could not fine was years and bisquick. I have self rising flour. Plenty of produce.

I thanked the friendly clerk and bagger. Store was busy, mostly older, but it usually is on Tuesday morning.

I feel for them. Today is the first of the month. I avoid stores then.

Kroger pledged to keep the supply lines moving. We need to thank the dedicated truck drivers. Been some bad truck wrecks. I can only think of driver exhaustion.

[MissMillie]

4. We typically shop only once a month... the beginning

Al gets his retirement check on the last day of every month.

There was plenty of yeast. I don't know that I understand why flour is in such demand. The bread aisle was very well stocked. Are people suddenly baking their own bread (fearing that the store-bought bread could be contaminated)? I typically make 3 or 4 loaves of homemade oatmeal bread (in my bread machine) every month. I could get my oatmeal, but not my flour.

Because we shop only once a month, about 2/3 of the produce we buy is frozen. All of that was pretty well stocked.

Our store is Market Basket. I spoke with the clerk and bagger as well--both high school students that are getting more hours because they are not in school. The store is keeping staff up so that they can continuously wipe down the store. Only every-other register was open to promote safe distance between the checkers and the customers. Heroes all. I wonder if these youngsters realize how important they are to us all right now.

[pnwest]

15. For me the bread thing is about freezer space.

I’d rather use that real estate for meat and veggies. I bought a 12pack of beer bread mix from Amazon instead.

[Kilgore]

6. Kroger rocks

Kroger is called Fred Meyer here. Saw no shortage of anything yesterday when shopping. That was also true for our local Wal-Mart.

[True Blue American]

9. Ed, Kroger owns quite a few

Different stores. Cincinnati based but they have really come through.

We have a Meijer here, not the same as Fred, Michigan based. I went there first 2 weeks ago. No produce, empty meat case. Drove about 8 blocks to Kroger, fresh produce,loaded, fresh chicken breasts on sale. This time I drove the 5 or 6 blocks to Kroger.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. Kroger in Phoenix is Fry's

I do not shop at Kroger here in FW but I do when I visit my daughter in PHoenix. Fry's pretty much owns the grocery market out there. There seems to be one on every corner .

There are a few Sprouts Markets, a CostCo and a WinCo. Maybe a few Safeways.

[mr_lebowski]

29. There's for sure Safeways ... I have one that's 3/4 mi away and one that's 1.5 mi away

The only two things I have even closer are 2x McDonalds and 2x Del Taco ... both of which are only slightly closer. Or maybe like 2 Chevrons.

Nearest Fry's is further than either Safeway. But I'm probably in a unique location. There ARE a lot Fry's too.

There's also Albertson's here, same ownership as Safeway.

And we also have Trader Joes.

[Bengus81]

32. Well maybe.....Dillions here

Everything is just that much higher in price but they basically have the run of Wichita. Walmart gives them competition but not enough.

[hlthe2b]

2. I simply can NOT understand this constant shortage of TP and other paper products?

Now that the hoarders have hoarded, why is the supply not being stablized?

It is infuriating. I have enough for a month or so, but boy am I thinking twice about wadding it up/wasting as before

[MissMillie]

5. We have enough for a while, too

But I can't help but think it would be a good idea to have a pkg of 10 on hand, just in case the shortage keeps up.

[True Blue American]

10. That was the first habit I realized

I broke. We are all now learning the habit out parents knew. Waste not, want not. Reverting back to our younger, poorer years.

I am thrilled to death that Anthem Medicare Advantage is giving $70, every 3 months for OTC drug supplies.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. we asked a worker in Albertson's today when the next truck of TP was

expected. She told us a truck was coming tomorrow morning but sometimes the truck doesn't have TP or at least not very much.

I may venture out to the Dollar Tree and Aldi which are in the same shopping strip

[Bengus81]

30. I think because now they are doing catch up on TP

After the hoarders and Ebay selling idiots had their day we finally found some at a Wally World here in Wichita several days ago. It had been 2-3 weeks with no TP,napkins,paper towels. But now everyone that couldn't buy before is buying but they smartly limited it to only one package per person.

Hope couples aren't splitting up at the door and buy two which just makes it worse.

[Kilgore]

3. In southern WA state

Went to town yesterday, observed.

Home depot was very busy.
Wal-Mart was well stocked and busy.
Fred Meyer (Kroger) was well stocked and busy
Auto parts store open, seemed normal

Few masks and gloves observed.
Lots of folks walking the parks.
Light traffic, seemed like a Sunday morning.

[femmocrat]

7. We're doing OK out here in the sticks.

Our local Walmart has done a pretty good job of stocking overnight and early morning shopping has gone pretty well. Thank you grocery workers where ever you are. You are heroes too.

[True Blue American]

11. They are! I made a point of thanking them

For being there.

[True Blue American]

25. The morning I went

I made a point of thanking both the Clerk and bagger.. long ago I found early morning is the time to shop. Usually on Tuesday morning.

Now, they are putting limits on how many can be in a store at one time.

[Bengus81]

31. Walmart doing that seniors day--60+ where any of you live?

Damn early in the morning--an hour before regular opening time on each Tue through April I think. Haven't done it yet but might.

[femmocrat]

33. I think ours is, but not sure.

My husband goes as soon as the store opens. He said people of various ages were there, but not many. We are in western PA.

[True Blue American]

34. I live

In Southwestern Ohio. Kroger’s early time is 7. Have not been to Walmart.

Anthem just added a new benefit $240 a year for OTC products free, $70 a quarter. From Walmart or CVS. That is really nice. Order online. I understand most Medicare Advantage plans are doing the same.

[Raven]

8. Are you going to Rindge?

[MissMillie]

14. Yep!

We went early this morning.

[Fla Dem]

12. Baked Beans????

Being an old Bostonian, I grew up with Franks and Beans for Saturday night dinner. I still enjoy a F&B dinner on occasion. So I keep a couple of cans of beans in the pantry. B&M if I can get them here in Florida, but I also like Bush's different flavored beans. So I didn't have any in my pantry and decided to pick up a couple of cans. Lo and behold the beans were almost completely gone with a sign posted, "Limit 2 cans to a customer".

Did not think of baked beans as being a disaster necessity.

[MissMillie]

13. That's an item I prefer to make homemade

so I haven't noticed.

Don't forget the brown bread!

[csziggy]

16. I think people hear that beans are a good food to keep stocked

And don't realize that dried beans are what is meant - and wouldn't know how to cook dried beans if they had them.

I had one can of Bush's in the pantry and will heat it up with some added stuff soon, but it was not top on my "prepper" list.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. I always have a good stash of dried beans handy

I stocked up on rice (Brown adn basmati) and lentils at the Asian market nearby. I lucked up on a stash of White Lily cornbread mix so I am all ready for the beans

About every 8 or 9 days I hit Sprouts for produce.

[True Blue American]

35. I have a package, just in case!:)

[csziggy]

38. I had some but they sat in the pantry until some bugs got into them

I just don't eat beans that often - though last night we had Bush's beans with some hamburger and other additions to make a really good casserole. That and salad were very filling.

[True Blue American]

26. Bush is my brand!:)

Had them with Queen City Hot Mets!

[demgrrrll]

17. I am going out Friday to the 6 am Senior open.

I plan on shopping for the next 3 weeks to see how things go. Luckily I have stockpiled things for the past year and I have a lot of food so it should be a quick shop.

I plan on suiting up with all my gear before I go. I noticed last time that very few people were wearing masks.

I am curious does everyone sanitize all their groceries before bringing them into the house? We do and I think the neighbors think we are nuts

[MissMillie]

18. We sanitized

We took the bags into the house and then wiped items down as we took them out of the bags.

We typically divide our proteins into single-meal portions and then freeze, so we didn't wipe down the packages of meat. Unwrapped produce w/ a "skin" (apples, bananas, peppers, eggplant, etc. ) was washed in warm water w/ a little bit of dish soap.

After everything was put away, we wiped down all the counters and tables.

[demgrrrll]

19. We sanitized too and leave some non perishables outside for 2 or three days

Last edited Sun Apr 5, 2020, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

I made masks for us out of reusable cotton masks lined with 3m filtrete material and these 3m nose filters that you put in your nose. We wear earplugs and wraparound glasses. Gloves too. We throw our clothes down into the hamper when we get home. Sounds extreme but until we know more about transmission we are going to do everything we can to protect ourselves.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. same here. although my husband forgot to get the asparagus out of

the grocery bag and we almost lost it. Fortunately I managed to rescue it in time It was good

[True Blue American]

36. Yes!

I even sanitized my credit card. Left the non perishables i
And Shoes in the garage, wiped down the perishables, then wiped the others when I brought them in.
Life is changing.

[DeminPennswoods]

20. There is some egg price gouging going on

imho. Aldi's had a dz lg eggs for 1.45, the next cheapest I found were 2.55 and several stores were 2.99 and up. I guess I can't blame the independent and chain groceries for trying to make a little extra money since the margins in that business are so tight.

Just to add here in western PA, the groceries are pretty good. There's been plenty of meat, fresh fruit, vegetables, leafy greens. Pasta is a little thin, but available and a good bit of pasta sauce, both tomato and alfredo. The freezer sections are well-stocked. There's milk, cheese, crackers, commercial bread and plenty of store-made baked goods. The supply of paper towels and kleenex seems to have stabilized, but toilet paper is only in stock if you go relatively early and most stores are limiting it to 1 pack/customer. It's hard to find disinfecting wipes, though.

There are still a lot of businesses open like home depot, lowes, dollar stores, grocery stores, CVS/RiteAid/Walgreens, etc, pet supply stores, wireless (ATT, Verizon, etc) phone stores, banks. Most bars and restaurants are doing take out.

People are out walking on the walking path at the local park.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

27. I need to move.

I was the ONLY person, out of 100+ shoppers, who was wearing a mask at my local grocery store about three days ago.

Most of the other shoppers were elderly too.

Maybe it’ll change soon?

[oegthe]

39. Masks

Maybe elderly people find it hard to make masks.

[Frustratedlady]

28. Our grocery pharmacy departments and drug stores have been out of alcohol and alcohol prep pads

for weeks and the pharmacist said they haven't been able to get them since the hoarding began. Why? They are only an inch or so and dry out pretty fast. She said people wipe their keys!!!!

I finally got a small bottle of alcohol because it was on the bottom shelf and way at the back, so no one could see it. I'll have to use make-up pads cut into 4 pieces with alcohol for shots.

[IcyPeas]

37. I wonder why people are hoarding flour

is everyone baking all of a sudden?

[True Blue American]

41. I am!

Did not go out for 2 weeks after I realized how people were hoarding. I decided to try new things and use some of the excess I had. Used up my bread, made buiscuits and banana bread.

Yeast can not be found.

[musicman65]

40. No soup for you,,or me

our store is out of most common things,,sad,,
now they are putting limits on people in store per foot and temp. checking staff before work.
next they will be checking all who enter before shopping.
we need to get back to normal,so I can get my soup. also instructed to only stock once per day